International (MNN) — It is Bibles For The World’s 60th anniversary! Through the inception of their ministry, they’ve seen just how powerful the Word of God is and they plan on continuing to celebrate it for the next 60 years.
A Seed of Transformation
“The Gospel came to our people in the year 1910 through a single copy of the Gospel of John. It was sent to the chiefs of each of the villages in our area and our people at that time were known as the fiercest headhunters in the world,” Bibles For The World’s John Pudaite says.
One of the copies of John was sent to Pudaite’s grandfather.
A missionary from Wales had sent the copies and they were printed in a neighboring language.
However, the villagers couldn’t read it and didn’t understand the meaning of the Gospel. They sent a message to the missionary, asking him to return to their village and explain the meaning behind it.
“The missionary came following that despite the British authorities denying him permission to come there and he brought the Gospel. He came and spent five days in my grandfather’s village,” Pudaite says.
“During that short time, the Holy Spirit spoke through him and he was able to explain the message of Jesus Christ, the message of salvation, [and] Jesus Christ as the boundary sacrifice between God and man. And, five young men gave their hearts to Christ and my Grandfather was one of them.”
After learning about the Truth and believing in Christ, the villagers asked the missionary to return.
(Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World via Facebook)
Though he promised to come back, Pudaite says the British fort had been angry with him for going to the villages without their permission. They forced him out of the district, the state, and eventually out of India.
“But the seed of the Gospel had been planted among our people and those early Christians started to share it from hut to hut, from village to village.”
In a matter of 30 years, the Word of God had reached all the villages in that area and even neighboring tribes and people groups.
With a single book of the Bible, the people evangelized and preached to their neighbors. A transformation took root in their hearts and others’.
The Birth of Bibles For The World
“This is the roots of our work, of our ministry,” Pudaite says. “My own father, he was dedicated to translate the Bible into our own language and that lead him on an amazing journey out of our remote, jungle hills, that little village out to schools, different parts of India, eventually to Scotland, and then to the USA.”
When Pudaite’s father was in school in the United States, he founded Bibles For The World.
Over the past 60 years, the ministry has celebrated the transforming powers of the Gospel. They share the Word of God with unreached people groups all over the world in their native languages. They partner with ministries in order to see even more people reached with the Truth. And, they continue searching for strategic opportunities to share the Good News.
Celebrate with Bibles For The World in their 60th year of ministry and their next 60 years of ministry.
Join them in spreading the Truth by financially partnering with them.
(Header photo courtesy of Aaron Burden on Unsplash)
