Innocent James grew up in Arusha, Tanzania. His parents had him read every day. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lord of the Rings. He read Bible stories aloud to his mother while she cooked dinner.

Mr. James says, “Looking back, those are among the best days of my life.”

Later, Mr. James studied at a university. He saw children skip class. They spent their days in video game cafés. Could he help them?

Mr. James dropped out of school and bought a mobile library cart. He visited schools. Hundreds of children joined his reading clubs. 

But kids often returned borrowed books unread. Fewer than half of households in mainland Tanzania have electricity. Many use costly kerosene lamps after dark. These are dangerous and don’t provide much light. Parents send children to bed early. No bedtime stories!

Mr. James recalled a professor who carried a solar phone charger. Mr. James borrowed a sewing machine. He started making canvas backpacks with solar panels on them in 2016. These charge reading lights while children walk to and from school. They can provide light for six to eight hours. 

Soma Bags (“Reading Bags” in Swahili) were born. But many could not afford the costly canvas bags.

One day, Mr. James saw empty cement bags dumped at a construction site. “These were durable, good looking, and free. I did not think twice. It was a ‘Eureka!’ moment for me,” he says.

Now Mr. James has 64 library carts. His factory has 65 workers. They make thousands of cement bag backpacks each month. 

“I never thought of my library reaching thousands of children as it does now. What I saw was the next step. And I took just that,” says Mr. James.

Why? When we see a problem, we can take a step to fix it. God gives us creative ideas so that we can bless others.