I have been living in a ministry tension ever since we started praying 2 years ago for a fresh vision for IBG. Our vision to double our domestic Bible giving ministry and to place another million Bibles into 7 regions of the world by 2032 isn’t my vision. As I prayed during 2024, this is what God kept bringing me back to. So, I am very comfortable telling you this is truly God’s vision for IBG, because I would not be so crazy to cast a vision this huge on my own.
If it truly is God’s vision, then we need to trust that he will provide. When I look back on these first 9 months of new vision, we can see God’s hand in a big way. Not only did he provide MORE than we asked for in funding, He has also continued to provide the people we need to build global relationships in these 7 regions. IBG is on a pace to give over 80,000 Bibles, New Testaments and Gospels of John in 2025. That is more than double the amount we have given out in any previous year. Praise God!
But here is the “tension” or weight that I feel. I have the western values of hard work, of time is money. I connect with the Nike slogan of “Just Do It”. I am biased to working from my own strength rather than truly rely on God. When I look ahead to 2026, IBG’s resources, which nearly doubled this year, must double again to stay on track with our vision. There’s no way I can “just do it”. There is no way you can “just do it”. Yet God can do it! But that’s the ministry tension I unload every day. Consider this:
While we have placed a lot more scripture this year than any other year, the needs are still much greater than we are supplying. We’ve placed over 1500 Urdu Bibles this year into Pakistan, but our ministry partner has requests totaling over 99,500 Urdu Bibles, and at this moment, we have no available international funds to supply more Urdu Bibles right now. When processing this from my own strength, the weight of the need – the weight of the opportunity – is a crushing weight. I simply cannot “just do it”. But God….
If I look to Thailand where we are providing 15,000 Thai New Testaments, we need to supply 15,000 more to just catch up on their backlog of new believers from a year ago. In India, we’ve provided 4904 full Hindi Bibles and yet our ministry partner desires to place 400,000 Hindi Bibles by 2030. We have a new Africa Director you can meet at our October Bible Gathering, and we have huge opportunities there, but we need funds for Africa. Our ministry partners in Ethiopia will receive 2000 Oromo Bibles from IBG in 2025. They need 40,000. It’s a crushing weight when I approach it from my own strength. But God…
I share this to prompt you to pray. What is Mission Impossible from my strength is Mission Possible for God. Pray that God would continue to provide for IBG and that I would not lead from my own strength. Pray for the financial resources – $800K in 2026, for another International Director, and for the relationships to place 1 million Bibles into hard places.
The Holy Spirit powerfully dwells within us. Invite the Holy Spirit to take this load and direct our steps. We have many stories of changed lives. If God has given you financial resources that you can be generous, let me boldly invite you to invest richly in providing the resources to place more Bibles. The year-end giving season is coming up quickly and we need to raise $85,000 in the last 3 months of 2025 to stay on track. My prayer is that God would provide richly from the generous hearts of His people.
Give Hope. Give Life. Give Bibles!
CJH