The Bible is full of marvelous examples of God moving for the sake of his people, and yet we are remarkably resistant to the idea that God would move on our behalf. My cultural upbringing has embedded the idea that with effort, I can accomplish much. I think that is why I resisted so long God’s call to place one million Bibles in such a short period of time. I was processing from my ability, not Gods.
To this day, I find it a challenge to simply rest in the capacity of God to accomplish this vision. I can rest, but I find I must give back daily to God the enormity of this task. For a ministry to grow four times its size in the span of two years is not possible for me. Let’s face it. Culture or not, we’re just regular folks. And yet I am comforted as I watch God moving now to build this ministry in ways I could not dream of.
It is just mid-March. We set an $800,000 budget this year to place 140,000 Bibles. In 2024, we placed 36,500 Bibles on just over $200,000. Ten weeks into the year we either have or know where roughly HALF of this year’s budget is coming from. While I am just finishing preparations to start a fund-raising campaign in April, God has already been fund raising.
Consider the Malawi Discipleship Project. We just became aware of this marvelous existing ministry last year. In February, IBG was asked to take on administering the donor base so they could be receipted for charitable gifts. This is not how I planned to grow, but it brings many benefits to all. The ministry comes with a donor base that already supplies about 6000 Chichewa Bibles each year. It provides IBG with a major ministry partner in a region of the world where we support many small ministries, potentially strengthening our ability to support all of them. And IBG can provide more cost-effective sources for Bibles, potentially doubling the number of Bibles for the same investment. I never conceived of growth this way, but God did.
We just printed a new 13-page brochure for high-capacity donors. The board has brainstormed a list of over 30 such donors to invite into Bible giving. Now, I am prepared to receive a lot of “no” answers and perhaps get no answers at all, but, we need to raise $8M to meet this crazy vision, so we’d best get busy. Yet it strikes me, even as I continue to prepare, God is already at work. Each month, there are new donors showing up from states far away. I have no idea how they are finding us! One donor found us using AI. Others find us on the internet. But we are a small drop in the sea of the internet, and our website is 12 years old – it is in desperate need of an update. Despite this, new donors large and small are already coming.
Our preparations include a new website, which we hope to launch within weeks. Some evening in early April, we will switch off the old site and turn on the new one. It will remain at www.internationalbiblegivers.org. Even as I work on this new site, I am reminded about how God is moving in powerful ways. We have prayed for ministry connections to local church- planting and Gospel sharing ministries where the Gospel was scarce, and God has given us incredibly fruitful connections in every area of focus. I feel like he has given us his best. It is truly humbling. There is a part of me that will keep powering ahead to the best of our collective ability to fulfil this vision, yet there is a part of me that wants to pop a bowl of popcorn and just watch God move. Take time to praise God for His action to build this ministry.
Give Hope! Give Life! Give Bibles!
Chuck Hayes