Argentina (MNN) – For the last thirty years, God has been working through a team of people to reach the nation of Argentina with the Gospel.
Helen Williams of World Missionary Press says their ministry “has been producing Scripture booklets for about 56-57 years. And, about 30 of those, we’ve been providing those to a ministry in Argentina.”
They’ve had the same pastor as a contact throughout all of these years. This ministry has used the booklets for evangelism, discipleship, and planting churches.
Recently, Williams received a report from their contact that shared with them how God has been working through the ministry all these years.
“They’ve probably seen 600,000 people come to the Lord, and probably 50-70% of those have come through the literature, the World Missionary Press Literature.”
There are two stories he shared with World Missionary Press that exemplify how God’s plan and timing are perfect.
Hospital ministry
“He told us about a lady that was a visitor to hospitals. That was her ministry—she would go in and visit the patients. And, every week, she visited about two hospitals and used the World Missionary Press Literature. And a number of people received Christ through that, and he said over the years, up into the thousands.”
(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)
However, despite her fervent ministry, this woman’s husband and son were not believers. She gave her husband a copy of “The Way to God” booklet and asked him to read it. He took the booklet and brought it to work each day out of respect for her request. But for some time, he didn’t read it.
But then, Williams says, “Moved by curiosity, he began to read. And as it would be, the Spirit moved and he went to his wife and he said ‘I’ve read this little booklet and I want to go to church with you.’ So he went to church with her, made a public decision to receive Christ in his heart.”
From that day forward, he spent 10 years in ministry with his wife. More recently, he shared a booklet with a dying woman. He visited her the following day, and the woman told him he’d come just in time. She asked him to pray with her because she wanted to commit her life to Christ. Later that day, she died.
Reaching out to the indigenous Argentinians
While World Missionary Press mostly produces Scripture booklets, they do a limited production of New Testaments, as well. This is because in some parts of the world, Bibles are either not easily accessible, or they are not attainable for the people.
Their ministry contact in Argentina has been using Spanish New Testaments to reach the indigenous people in Argentina.
“They’ve been reaching out to the aborigines. And they’ve been very active there. And there are about 20,000 people they’ve been working with that have come to Christ out of that group.”
(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)
One time, their contact was at a seminar to teach about 200 of the leaders from these communities. A married couple approached them. They had embraced the Gospel years before because of the booklet, “The Way to God” that the pastor had given them. After they committed their lives to Christ, the pastor gave them a Bible course and Spanish New Testament.
After all these years, the husband had a request. Williams says, “The man said, ‘I want you to see that my wife and I, we could use one more New Testament.’”
The director agreed, but then he saw the New Testament they had received years earlier. It was worn out. The couple had been using this one copy for their personal Bible study as well as Bible teaching and evangelism. So, the pastor gave them enough New Testaments for their congregants as well as an additional copy for themselves.
Small investment, rich return
The booklets produced by World Missionary Press cost about $.04-.05 to print. The New Testaments are only $.80. But what seems like such a small investment for us has such a rich return. Williams puts it this way: “One item like that, the Lord can use it and use it and use it in his time.”
These stories, she continues, are a wonderful example of that: “It’s just another testimony to the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word. This is one country and we have material in 210 islands and countries around the world. And who knows what’s sitting in a drawer or sitting in someone’s pocket, or just waiting for the Lord’s timing and to do the work?”
A 40-foot container filled with about 2 million pieces of literature from World Missionary Press just recently arrived in Argentina—but their contact is asking for more. He’s increasing his outreach into Paraguay and Bolivia. He wants to increase the material he hands out by 30%.
Stay tuned—we’ll be sharing a bit more about what it means to trust God in ministry.
