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Printing Scriptures since 1968 JAN-FEB-MAR 2017 NUMBER 1 VOLUME 48 2101 Hwy 231 South • Shelbyville, TN 37160-6718 (931) 684-0304 www.biblelit.com Email: [email protected] Dr. Bob Lemmon, Founder Dr. Robert M. Lemmon, Jr., Director Sponsored by Victory Baptist Church, Shelbyville, TN Dr. Jim Tedder, Pastor Bible & Literature Missionary Foundation Global Witness “Declaring his glory among the heathen” Our Theme for 2017 T his is our BLMF theme for 2017, it comes from I Chronicles chapter sixteen where David is praising God and rejoicing in the Lord expressing a desire that everyone, everywhere should know, see and experience God’s great glory. David is expressing a personal desire that everyone should experience the glory of the Lord as he already had and secondly, that God’s glory is too great, too important for us to keep to ourselves. It must be declared to the whole world so that everyone might know and experience God’s great glory. In v. 4 he instructs the people to break out the choir, v. 5, give me some psalteries, harps and cymbals and in v. 6, bring on the trumpets because we have something to celebrate! David’s instrucon in v. 8 is to give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, and make known his deeds among the people. In v. 8 to sing unto him, sing psalms, v. 9 talk of his wondrous works, v. 10, to glory in his holy name, v. 11, seek him connually, v. 12, remember his marvelous works, and then he gives us the reason in v. 14, because he is the LORD our God, v. 15, be mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations and then in v. 24, David says go “Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all naons”. What a tremendous tesmony of David’s love for the Lord, his great God! But knowing God’s glory in his own heart wasn’t good enough for David, he wanted the whole world to know and experience his God’s glory! Why? For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name. T his evil, wicked world that you and I live in, all 7.8 Billion people, need to hear and to know the glory of God, and since few men today share David’s vision for the unreached as he did, God has given us a charge, a command, the “great commission” to get His glory, the story of His Son, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. David had a vision and a burden for missions, to declare God’s glory to the heathen long before there was a great commission. This is one of the reasons why God would say that David was a man aſter his own heart. In Ps. 71:18 David says, “O God, forsake me not; unl I have shewed thy strength unto this generaon, and thy power to everyone that is to come.” Through the words that David penned over 3,000 years ago he is sll proclaiming his God’s glory to the heathen! We just need to get his words to the heathen so others can come to know God’s glory through a personal relaonship of His precious Son! We don’t need to rewrite the Book, just re-print it and distribute it! A s the apostle Paul told Timothy in II Timothy 3:15, “...thou hath known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvaon through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” To say that the Holy Spirit cannot work through His wrien Word to convict a person of their sin and bring them to knowledge of salvaon is saying Abraham could not have been saved without a preacher. While God chooses to save the lost through the foolishness of the preaching of the cross, he did quite well before prophets, apostles or preachers! Actually, the first preacher was God’s Word as Gal. 3:8, says “…the scripture, foreseeing that God would jusfy the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham….” The scriptures did a prey good job of preaching the gospel to Abraham because he believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. In II Tim. 2:9 the apostle Paul says that he was suffering bonds as an evil doer; but the word of God is not bound. God’s Word is not bound by chains as Paul somemes was, it’s not bound by any physical limitaons as we are, not by preconceived ideas and tradions and not by culture or by language. Just give them the Book! We’re Not Changing God’s Plan... ...for World Evangelism, just trying to bring it into the 21st Century! In the late 1,700’s, early 1,800’s and right up into the 1950’s our missionaries traveled to foreign countries by ship, saying goodbye to family and friends here in the states not knowing if they would ever return home again. Most of the time, with wife and children in hand, leaving home with just enough money to get to some pagan country on the other side of the world but not sufficient money to return home even if they had an emergency and needed too. Total commitment, completely and totally trusting God, living by faith! Most of those trips took months, being exposed to diseases, dysentery and sickness, little food and water, many time mugged by thieves, but they went. These were hard exhausting trips of great inconvenience and personal discomfort; many lasting 3 to 4 months, requiring changes of transportation from one ship to another, to trains and sometimes longs distances by foot. But they went! They spent their lives there and most never came home, never saw or ever heard from their families back home again. These men and women were the true Heroes of the faith. But, by the late fifties and early sixties we could be in countries in a couple of days that would have taken months to reach just a year earlier. With air mail service to most countries we could stay in touch with families, friends and supporting churches back home and with international banking could receive money by wire in an emergency. Today missionaries are never more than a few hours away from the USA, and with instant communications at their fingertips. My how modern technology has changed missions for the better, improving our missionaries’ lives and increasing their ability to communicate. In the last 20 to 30 years many of our missionaries and national pastors in the larger developed cities have their own radio and television programs. Many are live streaming their church services, using email, texting, on Facebook, and skyping home to the states every day. All of this is wonderful, praise God! But, most missionaries are still in the dark ages when it comes to maintaining a supply of Bibles or Scriptures to give to their people. We have made huge advancements in the area of missionary comfort and convenience but have not accomplished much progress when it comes to their greatest need, a continual and consistent supply of the written Word of God. If we would have utilized the use of the printing press in world evangelism 50 years ago to the extent we have capitalized on improving travel and communications we would have done a much better job of evangelizing the world in the last 50 years than we have. While we have made tremendous strides in this area there are three primary reasons I believe why we haven’t made as much progress as we should have. #1. All of the electronics, phones, computers etc. have a personal appeal but printing and distributing the written Word of God does not! All of us; pastors, mission boards, and laymen alike; have come to accept the higher cost of transportation, cell phones, computers, iPad and communication devises of all kinds as a necessary cost of doing business. We all; myself, you and everyone down to our teenage sons and daughters; concede that the whole world needs and should have all of these gadgets as well. #2. Because human nature is to fix the least expensive problem and let the more expensive ones wait. To supply every missionary with an adequate supply of Bibles and Scriptures in their language is a very expensive proposal; but, how else are we ever going to reach the masses of the world’s population? #3. Many Christians do not see or appreciate the value of saturating the “Not Changing” continued on Page 2 “Declaring” continued on Page 2

