Lucky’s name didn’t feel particularly true.

Lucky Muluusa was a cattle hustler. When his neighbors discovered that he’d been stealing from them, Lucky was forced to move his family out of the village of Kapete, in Zambia. He settled on the very edge of the community, on the boundary between two chiefdoms.

Lucky was branded an outcast. Any time livestock went missing in the surrounding area, the village police came to Lucky’s house first to search for the missing animals. Often, they confiscated Lucky’s cattle. In the eyes of the village, Lucky would always be a thief.

The mountainous terrain and poor roads of the area further isolated Lucky’s new home. The Muluusa family received few visitors.

So, Lucky was surprised to see three figures making their way up the dusty road.

In the village of Kapete, the chief noticed crowds of people making their way toward a central building. A ministry called Every Home for Christ was holding an evangelism training in the village. Many in Kapete are Christians, but still the response to the training surprised the chief.

“I have served my village for a decade now, and I have not experienced such a spiritual gathering. It brought revival to the church in my village,” he said.

What could inspire a whole village this way?

The Every Home Team brought news: the Bible had been translated into the native language of the Soli people of Kapete and the surrounding region for the first time! This Christmas, reinvigorated Christians, newly trained as evangelists, would share the Word of God with their neighbors in their own language! They would even go past the edge of town, to the very border of the next community, to the cattle thief’s home.

Lucky’s three visitors explained that they were from a church in Kapete. But Lucky had heard it all before. Leaders from the church that Lucky’s wife sometimes attended had tried to share the gospel with him in the past.

“But the Every Home team shared it differently,” Lucky says. “They referred to a printed book in my language.”

Something about reading the words in his own language touched Lucky.

“It struck my heart…I have always been a courageous person, but I got scared. They prayed for me… That day I received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! They gave me my own copy of the message and promised that they would come back to help me understand it better.”

When people receive the Word of God in their own language: passive churches revive, tired leaders are inspired, and bitter hearts soften.

When someone receives the Word of God in their own language, they hear the Good News for the whole world spoken especially to them. And they discover that God’s love is not a matter of luck or random chance. God’s love is deliberate. A young girl named Mary in Nazareth didn’t join the gospel story by accident. The shepherds on the hills of Bethlehem weren’t merely lucky. God cares for people individually and calls them by name.

This Christmas, in celebration of God’s particular love for you, will you send the message of God’s love to someone in their own language?