Sunday School | Bible League International

Lord today to worship him and to learn about him. It is wonderful to be here together. Thank you so much for your kind attention and patience. I'm filling in for Tim today. He's in Belize doing the work of the Lord, where probably a lot of us would like to be right now. But I'm so glad that we're going to have fun together here today.

We're going to talk about a ministry that CHS has been supporting. But first, since we're in such a big church, it's so hard to get ahold of everybody and know everybody. I feel like I only know a very select few names even in this room. So a quick word of introduction.

This is my family and myself. That's my wife Rachel and our kids, Anna, Judah, and Knightley. Anna's 16. Judah's 14. Knightley is 12. We've been coming here to CHS for just over two years. We're members. Knightley was baptized here. We are here in Penn Forest. They go to Cave Middle and High. I volunteer as one of the ushers and take attendance whenever they call me up for it. Rachel and I both have a background in nonprofit management.

One of the reasons why I really love CHS, one of the things that caught me right away, is that CHS really prioritizes missions. I remember one of the services that I watched online before I even moved to Roanoke. Quig brought up the executive director of the rescue mission and handed him a huge check for $100,000. Were any of you here when that happened? Well, that was such a great service. When I saw him do that, I thought, "This is the kind of church that cares about the things that I care about, cares about the lost, cares about the poor." And that's one of the first things that I fell in love with about CHS.

I know that CHS supports so many different ministries. Are any of you familiar with some of the ministries that the church supports? If you do, go ahead and share briefly about it.

Compassion. Yes. I agree. That's one of my favorite charities too. They do fantastic work. Anybody else?

Celebrate Recovery. That's right. My wife and I led a Celebrate Recovery several years ago. Isn't that an incredible ministry to get people right where they need Jesus? It's amazing. Anybody else?

Voice of the Martyrs. Do we also support Voice of the Martyrs? Yeah, I do. I think it's one of the coolest. I agree with you. Our ministry is just like one step down from the size of Voice of the Martyrs, so they're really similar to us.

Blue Ridge Women's Center. I agree. I went to their annual meeting the last couple of years. Isn't that just incredible? I love that ministry. They're wonderful.

And so I'm so grateful that CHS also supports Bible League International, the ministry that I'm affiliated with. It's been doing it just for a short time. The first gift came in actually several years ago in 1999, way before me. But then it's been giving monthly for just over a year starting in August 2022 and just around $3,704 as of this week. It's one of the small things that CHS is doing, but it's also making an incredibly large impact.

Bible Translation in Japanese

There's one specific part of the ministry that CHS has been funding, and that's this Bible translation. One of the things that we do is Bible translation. Specifically, a new translation in Japanese. There has been a Japanese Bible for a long time. It was written many years ago. Japan was actually one of the first countries that we went to do ministry right after World War Two when MacArthur invited ministries to send Bibles and ministers to Japan. Since then, the Japanese language has changed a lot.

In written Japanese, there is something that works a lot like emojis in English. You put the emoji and then you know how the person feels when they're talking. All the modern Japanese that young people read has that, but the older Bible translations do not have those kind of characters. When you read the Bible in the older translations, it just comes off like uncaring, unemotional, cold. Still faithful to all the words but doesn't have the emotional markers.

Bible League's current translation in Japanese has all those markers so that when people read the Bible, they can really feel, "God loves me. His grace is extended towards me." And they can see how wonderful the Lord really is.

This is the editor for our Japanese Bible. He's a minister in Japan. What we do is we have our academics here in America. They're in Dallas.

So they are the ones with all the degrees and lots of Bible translation experience. They know Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and they provide all the academic work so that Koga, who knows both English and Japanese very well, can work as the middle person to get the Bible translated into modern Japanese.

That work is almost done. They've already completed the New Testament. The Old Testament is doing a few last exegetical checks where they're looking at some passages and thinking, "Is that really what the original language is talking about?" So they're double-checking several of those. But it looks like they're going to be ready to upload the Old Testament to the Internet in March. And then hopefully later on this year, there'll be a dedication where they'll actually print the whole Bible and start giving it out to people.