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Page 1: Global Witness - biblelit.com · Global Witness “Declaring his glory among the heathen” Our Theme for 2017. T. his is our BLMF theme for 2017, it . comes from I Chronicles chapter

Printing Scriptures since 1968

Jan-Feb-Mar 2017 nuMber 1VoluMe 48

2101 Hwy 231 South • Shelbyville, TN 37160-6718(931) 684-0304 • www.biblelit.com

Email: [email protected]. Bob Lemmon, Founder • Dr. Robert M. Lemmon, Jr., Director

Sponsored by Victory Baptist Church, Shelbyville, TNDr. Jim Tedder, Pastor

Bible & Literature Missionary FoundationGlobal Witness

“Declaring his glory among the heathen”

Our Theme for 2017

This is our BLMF theme for 2017, it comes from I Chronicles chapter

sixteen where David is praising God and rejoicing in the Lord expressing a desire that everyone, everywhere should know, see and experience God’s great glory. David is expressing a personal desire that everyone should experience the glory of the Lord as he already had and secondly, that God’s glory is too great, too important for us to keep to ourselves. It must be declared to the whole world so that everyone might know and experience God’s great glory. In v. 4 he instructs the people to break out the choir, v. 5, give me some psalteries, harps and cymbals and in v. 6, bring on the trumpets because we have something to celebrate! David’s instruction in v. 8 is to give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, and make known his deeds among the people. In v. 8 to sing unto him, sing psalms, v. 9 talk of his wondrous works, v. 10, to glory in his holy name, v. 11, seek him continually, v. 12, remember his marvelous works, and then he gives us the reason in v. 14, because he is the LORD our God, v. 15, be mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations and then in v. 24, David says go “Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations”. What a tremendous testimony of David’s love for the Lord, his great God! But knowing God’s glory in his own heart wasn’t good enough for David, he wanted the whole world to know and experience his God’s glory! Why? For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name.

This evil, wicked world that you and I live in, all 7.8 Billion

people, need to hear and to know the glory of God, and since few men today share David’s vision for the unreached as he did, God has given us a charge, a command, the “great commission” to get His glory, the story of His Son, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. David had a vision and a burden for

missions, to declare God’s glory to the heathen long before there was a great commission. This is one of the reasons why God would say that David was a man after his own heart. In Ps. 71:18 David says, “O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come.” Through the words that David penned over 3,000 years ago he is still proclaiming his God’s glory to the heathen! We just need to get his words to the heathen so others can come to know God’s glory through a personal relationship of His precious Son! We don’t need to rewrite the Book, just re-print it and distribute it!

