Every home in a remote northern Manitoba community now has a Bible thanks to one passionate woman and an organization focussed on making God known.

Marlene Bighetty comes from a First Nation community up north and a few years ago was stumped trying to figure out what to give to her friend for Christmas. 

She thought to her self, "what should I give to my friend for Christmas that was the best thing that ever happened to me?" 

At the time her daughter Heaven was with her and Bighetty recalls her saying, "you know mom, you always shared with us the best thing that ever happened to you was meeting Jesus and how he helped you with your addictions. He helped heal you, wouldn't you want to share that with your friend also?" 

She told Heaven that she learned it from a bible, so, they went off to find one. 

"It would have taken us more than two years to even be able to deliver all those bibles." 

"We went to every thrift store, wherever we could buy bibles for 50 cents or a dollar. We never knew about Give the Word but we shared with our Church that we wanted to give bibles to people in our community. So they gave their bibles from their homes and my other friend heard about Give the Word and they sent us boxes and boxes of bibles," Bighetty says.

"We have limited housing, there are ten or more people living in one home with three to four bedrooms. There are 365 homes in our community and we live on social assistance so we can't afford to travel back and forth [from Winnipeg] but, whenever we had money we would go back home.

"We would deliver Christmas presents, every present included a Bible, a pamphlet that lead to salvation, and books that talked about dealing with addictions and how the Lord helps heal. In the summertime when we would save up money, we would go and we would do a number of homes. It took us two years to go back and forth because it cost us so much to go back and forth," Bighetty says.

"We didn't pass by any person that we didn't give a bible to."

She and her daughter felt God was calling them to do this work. "What I heard in my heart, was go and give this Word to them and leave it to the Holy Spirit," says Bighetty. They have now given bibles to more than a thousand members of their community. 

"He is building warriors in our community, he is building healing, the Lord Jesus is working,"  Bighetty says. 

She says they have gone through many dark moments, "negative things like suicide, addictions, alcoholism but His healing is showing in the elders and the youth."

Due to the cost of the bibles and travel, Bighetty and her daughter did not think sharing the Word with their whole community would be so feasible. "We are so grateful that Give the Word actually helped us, cause it would have taken us more than two years to even be able to deliver all those bibles.

"We didn't pass by any person that we didn't give a bible to," Bighetty says.