Worldwide, nearly 46 million people have Alzheimer’s or a related dementia. Alzheimer’s and other dementias are the top cause for disabilities in later life. The global cost of Alzheimer’s and dementia is estimated to be $605 billion, which is equivalent to 1% of the entire world’s gross domestic product.

While this disease is becoming a growing problem in North America, there are people who have taken on the care of these vulnerable persons in the name of Christ.

In Kelowna, British Columbia, one of those people is Dr. Daryl Busby. Daryl is the former President of Canadian Baptist Seminary and now invests his time as a chaplain in a senior’s facility there. He has a special interest in the research that is being done on spiritual formation for people with cognitive disabilities. In recent weeks, seeking creative solutions to provide spiritual care to men and women with memory issues, Dr. Busby connected with Clear and Simple Media.

Daryl had been instrumental in helping to encourage the first CSM publications in the late 90s, so he was familiar with the ‘simple English’ style that these publications employ. Because many of the people he cares for are still able to read aloud and participate in discussions about material they are familiar with, Daryl believed that the CSM books, particularly Simple Stories, could prove to be a useful tool for those people.

Simple Stories is a collection of 32 stories from the Bible. Written using an English vocabulary of less than 1,400 words, the book tells the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation – the beginning to the new beginning.

Today, multiple copies of the books are on their way to British Columbia. We will be interested to see how the chaplains make use of the books and how they are received by the residents. If they prove effective, the books will be used in otherBaptist Housing Organizationfacilities across the Province.

These books were originally written with new English readers in mind. But it seems God has other plans. We are constantly surprised at how God is using our books in ways that we would never have imagined.