As the apostle Paul told Timothy in II Timothy 3:15, “...thou hath

known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” To say that the Holy Spirit cannot work through His written Word to convict a person of their sin and bring them to knowledge of salvation is saying

Abraham could not have been saved without a preacher. While God chooses to save the lost through the foolishness of the preaching of the cross, he

did quite well before prophets, apostles or preachers! Actually, the first preacher was God’s Word as Gal. 3:8,

says “…the scr ipture, foreseeing t h a t G o d w o u l d justify the h e a t h e n

through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham….” The scriptures did a pretty good job of preaching the gospel to Abraham because he believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. In II Tim. 2:9 the apostle Paul says that he was suffering bonds as an evil doer; but the word of God is not bound. God’s Word is not bound by chains as Paul sometimes was, it’s not bound by any physical limitations as we are, not by preconceived ideas and traditions and not by culture or by language. Just give them the Book!

We’re Not Changing God’s Plan...

...for World Evangelism, just trying to bring it into the 21st Century!

In the late 1,700’s, early 1,800’s and right up into the 1950’s our missionaries traveled to foreign countries by ship, saying goodbye to family and friends here in the states not knowing if they would ever return home again. Most of the time, with wife and children in hand, leaving home with just enough money to get to some pagan country on the other side of the world but not sufficient money to return home even if they had an emergency and needed too. Total commitment, completely and totally trusting God, living by faith! Most of those trips took months, being exposed to diseases, dysentery and sickness, little food and water, many time mugged by thieves, but they went. These were hard exhausting trips of great inconvenience and personal discomfort; many lasting 3 to 4 months, requiring changes of transportation from one ship to another, to trains and sometimes longs distances by foot. But they went! They spent their lives there and most never came home, never saw or ever heard from their families back home again. These men and women were the true Heroes of the faith.

But, by the late fifties and early sixties we could be in countries in a couple of days that would have taken months to reach just a year earlier. With air mail service to most countries we could stay in touch with families, friends and supporting churches back home and with international banking could receive money by wire in an emergency. Today missionaries are never more than a few hours away from the USA, and with instant communications at their fingertips. My how modern technology has changed missions for the better, improving our missionaries’ lives and increasing their

ability to communicate. In the last 20 to 30 years many of our missionaries and national pastors in the larger developed cities have their own radio and television programs. Many are live streaming their church services, using email, texting, on Facebook, and skyping home to the states every day. All of this is wonderful, praise God! But, most missionaries are still in the dark ages when it comes to maintaining a supply of Bibles or Scriptures to give to their people. We have made huge advancements in the area of missionary comfort and convenience but have not accomplished much progress when it comes to their greatest need, a continual and consistent supply of the written Word of God.

If we would have utilized the use of the printing press in world evangelism 50 years ago to the extent we have capitalized on improving travel and communications we would have done a much better job of evangelizing the world in the last 50 years than we have. While we have made tremendous strides in this area there are three primary reasons I believe why we haven’t made as much progress as we should have.

#1. All of the electronics, phones, computers etc. have a personal appeal but printing and distributing the written Word of God does not! All of us; pastors, mission boards, and laymen alike; have come to accept the higher cost of transportation, cell phones, computers, iPad and communication devises of all kinds as a necessary cost of doing business. We all; myself, you and everyone down to our teenage sons and daughters; concede that the whole world needs and should have all of these gadgets as well.

#2. Because human nature is to fix the least expensive problem and let the more expensive ones wait. To supply every missionary with an adequate supply of Bibles and Scriptures in their language is a very expensive proposal; but, how else are we ever going to reach the masses of the world’s population?

#3. Many Christians do not see or appreciate the value of saturating the

“Not Changing” continued on Page 2“Declaring” continued on Page 2

Page 2: Global Witness - biblelit.com · Global Witness “Declaring his glory among the heathen” Our Theme for 2017. T. his is our BLMF theme for 2017, it . comes from I Chronicles chapter

2“Not Changing” continued from Page 1dying world with the living Word. Too many Christians only equate the Written Word of God as being a poor substitute for the missionary and the preached word. Here’s a thought, if we wait long enough maybe someone will come out with a new smart phone that costs $3.00 or less, then we can provide everyone in the world a free smart phone and they can all google Jesus!

We print and distribute God’s precious written Word because God called us into this ministry, and we intend to be obedient to His calling! But if we needed another reason, we would because we are convinced that we have God’s verbally inspired, infallible, inerrant, pure preserved, holy, living Word and have seen and know what it will do to bring salvation to the lost and spiritual growth to the saved. Or, having God’s great commission why would we not use His printed Word to evangelize the world? Or, if faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God why would we not produce and distribute it? And, if Jesus is the Word of God and the Word is God, why would we withhold the Word from those who do not have Jesus?