They've already started giving out the New Testaments, and there are several print versions of the Gospel of Mark. Last year, they printed 4,000 copies of just the Gospel of Mark and shared it with lots of different churches so that they can be the first ones to start reading this Bible.

A lot of this is possible because of generous gifts like CHS. So one of the reasons why I'm sharing about this today is just to say thank you so much.

The Impact of Bible Distribution Around the World

In addition to Bible translation, there are so many other things that Bible League does in providing the word of God for places all over. I remember when we did the missions conference with the Anglican Church—was it last year, Lisa? Or before maybe? '22. Good. So I remember having a conversation with the Anglican bishop who was there from Burundi, and he told me a story of what had happened at the Anglican churches there.

He said that because of general poverty in the area, Bibles are very scarce because people can barely afford just to buy food, let alone what they would consider luxuries like books, including the Bible. And so he said what happened to him is that his church had only one Bible—his own. But since it's such a prized possession, somebody had stolen it because it was valuable. And so he got another one, and somebody stole that one too. And so he had to get another one. He told me, "We just need Bibles so badly."

Can you imagine that your Bible is such an item that people are stealing it from you when you're not looking? It's incredible. But people need Bibles that badly.

One of the things the Bible League does is provide these Bibles as well as Bible studies and training so that people don't have to run into that situation. I believe that every Christian should be able to have a Bible, to be able to read it every day, and to be able to pray and hear the word of the Lord in a way that they can understand it and apply it. And that's really what Bible League does—it makes sure that everybody in the world has a chance to read and apply the Bible.

By the Numbers

For those of you who are big on numbers, I have a couple numbers for you. These are Bible League Ministries statistics from what we did last year. The numbers I have are the cleanest numbers for this new year that just finished, including 2023.

We train people to do church planting, and with Bible League, there are well over 2,000 churches that were planted all over the world just last year. Most of those are in villages that have never had a church before.

For leaders trained—those were people that we trained to lead Bible studies and how to share their faith—there were over 150,000 of those. All those leaders can start Bible studies of their own where they can teach other people about the Bible.

For people reached—those are the people that those leaders reached. They'll take, for instance, a copy of the Gospel of John and they'll go around the village and invite people to a Bible study and build those Bible studies around the Scripture. So those people reached are people that have been spoken with by the trained leader, they've been given materials, they've come over, they've joined the Bible study, they've gone through the whole Bible study, they've gotten a Bible, and they've gotten materials after that to continue growing in their faith.

Every single person reached receives several different pieces of material so that they can grow in their faith. And so when you see the Scriptures provided, it's even so much higher—almost 7 million last year alone. Just imagine all those people that wouldn't have a Bible just because they couldn't afford it. But because of wonderful churches like CHS, these people all over are able to have access to the word of God. So thank you for doing that.

That talks about some of those stories. The one story on the very first part talks about Don Raj, who does ministry in Nepal and he's done something really neat. One of the ministries we have is Bible-based literacy. For those churches working in areas where people generally don't know how to read, they teach them how to read and use the Bible as one of the materials to teach them. So they're learning to read and reading the Bible at the same time.

This is a very effective ministry in places like Nepal where there are severe restrictions on what you can do to share your faith. Because that way, people are joining it because they want to. Although the people who joined the studies are from Hindu and Buddhist backgrounds, they join these studies and stay within them for years. You can get a lot of Scripture into somebody in that time. And sure enough, people often come to faith as part of that experience.

The report also talks about other ministries that are planting churches in Nepal specifically where there aren't very many churches, as well as leading Bible studies. But there are a couple of testimonies that I just find so moving, and I want you to hear the person's words for yourself. Because it's one thing to hear a story, another thing to see the person who's experienced it. So we're gonna play the first video about Laurie Jane, and then afterwards I'll ask you about your reactions.

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All the people surrounding me is bullying me. I thought that if there is a God, I have a question to him. Why did you make me like this? And they both have families now. And I'm akin to... that was, I think, when I was young people still living here. And I'm doing ministry, doing the work of the Lord for His glory.

