EVERY DAY THE REQUESTS COME
World
Missionary Press, Inc.
November 2007 Vision letter
EVERY DAY THE REQUESTS COME
- by phone, letter, or e-mail. "Please, can we have some Scripture
booklets?" They come from Indonesia and Australia, from England and South
Africa, from Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. At World Missionary Press we believe God
has given us the challenge to help provide His Word to the world as He
grants the resources. For the past 46 years He has been faithful in providing
those resources, and WMP has been sending multiplied millions of Scripture
booklets throughout the world, free of charge.
But the intensity
of the pleas for booklets has grown as believers all over the world sense
the urgency. Container shipments that arrive after 11/2 years of waiting are
distributed within a few months, and the long wait begins again. In 2006 the
leadership staff of WMP was moved to believe God for a major step forward in
production, knowing that where He leads He will provide. God's response has
been overwhelming!
Seeing God Work Right Before Our Eyes
Increasing production
required additional funds for paper as well as additional staff. The funds
began to come in record amounts. Month after month God sent what had been
budgeted and more. In December of 2006 God brought in a record $814,097. Gifts
came from people who had planned their giving for years. God had gone before,
laying it on hearts to include WMP in their final bequests.
God sent Pastor T.
from Iraq with a plea for Arabic Scripture booklets, New Testaments, and
salvation coloring books. Even as we agreed to this emergency project, God
provided the funds from one couple who heard his plea. Materials were prepared
for a 40-ft. container (containing 4,200 boxes) scheduled to reach its
destination in early.jpg)
November.
Production increased
to 6 million per month and in some instances 7 1/2 million. As the excitement
grew, the goals grew, with new production goals being set and met. We were
seeing God work in a marvelous way right before our eyes.
A 60'x100' shipment
workspace was added to the plant in August to stage more shipments and to free
up production space for increased printings to meet existing orders. Boxes
were sent out at a record pace. Three containers for Brazil. Four
containers for India. New contacts received shipments in Sweden and Mexico (Chiapas
and Oaxaxa), Haiti, and Gabon.
Many distributors
live in countries without WMP national coordinators and received their boxes
by mail. In May 2007 the U.S. Postal Service discontinued all international
surface mail service, which WMP had used to meet those many requests. What
seemed like an obstacle changed to opportunity. A new WMP national
coordinator in Chile will receive his first 40-ft. container to meet
the hundreds of requests from that nation. God provided a distribution center
in Lima, Peru, to meet the growing demand for WMP booklets in that
needy country. The close working relationship between WMP and Every Home for
Christ increased as EHC personnel in several African nations agreed to
serve as WMP national coordinators and also receive booklets for their own
home-to-home campaigns.
Reports from the
field tell of lives changed, believers encouraged and strengthened. Hope
is found where there was no hope. In the troubled area of Goma in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, a medical team brings the Word of God as well as
physical treatment for women who have been severely raped. Philomena K.
e-mailed, "When the women are discharged from the hospital, they often
return to the mountainous regions and take the booklets with them. In this
region people are returning to the occult or to the Muslim faith, as
missionaries have been absent for many years. . . . People accepted these
booklets with unbelievable gratitude, and even individuals who cannot read
would hold the booklets close to their hearts and ask others to read to
them."
Three years ago,
along the Rio Coco in Nicaragua, a team traveled from village to
village sharing The Way to God booklets, newly published in Miskito. In
one village, the religious leaders gathered up the new booklets, returned them
to the team, and told them to stay away. But the seed had been planted, and
last year as the team worked along the river, several from that village said
they wanted to know about Jesus, no matter what their religious leaders said.
Each time the team returned that way, God raised up a handful of believers,
who began meeting together. Believing God would answer their prayers for a
church building, they borrowed shovels and buckets to build a raised pad site.
In February of this year the Lord provided, and construction began. Men,
women, and children pitched in, hauling sand, making and laying the block,
pouring concrete, often without food. What a testimony to the power of God's
Word!
Like an Oasis in the Desert
A mission leader in India
received several boxes of booklets in Telugu which he was able to share with
other pastors, but he wondered if he could get more, maybe a 20-ft. container!
He wants to distribute to "pastors and evangelists who are badly in need
of [booklets] now-a-days in our India." He told of some Hindus who are
trying to stop the preaching of the gospel, "but the Lord is with us and
the more they resist, the more we preach. So definitely we need your
help." Later he e-mailed, "Your booklets are like an oasis in the
desert. We will use them very prayerfully and powerfully."
WMP's national
coordinator in Cameroon writes, "We are now very low in the number
of boxes left. We are praying that God will provide so you will be able to
produce the next container for Cameroon. We are seeing that the need for
WMP literature is enormous throughout the world and particularly in
Africa. People are working more and more in evangelism. EHC-Cameroon plans to
complete the [great] commission in Cameroon, province by province."
Distributors tell us
over and over how very grateful they are for each and every booklet. One
small booklet, with about 300 Scripture verses, can share more than many, many
sermons or testimonies. It lives on and can be read over and over. A
missionary working in Brazil wrote, "These booklets have proved such a
blessing. Many pastors have yet to accept that Brazilians, young and old,
actually read these and do not throw them down as with so many 'leaflets.' . .
. I have seen them being put in purses and shirt pockets. With these we can do
both direct and indirect evangelism with great confidence. . . . I just
wanted you to know you help us do what we are called to do here, evangelize
and disciple the saints."
WMP currently has twelve
40-ft. container orders on record to be produced in the coming months.
Another seven 20-ft. containers are also in line for production. [Strong
financial support is needed to enable production of these containers. Every
$20 donated will reach 500 people with the powerful Word of God in their own
language.]
Smaller shipments
(consisting of several skids of booklets) are also in process. Many other
coordinators are putting in their next request, realizing with some sadness
that it will be many months before the booklets they need can be printed
and shipped.
Every day
someone else "discovers" WMP and realizes that they, too,
can reach their neighborhoods with the gospel.
Even as we
increase production to record levels, we know that the need is staggering. Natural
disaster, war, brutality, and disease all take thousands of lives each day.
How many knew of Jesus, who died for them? When we consider the refugees and
abused women of Goma, DRC; those bound to Hinduism in India; and Indians along
the Rio Coco who have never heard of the God who created them and loves them, we
are moved to ask the Lord for every resource so that we can continue to
increase production and can give them the Word of Life. Many of the people
in refugee camps, along the Rio Coco, or in the Hindu village in India will
not live another year. They cannot wait.
[Your help through
prayer and giving will make a difference in many lives. Every gift of
$100 will touch hearts of 2,500 people with God's message of forgiveness and
hope. $50 will provide 1,250 Scripture booklets, and $1,000 will reach
25,000 precious people with God's Word.]
"Half-Million
Missions Marathons"
How
helpful it is when church groups or family groups arrange to come to WMP for a
"Half-Million Missions Marathon" and divide into two teams to serve
at one or both binderies for 16 hours straight - binding,
trimming, boxing, weighing, and strapping 500,000 Scripture booklets!
As
WMP production grows, it is increasingly important to keep our binderies going
strong.
At
present, marathons are scheduled for August 10-11, September 14-15, October
19-20, and possibly November and January.
Marathons
require 16 to 20 people - whose
ages can range from 14 to 65 or above - willing to work in shifts through the
night. Marathons are fun and significant - and have an eternal impact in
reaching people with the gospel.
For
more information, or to schedule a "Half- Million Missions
Marathon," please contact Jay Benson at 574-831-2111 (ext. 212) or e-mail
Jay@wmpress.org.
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