“Declaring” continued from Page 1

A theme is just a tool to help keep us all motivated and on target

with a goal to produce and distribute 2 million Bibles and Scriptures in 2017. We are “Declaring His Glory Among The Heathen” and it’s not a choice of whether we are going to support a missionary or send Bibles. To do one without the other is only doing half the job! If you and your church are not “Declaring His Glory Among The Heathen” through the distribution of God’s precious Written Word we’d invite you to partner with us in this great undertaking!

I have something much bigger that I need your help with this day! There have been volumes and volumes of books written, millions of articles and multiplied millions of sermons preached, and lessons taught on prayer and thousands and thousands of songs written about it but we’re still clueless! No wonder the disciples stopped and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray! To a Christian, prayer has to be the best and most important tool that we have at our disposal. It’s our strength, our source of power and our best weapon of defense to deflect the fiery darts of the devil. But the bottom line is that the Bible says that we have not because we ask not!

In our January prayer letter we quoted a statement written by E.M. Bounds, who is considered by many Bible scholars, as one of the foremost authorities and writers on prayer ever. Since only a few of you received that letter I’d like to reprint it again here for a larger audience. He said, “God has of his own motion placed himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated himself to answer the prayers of men. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby He will do things through men as they pray, which He would not otherwise do.” Wow! Do you suppose that Brother Bounds was right? If so, just think of the limitless, boundless opportunities that we as Christians have to draw on the bank of heaven, just for the asking. A much lesser known pastor, preaching on prayer recently said that “not praying is the same thing as our shutting the open door that God has given us to His vast store house of riches”.

I credit the Lord’s bountiful blessings on this ministry to the faithfulness of God’s people who faithfully pray for us every day. I am confident that there are many hundreds of people who pray for this ministry daily. I know that God wants His precious Word printed and distributed but would He bless and provide for this ministry so wonderfully if it were not for the prayers of His people? And then there are those times when the devil seems to get the upper hand and the battle isn’t going well and I ask myself the question, have God’s people let up and or forgotten to pray for this ministry today? Last year, our first full year in the “Bible Barn” we had set a ridiculously high production goal so when we came up short I ask myself, have some of our BLMF friends and family forgotten to pray for this ministry like they used too. While I hope not, it is a fair assumption that some of our prayer warriors have grown weary and let up on their praying. I don’t know how many prayers it takes to produce 2 million Bibles; I just know we came up a little short. I can tell you how many dollars it will take to produce them but I don’t know what the conversion ratio is converting prayers into dollars. All I know is that I’d be terribly disappointed for sure if we missed our goal because of my failure to pray!

Lord, I’m Not Asking

You To Move A Mountain Today…

To God Be the Glory, Great things He hath done! 2016 was a very productive year and we thank and praise Him for His marvelous blessings and extend a super big “thank you” to all of you “Scripture

Partners” of BLMF for making this possible. Your faithful financial support and contributions for rolls of paper provided sufficient funds to enable us to purchase 18 trailer loads of paper which we used to print 1,615,000 Bibles, New Testaments and Bible portions. Of these 1.6 million Scriptures we shipped 1,449,668 of them, in 30 languages distributed among 83 different missionaries serving in 30 countries. We exceeded the 1.1

m i l l i o n Scriptures s h i p p e d i n 2 0 1 4 a n d t h e 1.2 million shipped in 2015 but came up a tad short

of the 1.9 record that we did in 2013. We did however ship a record number of 10 full containers of Bibles and Scriptures and 5 partial containers in 2016 in addition to numerous pallets and hundreds of individual cases of Bibles. We also printed New Testaments in a new language, Zokam, for the Zomi people in Burma and in the USA.

In 2016 this ministry received contributions from “Scriptures Partners” through f inancial support; Bible and paper roll sponsors for $848,253.73 and spent $843,712.22 of it to purchase the paper and materials to produce the 1.49 million Bibles and Scriptures we shipped.

Production & FinancialReports for 2016!

Production for January & Febuary 2017

Through February of 2017 we have printed 30,000 Portuguese Bibles, 150,000 Spanish Bible portions, about half way through a 50,000 run of English Bibles and about a third of the way through a printing of 25,000 Spanish Bibles. We have already shipped 120,000 Bibles and Scriptures in 18 languages going into 24 countries, including one container of English Bibles, 20,000 to Missionary Tom Canfield in Kenya and 10,000 to Brother Seabury a national pastor, also in Kenya.