In the mountains of Mindanao, the southernmost island of the Philippines, Laurie Jane is telling people about Jesus. It's not a story of physical healing, but a story of acceptance, of love, of purpose. God hasn't yet healed Laurie Jane's body, but he healed her heart.

Lori Jane wasn't always so comfortable with her body. Before she knew Christ, she hated it. It was all she saw in the mirror. She was constantly bullied as a child. She didn't understand why any God would make her this way. She didn't understand why he would break up her parents, causing her even more pain. At one point, she drank gasoline and cut her wrists to try to end her life.

But over time, God spoke to Lori Jane. She began to understand that he loves her and he created her to be a beautiful image of himself. She began to release the anger and pain and rest in the love of her father. She saw that she is fearfully and wonderfully made and made for a purpose.

In the altar in the church I said to the Lord, "Lord, I give up. I surrender my life to you. I offer my life to you. Give me a new heart, a new mind, and give me your spirit so that I am able to see the good things that you have done in my life." I really feel this moving of the Holy Spirit and I really feel the power of the Lord. Starting that day, I say that there is a living God who really moves our lives.

After that, I experienced it just like a newborn baby. My hatred, my self pity are gone.

Lori Jane began to see her physical condition as a way to point people to the Lord. She knew the Lord was calling her to ministry, to share his love with others. Her disability didn't define her. God did. He called her chosen child, made in his image. He called her to a life of joy, acceptance and service. And Laurie Jane embraced the call.

She leads Bible studies in Wauw, one of the poorest cities on the island. She has started more than 50 studies in homes across her community. Six days a week she walks from house to house to tell people about Jesus. She takes friends to help on the slippery muddy hills of Wauw, but nothing stops her from going to teach the gospel.

One Sunday service here in church, the Lord is challenging us. The Lord says, "Whom shall I send?" That word had such a big impact on me. So I was crying in the altar and said, "Lord, here am I. Use my life. Use me, Lord."

God answered that prayer over and over. Hundreds in the city of Wauw have experienced Jesus because of Lori Jane, her testimony, and her commitment to the gospel. She is an inspiration to the entire community. Several in her Bible studies are eager to be trained as leaders like her so they too can share God's word.

God created you with a perfect body, and God created me with an imperfect one. But I believe that the Lord has a purpose in my life. I am so great and blessed because of my situation. He is using me. I want to see more souls coming to the Lord, serving the Lord. I want more children coming to the Lord, serving the Lord. My prayer to the Lord for five years from now is that the Lord will bless my ministry and our church.

I ask praying from you and the whole team is salvation from our community to save the people including the brothers and sisters Muslims and every tribes here in Wau'o. Lori Jane thought her disability defined her but it's God who defines her and he called her to be his servant despite her physical challenges.

Use your body as your instrument to glorify the Lord. Use everything that you have, your talents, everything that you have, use it for the glory of God because myself is not perfect, but the Lord is using me.

What an inspiring story. When you see that story, what kind of things stood out to you? Go ahead. Amen. That's wonderful. Go ahead and bring up this next slide with Laurie Jean at the baptism. All the people surrounding me. There we go. What else did you guys see? That was so wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. Go ahead.

I thought it was interesting her prayer when she went up to the altar. She was praying a very purposeful prayer, like asking God to use her. She was asking for a purpose. And it made me think about the pre-fallen state of man where our job and our purpose was to relate straight from God's lips. And she's kind of trying to return to that. I thought that was a really cool thing.

That's wonderful. Go ahead. I think what stood out to me is so often children, adults, anyone born into a situation that's obviously less than ideal, so with a physical disability or any challenge—we all have different things if they're not visible. You can feel less than, and she has, through Christ, walked into this calling that's so much more than most of us in this room are ever going to accomplish with our lives. To see the hundreds of people that she's impacted through her life. And if God had not stepped into her life at some point through people, that could have gone in a completely different direction, you know, given her origin story. That's right. Thank you. And in the back?

