I was privileged to meet Jed Duarte, a third generation missionary to Brazil, for coffee as a get-to-know meeting. Very quickly, my heart was blessed by his testimony of absolute surrender. Our theme this year is I Will Follow. Here is a young man who made that decision and is having the time of his life. I wanted to share it, so we sat down for a quick interview. Jed and his family will be with us at Grace Baptist Church on September 30 for the final Sunday of Mission Weeks.
No Bible!
Recently my wife and I attended the Outreach Conference at Faith Baptist Church in Avon, Indiana. We both were blessed and invigorated. One of the sessions that I attended was by Dr. Ken Fielder. He is the president and director of WorldView Ministries. They are “committed to both the training of Bible translators and to Bible translating and publishing for the unreached people groups of the world.”
He posed a very probing question that I have been thinking about and believe it would do us all good to pause and consider.
What would your life be like without the Bible?
Think about the questions you would have. Think of the confusion you would experience when going through trials and injustices. You would wonder who to worship. You could not know where you came from. There would be no value to life. Without the Bible and the knowledge of the one true God you would be completely heathen. You would be lost and on your way to hell.
There are 4,000 plus languages that do not yet have a copy of God’s Word in their hands. While we in America have multiple copies, they have none. I believe it is time that we begin to spend time in prayer and financially support this great need! We must do our part as individual people and churches to give the heathen God’s Word in their own language so that they can know Him.
Josiah Kagin 