Out of the 50,000 English Bibles that we are printing now, 30,000 are for Missionary Russell Wright going to Zimbabwe, 15,000 of them for Missionary John Shelly in Uganda, 1,000 for Brother Gasim Domkog a national pastor in Southern Sudan. In addition to these four projects listed above we have missionaries waiting for; a container of Spanish Bibles & N.Ts. for Honduras, a container of 25,000 Burmese Bibles for Miramar, 2 containers of 30,000 English Bibles each for Kenya, 2 containers of 60,000 Eng./Tagalog N.Ts. each for the Philippines and 25,000 Mosquito N.Ts. for Nicaraugua, CA.

Please challenge your church to “Declare His Glory Among Heathen” in 2017, and what better way can we reach 2 million heathen than through the distribution of God’s precious written Word. Our goal is to impact 2 million of them in 2017 by placing a copy of God’s printed Word into their hands. Will you partner with us to reach the heathen for Christ this year? Ps. 2:8 “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

Receiving our rebate check of $10,600 for purchasing 20

trailer loads of paper!

“Lord, I’m” continued on page 4Rolls coming in and Bibles

going out!

Zambia, Africa

Bibles to England

10 Full Containers shipped in 2016:English Bibles, N.Ts. and Bible portions to

Missionary Joshua Rhodes, Guyana, SA

Eng./Tagalog New Testaments tonational pastors in the Philippines

English/Tagalog New Testaments toMissionary Rodger Riley in the Philippines

English Bibles & N.Ts toMissionary Jerold Meyers in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

English and Tagalog Scriptures toMissionary Doug Sessions in the Philippines

English Bibles & N.Ts to Dr. R.G. Smith for KenyaEnglish and French Bibles to

Missionary Ed Stanley in Togo

English Bibles, N.Ts & Spanish Bibles toMissionary Selmer Peterson in Belize

300,000 Creole Bible portions toMissionary Brad Pridmore for Haiti

Partial containers going toNew Guinea, Botswana, Philippines,

Puerto Rico, Mexico and Liberia

Bible for Belize

Pidgin Bibles toNew Guinea

Zambia, Africa

Women of the WordApril 1st

Page 3: Global Witness - biblelit.com · Global Witness “Declaring his glory among the heathen” Our Theme for 2017. T. his is our BLMF theme for 2017, it . comes from I Chronicles chapter

Alex Davidson, an affluent cotton farmer and a leading deacon at the White Mound Baptist Church in Coryell County, MS purchased a box of old books at a farm sale for just a few cents and after arriving back home was looking through the box. Among the old, worn out books Alex found one that was printed in a foreign language and he didn’t know what it was, the title read La Biblia en Espanol and scrawled in pencil below the title he found these words: “Propiedad de Carlos Montoya”. No one knew or remembered Carlos Montoya, but upon asking his pastor about the book Alex was told that it was a Spanish Bible. Even though the old Bible was in pretty rough shape and had a lot of verses underlined in it he didn’t want to throw it away so when the preacher suggested that he give it to a Mexican tenant farmer who lived on his property Alex thought that would be a splendid idea, which he did. Juan and Maria Sandoval were the family who received the Bible and were extremely proud to receive it from Alex and thanked him over and over for his generous gift of the old Bible. Juan and Maria had six children who all lived together in the old run down two bedroom house that they rented from Alex. Juan and Maria could barely speak a few words of broken English and Alex didn’t know any Spanish at all so the conversation was very short.

But, to Alex’s total surprise and shock, just a few weeks later, on a Sunday morning, just minutes before time for the little White Mound

What’s One Old Tattered Bible Worth?

Baptist Church to start, up walks Juan and Maria and their six children. Not dressed quite as nice as everyone else but clean and polished, and as best as the pastor, Brother Criswell could find out between their broken English and his limited Spanish all eight of them, Juan, Maria and all six of the children had trusted Christ from reading that old worn out Spanish Bible and wanted to become a part of their church. After a few minutes of awkwardness, once everyone in the little church understood what was going on, the services began and at the invitation, Juan, Maria and the six children were welcomed into the little church family. Tragically, just a few months later Juan and Maria’s little run down farm house burned to the ground losing everything that they owned in the fire. Juan was able to get all of his family out safely and on one last trip into the burning house, Juan was able to rescue the old tattered Bible that had become their most cherished procession.

As Juan, Maria and their children, came to trust Christ as a result of the gift of an old worn out Bible, thousands of others have too as a result of someone giving them a Bible, New Testament, Bible portion or a gospel tract.