Wonderful. Go ahead. I don't know if it was just a translation issue or whatnot, but when she used the word recognizing her body as imperfect and everyone else's as perfect, I really liked that. It reminded me that the Lord's arm is not too short, and that he can use a nobody poor Jew from Galilee to bring on the Messiah or some rambunctious fisherman to be the rock that he plants his church. Even though her body might not look like everyone else's body, it doesn't measure out what she's worth in her life and her seeking to make the most of her life. She's doing more with her life than I'm ever going to do. The amount of souls she's able to reach in her life, she's probably giving me a great and very strong and perpetuous benchmark to go and try to hit that goal. She's a real inspiration.

Go ahead. Yes. Yes. She's really been transformed by the word of God and the spirit working in her life. Good. We have one more story. Oh, go ahead. I really like how she's great guy using it. And I could just feel her trust here because she has no idea. She doesn't necessarily know that these goals are okay, Lord. I'm going to do this. Now let's do this. And so her faith and courage to just pray, okay, whatever it looks like, I'm ready. Yes. That faith is so scary, isn't it? She's really ready to step out and do whatever the Lord wants. And it's that scripture that says,

Without counting the cost.

Yes. I want to be one. You and me both. And the gift is teaching. She may have been born crippled but she became a teacher. She's helping people's minds through the reading, which I think is a great vehicle. Praise the Lord. Good. We have one more testimony. She's in the Philippines. This next one is in Bangladesh. In a Muslim majority country where Christianity is highly persecuted. And so his story comes with a lot of vulnerability. This is Abir.

Abir's Story

For years, Abir was an imam. He was a leader in his mosque and his community. He actively studied the religion. The Bible League trained church planter was once solely dedicated to Islam.

Across Bangladesh, a country of 170,000,000 people, almost 90% of the population practices Islam. Less than half of a percent identify as Christians. Christians are not welcome here.

One day, Abir was discussing Jesus as a prophet in the Quran. A Christian man overheard him, approached his table, and asked him to read the Bible. Abir agreed.

For three months, Abir studied the Bible, and it changed his life forever. Abir received the call to salvation. It was a joyful moment for him, but it was also the start of a new life, a dangerous life.

Christianity brought hope, but it isolated Abir from everything he knew, his community, even his own family. The day he became a believer, Abir became a sheep among wolves.

Because he was the imam, people were shocked when Abir did not show up to the mosque. Within a week, news had spread through the community. People felt their imam had betrayed them and their faith. For months, local authorities and religious leaders questioned, harassed, and threatened Abir. He was forced to leave his home without his family and moved several times to find somewhere safe.

He eventually returned to his community, but it wasn't a warm homecoming. He is still threatened, harassed, and isolated. It was not just neighbors who turned on him. Abir was disowned from his family. His home was attacked, his inheritance taken. In choosing to follow Jesus, Abir was left with no worldly possessions and very few people he could trust.

Despite the cost, Abir still holds strong to his faith. He still follows the Lord into the dens of wolves, knowing his job is to share the gospel. When he is mocked, he remains steadfast, just as Jesus did when he was crucified. Abir never lost the hope he found in Jesus.

Habir dreams of the day when many in his community will believe the truth of Jesus Christ. He's now a trained church planter and started a home church.

People will be against us — Matthew

Abir has experienced that more than most of us can understand. But he still preaches to them. He still prays for them. He still loves them just as Jesus loves us. Pray for Abir and persecuted believers around the world. Pray they would remain hopeful in Jesus Christ. And as Abir does, and just as Jesus did, pray for the persecutors.

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What touched you about that video? I saw a lot of persecution, and that's really what he experienced too. So often in places like this, it's the family that's the primary place where a lot of that rejection takes place.

I like that he warns them that you're going to be hated and persecuted. I remember hearing about a pastor who said that when people would come up in his church and want to be a Christian, he would say, "Are you willing to die? Are you ready to die?" And if they hesitated, he said, "Okay, just wait." Because if you're going to follow Christ, you have to be ready for that.

It makes me realize how easy we've got it here with our freedom of religion and how easy it is to accept Jesus and not be persecuted by others around us. But it's awesome how this guy who's being persecuted and his whole family is in danger just trusts in God and spreads the gospel and leads churches. It makes it more possible for us to do that kind of thing—to spread the gospel and not worry about hurting somebody's feelings. We don't even have to worry about death. The biggest thing we're worried about is feelings. We have so much more we could be doing here as well, with the faith that he has.

