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A Year of Great Increase
God has done amazing things this past fiscal year, and it is evident that He is positioning World Missionary Press for even more increase in sending His Word around the world to fulfill His purpose in the lives of individual people, one by one.“Other sheep I have… ; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice” (John 10:16a).
The highest annual income in WMP’s 52-year history led to record production. By God’s grace we received 43% more in contributions than the previous year (including $442,618 designated for capital needs). We praise God for enabling WMP to increase its volume of printing by 31% (see “Interesting Facts” on page 2 for more details). Besides filling many small orders, WMP shipped 152,707 ten-pound boxes destined for 118 nations, including 39 ship containers (see shipment summary table on page 4).
Because of the God-given increases in provision and production, millions more souls throughout the world are being touched with God’s eternal Word! It was God who enlarged our territory as He blessed us with additional land, facilities, and equipment. Property adjoining WMP, purchased in April with cash previously received, needed extensive upgrades to make two large buildings functional for our use. A 12-pocket bindery/collator was purchased at auction to streamline production of New Testaments. (Kreyol New Testaments for Haiti will be the first to be produced in the upgraded facility.) These and other needs were all provided for by God’s people, whose hearts He had touched!
As we look back at the amazing events of the past year, we are filled with awe at the bountiful provisions of the Lord and humbly look to Him as He leads us forward.
Knowing that God does all things well, that He is not willing that any should perish, that His way is to send His Word(Isaiah 55:8-11), and that He is the One enlarging us even through loss, we are filled with eager expectation for what the coming year holds – looking to Him to continue His work in and through World Missionary Press.
Equipment Needs for Continued Growth
As the Lord positions WMP for ongoing increased production, we are seeking Him for specified funds to purchase three key pieces of equipment in the coming months:
� a reconditioned primary cover cutter (estimated $20,000) to cut large sheets of covers down to the size needed for the booklet binderies;
� a reconditioned newer, faster, more dependable bindery to replace an ailing one (estimated $70,000-$100,000); and
� an automated stacker/bundler for gathering booklets off the new bindery, aiding in full-speed operation (estimated $166,000).
Please pray:
� for wisdom in the effective use of new staff, facilities, and equipment as WMP continues to step up production in 2014;
� that contributions will continue strong and that God will provide the additional equipment needed for continued growth;
� that equipment will run smoothly and that additional volunteer groups will get involved;
� for distributors who faithfully go where God’s Word is needed; and
� that multitudes will come to Christ and be transformed through the power of God’s Word in their own languages.
[You can impact people around the world. Every donated dollar provides for the printing and shipping of 25 powerful Scripture booklets to Christians eager to share God’s Word in the languages of their nation. An investment of $100 will touch the lives of 2,500 people; $1,000 will impact 25,000 people who need to know God.]
Free DVD of WMP’s 52nd Anniversary Program, available on request, includes the commissioning of Harold Mack as WMP president and message by Dick Eastman, “The Power of a Single Seed.”
World Watch
One of the most complex projects in WMP history was 18 months in the planning, as 15 shipments to Francophone African nations were prepared, some going where we had never before sent large quantities of God’s Word. Extra prayer was needed. Shipments arrived safely; however, the Gabon container is still awaiting release from customs.
Four new translations were printed in 2013: How to Know God in Uzbek; The Way to God in Nyaneka; Help From Above inInuktitut; and The Power of God in Blin, bringing the total number of languages printed by WMP to 341 languages. Three Bible study booklets (Psalms, John, and Romans) were printed in Portuguese for the first time.
More than 2,240,000 copies of A Bible Study on John were printed in nine languages this past year. One missionary wrote, “Out here in the more remote parts of the world, your literature is a total GOD thing. I was out talking to pastors this morning about the new study of John in Portuguese.”
Partnering Toward Completion!
A Special Word from Dick Eastman
International President, Every Home for Christ
“Blessed are those who die in the Lord …. They are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!” -Revelation 14:13-14 (NLT)
IT HAS BEEN SUCH A JOY to partner with World Missionary Press in taking the Good News of Jesus to the uttermost parts of the earth. It wasn’t long after I became the international president of Every Home for Christ 25 years ago that one of my first assignments from the Lord was to visit the WMP headquarters in Indiana. I wanted to meet more personally with Jay and Vicky Benson to look at ways we might strengthen our partnership in reaching literally millions of homes together with the gospel and thus see an even greater harvest of souls than either of our ministries could gather on our own.
Over the ensuing years that partnership has grown dramatically, and it is not an exaggeration in any sense to say that Every Home for Christ is literally following up multiplied thousands of new believers globally every month as the result of the contribution World Missionary Press continues to make to this thriving partnership.
Because Jay Benson was so specifically used of the Lord to initiate and cultivate this partnership over the years, one can imagine the shock and sadness we felt at EHC with the sudden home-going of Jay early in 2013. My wife Dee and I felt that we needed to travel as soon as possible to New Paris to share our appreciation for all WMP had done over the years and especially to celebrate Jay’s unique contribution to this Christ-honoring partnership. We invited a key EHC board member, Doug Stanich, with his wife Joan to join us for the visit, specifically to help express on behalf of all the EHC board of directors what Jay has meant to all of us personally in our ministry.
It was during this visit, while having a tour of the WMP operations, that Doug asked one of the pressmen if the ministry had everything it needed to do all that was desired. As a result of this conversation, we became aware that a six-color press would be a special boost to all that World Missionary Press is presently accomplishing. On the drive back to Chicago following our time in New Paris, the four of us – Doug, Joan and Dee and me – discussed the possibility of Every Home for Christ purchasing that press yet this year, and presenting it in Jay’s memory. It was such a joy to see how quickly God provided all the funds needed for this gift, which now is becoming a wonderful reality.
We continue to thank the Lord for the continuing partnership with World Missionary Press in reaching the nations for Jesus and the surge in the ministry’s growth in recent months. We are particularly joyful over the new appointment of Harold Mack as WMP president and that our beloved friend, Vicky Benson, continues to serve Harold and the WMP team with her unique gifts.
As the Revelation passage I quoted at the outset declares, and particularly as we think of Jay in reading those words, we can say with a certainty that Jay is truly “blessed indeed” and as he enjoys a well-deserved eternal rest from his lifetime of hard work, his good deeds (in the form of a remarkable harvest) do follow him.
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