Just think! When Gutenberg invented the printing press most people at that time could not read it if they had a Bible. When we started printing the Word of God in 1968, half the world’s population were still illiterate, but today, most people under forty years of age can read and write.

3

The number one priority of this ministry is to produce and distribute more Bibles, New Testaments and Bible portions this year than we did last year.

To accomplish this we go around all the time with our hand out asking God’s people for financial support and for Bible and paper sponsors. We put all of our emphasis on raising funds to purchase paper and materials to produce these Scriptures and seldom say much about other needs. Two reasons why, first we want to keep, “producing and distributing God’s Word the priority” and number two, if we listed all of our other equipment and financial needs, contributions to them might take funds away from our “priority”! We just trust God to meet these other needs!

However, it has been suggested that we share a few of our other needs with you so that you, our BLMF friends and supporters can more intelligently

pray for these needs and help financially when possible. Should the Lord lay it on anyone’s heart to contribute to any of these other needs or projects this would be appreciated, secondarily to our need for paper and printing materials.

Production Needs for 20171. To reach a production goal of 2 million Bibles & Scriptures this year we need to raise $2 million dollars to purchase 20 trailer loads of paper, the necessary materials and freight. To substain this level of production every year we need to add an additional 200 “Scripture Partners” this year!2. We have a immediate need of an additional $40,000 this month to cover the cost of $100,000 vinyl covers for 4 Bible projects.3. In order to be able to add 2 additional workers in the shop, one full time and one part time, we need to increase our undesignated love offerings by an additional $50,000 per year!

Equipment/Building and Mechanical Needs1. We have several electrical projects on hold that we were not able to finish when we moved into the “Bible Barn”!

A. Wire light circuits to relays making it possible to turn interior lights on from 4 entrances. B. We need to add external lighting over our dock on the north and south ends of shop building to illuminate them for work and security and repair or replace 3 other outside security lights. C. Permanent electrical supply to lights displaying our flags at night. D. Provide lighting for highway entrance for safety and security. E. Install water, electric and sewer hookups for RV’s for missionaries and Scripture Conference attendees. $5,000 to $6,000 for material.

2. We need to prepare and pour concrete pads at two outside entrances to enable us to be able to transfer materials to outside storage. $4,000 to $5,000 for materials.3. Build up and add 10 to 12 more feet of landfill rock to make it easier for tractor and trailer trucks to get into our dock, $2,500 to $3,000 for materials.4. Repair of our gutters adding additional downspouts. Estimated cost of $7,000.5. We need to purchase a used scissor lift in order to be able replace ceiling lights, $7,000 to $8,000.6. We have a goal to be totally debt free by our 50th anniversary in 2018, currently at $190,0007. We need to upgrade a digital printer at a cost of $45,000.8. Our 26 ft. box truck needs repairs at an estimated cost of $3,200 to maintain our DOT Certification, to continue delivery to area churches that help collate.

Materials and Financial Needsof This Ministry!

Praise our Lord! We are so blessed even in sadness. Just

this year we have lost two of our faithful supporters. Kevin C. Youse, a retired pastor who had retired because of his health and moved to Normandy, TN and opened a Retreat which offered guidance, rest, relaxation and support to pastors, evangelists and missionaries. The other, John P. Whitson, retired Command Sergeant Major in the Army and precious friend, Christian, and member of our Church. Both loved this ministry and the families asked that donations be made to BLMF in lieu of flowers. What a blessing! Our home church, Victory Baptist in Shelbyville, has a memorial service for those that have gone on and they put an offering plate at the front after the service for sending Bibles in the name of the loved one. They take a free will offering and it doesn’t come from the Church treasury. Since they began they have given over the cost of a trailer load of paper. Praise, Praise, Praise!

Other Churches or individuals will send in an offering for Bibles

in Memory of someone and some individuals will send Bibles in Honor of their pastor or perhaps someone’s birthday or Anniversary. What better way could you honor someone than to send Bibles to a man, woman or child who has never had a Bible of their own? We here in America have several that are never opened. We have Mother’s Bible, Dad’s Bible, Grandpa’s Bible, our first Bible, our old Bible, family Bible, Study Bible and one we carry to Church and every family member has their own Bible. We have a hard time realizing that in some foreign countries there may be one Bible in a Church. The Pastor may have a Bible or he may have just a few pages where one Bible has been taken apart and several pastors are sharing one Bible. By the Grace of God we were born in America, but what if it was us living in a darken world without the Word of God, waiting on someone else to send us a Bible? Would it come? Would anyone care that we did not have God’s Word?