It takes so much courage and faith to say Jesus is the way to salvation. He is the one that we go to so that we can have access to the Father and hope in the next world.

Especially with the persecution testimony—contrasting that with Muslim ideology of what being religious looks like. Their hope wasn't something that they needed to persecute you for physically, damage you, vandalize you, hurt. But the fact that he was able to just hold strong through that and live out Christ's teachings of love—even in this expectation—"Either way, I'm not going to get rid of my hope. I am going to ask to share my hope with other people." His call to church planting rather than saying "I need to beat down Islam because they beat down me"—which is what a lot of people through history have tried to do with Christianity. That's not right.

He was just saying, "My hope is greater. That's okay if you don't have the same hope as me, but I'm going to hold on to this hope because it is good, it is rich, and it is beautiful."

Yeah, I like how it all started with a simple invitation to find out for yourself by reading the Bible.

It didn't start off with arguments and debates, but rather with simple invitations. And I think that's a great compliment, doesn't he? Yeah. And did he hear that—how long it took him? It took three months. It sounds like he's about as hard headed as I am.

You know, the things we think about when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and empowers us. But something that was emphasized was the endurance that the Holy Spirit gives. And I think when you see that, you know it's the supernatural life of Christ in them. That's what stands out to me—that remarkable experience.

Absolutely. We have a hope that endures despite persecution. That's really insightful, Joel. Yes. Kind of what Joel said—his utter reliance on God and being fearless. It would be really tempting to compromise and say, you know, I can't keep my family. Maybe we're both right. Maybe there's some truth and try and go a cynicism route. But this uncompromising, unwavering reliance on God and saying that it's either Christ or chaos—I'm going with Christ. That's inspiring.

Mission Trip Invitation

We have one more invitation left. This final screen. If you'd like to see this for yourself, you have an opportunity. I'm so glad that our church does so much to support missions. Tim's in Belize right now with the fellows, and how wonderful. And I know that many of you have gone on mission trips that you found incredibly enriching.

Bible League has a couple of these too—not to build schools, but to go as an encouragement to believers around the world. Those leaders who are already making an impact for the name of Christ. And you'd be able to go there and just celebrate with them what the Lord has done and be one of those people who's able to hand out some of those Bibles to people for the first time. That's an incredibly encouraging experience.

If you're interested, you'd be able to keep this URL. Those are the details. And I do have an invitation in several of the packets—about half of them. But if any of you are interested in doing that, you're more than welcome to go. And I'd be going with you. So you wouldn't be going along with just a bunch of strangers—just somebody as strange as I am.

For the next couple of minutes, would any of you like to share a time that you've gone on a mission trip that's been meaningful to you?

I remember the last time I was able to—it was really incredible. I went to Ghana. And some of the things that surprised me was just how desperate people are for the word of God. I remember there was one church plant that we visited. They'd only been going a few months. And they were meeting in this place that had a roof but no walls—it was the village property, kind of like a community center. But it was something that only had open walls and a roof.

And the pastor was there preaching. He already had a little church, probably about 30 people or so, which is incredible over just a few months period. And after the service they were talking to us about what they really needed. They said, "Well, our church has grown and we ran out of the Bibles that you gave us already. We just need more Bibles. Can you have that? Can you send us Bibles?"

Such an incredible ask. It costs only about $5 to print and provide a Bible. Just think of how many souls you can touch at that cost and how many people that has already touched. Praise the Lord for what he's doing.

Would somebody like to lead us in prayer before we leave for the next service?

Father, thank you for sending the gospel to us, American Gentiles. Thank you for bringing us into your family. I pray that you would move in our church and in our hearts, give us a commitment to making Jesus known here and across the world. I pray that you would make us goers or senders. I pray that you would bless Bible League and that you would get your awesome, holy word into everybody's hands if it's your will. I just pray that you bless the ministry. Get the word printed. Get it in people's hands. Get it in their hearts. And bless Jared and his work as well. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thank you. You're dismissed.