In Memory or In Honor

By: Shannon Lemmon

Statistically, the number one thing people are searching for in life is hope. This is an obvious need in the world in which we live. While we face

incredible wickedness and difficulty in our own country, can you imagine the circumstances that people in third world countries face on a regular basis? Violence surrounds their homes and villages. Many watch their children die of starvation and disease. It would seem that there is no reason to have joy or a reason to live. Yet, when the precious Word of God is given to these people in need, they rejoice with tears and laughter.

Years ago, when Haiti was struck by massive earthquakes, BLMF sent containers of Scriptures into the disaster-stricken areas. While an American

journalist was in one of these areas, he was interviewing a dear Haitian woman standing in front of her collapsed hut, which was once her home. She had lost everyone in her family and was the only survivor. Her children were gone. Her husband was also dead. As the journalist interviewed her, she remained peaceful and questionably at ease about the whole situation. The journalist finally asked, “How is it after such devastation and loss you can remain with hope?” The lady then displayed the book to which she had been clinging during the conversation and responded, “This Book tells me that I will see my family again one day because we are all Christians.” The Word of God had reached her from her local pastor or missionary and given her hope because her family knew the Lord.

When you give the greatest gift – the gift of God’s Word – you give so much. Can you imagine the African lady reading the Bible to all the

children in her village, telling them of David in the den of lions? Can’t you picture the father in India running home to share the Scriptures with his family who has been searching for the Truth of this life and eternity? The little boys and girls in Brazil are so excited to read the Word of God, and their grandparents are forever grateful to finally get a Portuguese Bible that they can read and understand.

Pages of Promise

“Pages” continued on Page 4

Page 4: Global Witness - biblelit.com · Global Witness “Declaring his glory among the heathen” Our Theme for 2017. T. his is our BLMF theme for 2017, it . comes from I Chronicles chapter

4

Highlights From The Past

Part 2 continued fromDecember 2016 issue

When God needed a boat captain He had the perfect man with ship building experience in Noah. When God needed a business manager to provide for His people in Egypt he raised up Joseph, sent him to Pit University and promoted him up through the government prison’s work release program. When God was ready to deliver His people from Egypt He sent Moses out to the backside of the desert to practice being a Shepard for 40 years before calling him at the burning bush. God always prepares the men He calls and that was certainly the case when God was looking for a man to lead His Church into a Bible printing ministry. God prepared his heart by showing him the need in Italy and France, gave him a love for the Word and a call to the ministry, trained him at the feet of a true visionary, made him a pastor for 20 years so he could relate to pastors, gave him the determination of a bulldog, the faith of an Abraham, the hide of a rhinoceros and then gave him a charge to print the Word. That man’s name was Dr. Bob Lemmon, Sr., and the time was September of 1968!

In God’s perfect timing; shortly after Brother Don Fraser had started “Bearing Precious Seed” a Bible distribution ministry out of the Rolling Hills Baptist Church of Fort Worth, TX; Brother Bob Lemmon had become the pastor of the Hemphill Baptist Temple of Fort Worth. His 24 year old son Bobby was his assistant pastor, youth and music director and an experienced printer. It was at that time the Hemphill Baptist Temple started printing promotional materials for Brother Fraser which quickly advanced to Bible portions. Dad had maintained from the beginning that it was the church’s responsibility to print God’s Word and it was as though God said, “OK Bob, what are you going to do about it?” Dad answered that charge and when we started printing God’s Word something monumental took place. I believe that it was a big deal with God, something that God had planned and purposed and it happened at the exact moment He willed it to happen. That’s how confident and how positive that I am about God’s calling upon this ministry.

I’m not sure how long God had been putting the pieces of the puzzle together but finally, “in the fullness of His time” the first Bible printing ministry was born. When the Lord birthed this ministry the Lord confirmed it to me in such an emphatic way that I knew God had brought us to that point, a culmination of all of those years that I had been operating the churches small offset printing press. I’ve never doubted it, then, now or never. We knew that we were exactly where God wanted us to be, doing exactly what He wanted and wants us to be doing. If anything, if it were possible, I’m more convinced of it now than ever!

Now, moving the Bible printing operation to Shelbyville, TN in 1972 after Dad came off of the road

raising support a n d m o n e y t o p u r c h a s e e q u i p m e n t , wasn’t something I was completely sure about, but in a matter of a few weeks God had given me peace about that as well. Dad had figured that one day he’d

move back to his little hometown and organize a new Independent Baptist church from the ground up as he had done in Memphis in 1951. It was his desire to be able to pastor here and operate Bible & Literature out of the church he pastored. It’s interesting how things just seem to work out when God is in it! In Shelbyville, Dad found a perfect location for a church, a big, two-story, old farm house on nine acres that had already been converted into a church by a Methodist church which was now up for sale. The only problem was, he didn’t have any money but the Methodist church folks were motivated to sell so they co-signed their own note promising the bank they would take the property back if the new “Cannon Blvd. Baptist Church” were to default. The building and property that we had bought in Fort Worth directly across the street from the church on Hemphill Street sold quickly but we didn’t have any equity in it so that didn’t help the property purchase in Shelbyville.

I do not know to this day how Dad did it but somehow, as soon as he closed on the property in Shelbyville, without any money, he was able to immediately start building a masonry block building to accommodate the struggling new Bible printing ministry. So in August of 1972 the simple, plain 2 story, 40ft x 60ft block building was enclosed and we were able to move what few pieces of equipment that we had to Shelbyville, TN.

When Dad first expressed his desire to organize a new Independent Baptist church in Shelbyville I wasn’t too keen on the idea as there were already three small Independent Baptist churches in Shelbyville, two in the city and a third one about five miles north on the main hwy coming into town. When we discussed the matter Dad would respond that Shelbyville was big enough for a forth Independent Baptist church and stated that he had no intentions of proselyting any other church’s members. His intentions were to go out and find the lost and unchurched and to win them and bring them in. Dad had a pastor’s heart and if given the choice I believe he would have much rather pastored again than lead the lonesome life of traveling coupled with the difficulties of raising money for a ministry. Dad gave the new church his usual 150% effort and would have made a go of it except, in time he came to realize and accept the fact that God had changed his calling to him from the pastorate to that of producing and distributing His precious Word.

In a year’s time the new Cannon Blvd. Baptist Church was running between thirty and forty in attendance and on a special day had 75 people in attendance. I don’t think God ever had a purpose in Dad starting a new church here in Shelbyville but it took Dad a few months to figure that out. The Lord had His own plan and purpose and He wasn’t going to let us drift very far from it.

(To be continued next issue - how God resolved the church situation.)

“Pages” continued from Page 3

May we sacrifice to give hope to the world. While we are always asking the Lord to increase our production, we have set a goal at BLMF

to gain 200 new supporting churches by our 50th anniversary in 2018. Because we travel as a family to present this great ministry, our personal goal as a family is to be responsible for 50 of those new supporting churches this year. Will you help us? If you lived the life of someone on the foreign mission field, what would you pay for a little hope? What price would be too much to be able to help your family and secure their eternities in Heaven? No price would be too high. Yet, we can change their lives, their homes, and their communities for such a small price. Your $65 monthly support would allow us to purchase a 1,000 lb. roll of paper annually to print 500 Bibles that will be sent to these souls praying for hope. Please consider touching the whole world with the same Truth we were blessed to receive.

We’ve all had our prayer failures in the past due to the “asking amiss problem” but the most incomprehensible and inexcusable failure of all is the “I just didn’t care about it enough to pray” failure! Reading and studying our Bible is God speaking to us, and the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman is when we are speaking to our Heavenly Father. When you talk to Him today would you please put a good word in for this ministry thanking him for his blessings and provisions of the past while asking him for his protection, leadership and provisions for this year? Our emphasis for this ministry this year is on prayer! In I Sam. 12:23 Samuel said “…God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you…” Please join us this year in claiming I John 5:14 & 15, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him.”

We know that he hears us when we pray and we know that what we are asking is according to His will. Please join us in prayer this year asking God to open the windows of heaven upon this ministry enabling us to meet and supply all of the requests that we currently have and will receive for Bibles and Scriptures, asking Him for a real Jeremiah 33:3 experience in 2017!

“Lord, I’m” continued from page 2

AttentionPastors, Missionaries &

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Please give us an opportunity to quoteyour next printing project!

“ye have been ordained...”

What a special service we had on February 4th at our church as I was ordained as a preacher of the Gospel. The ordination board was made up of many pastors whom I respect and love. I have been preaching for ten years now, and was humbled to be ordained by such great men of God. “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;” (1 Tim. 1:12). My motto is, “Have Bible - Will Travel,” and I am genuinely thankful for each opportunity the Lord provides to preach His Holy Word!

Shannon Lemmon