Hungarian Fire Bibles

About 9 months ago I was finalizing my schedule to be flying with other network pastors to Hungary to distribute the new Fire Bibles this week! In an ironic way, it’s working out in light of the delay which came because of the global pandemic. All production came to a screeching halt about 4 months ago, and our anticipation of distributing the Fire Bibles in Budapest was put on hold for a season. I still have the dates blocked off on my calendar; my ultimate goal is to copy and paste it somewhere into my 2021 happenings. Here’s a little more background on these Bibles. They are being printed in South Korea, and the paper comes from another location in the Far East, either Japan or China. This area of the world was hard hit by COVID-19 early on so all production and supplies were put on hold. This specific translation journey launched over 4 years ago. In 2018, Jeff Dove came to Ironwood, Michigan for a “Light for the Lost” banquet, sharing with us the pressing need for Bible translations all over the globe. At that time, he mentioned one of the upcoming projects which had already started, the Hungarian Fire Bible. Dan Remus, our Network representative, challenged me and our church to raise funds to help provide for translation, production, shipping, and distribution. Sitting in my office and seeing the big tent up outside full of various treasures inspires me, knowing three days from now(today) we’ll be reporting on the amount we raised for Fire Bibles. There’s been so much work put into preparing for the TUTBOT, I can’t begin to thank all those who have spent countless hours sorting, pricing, helping set up the tent, getting the items out for viewing, SO MANY PEOPLE, but one for sure is Jean La Violette. Thank you so much for your leadership during this outreach. I am torn with the idea of the rummage sale, not because we don’t raise a decent amount of money, but because of all the time and effort it takes. I wondered, in future years, if it would be better for 30 families from our church to each give $75, and use the tent for a special concert or something less time-consuming? On Thursday we had so many people visit the tent who would not come here if not for the rummage sale. Consider all the people who come up here and we have the opportunity to meet. They learn a little about who we are as a church and understand why we go through all this effort. People can truly see our passion for souls, and if they return on a Sunday, they will see our passion for proclaiming the Word of God. Bibles are offered for free to people who need one during our TUTBOT. On Thursday alone, I had many opportunities to meet people and share the love of Christ with them. So, as long as our congregation does not become exasperated with the time and effort it takes, I think we should continue this outreach. Hopefully, people who come rummaging will throw in an extra $5, $10, or $20 once they know how much a new Bible costs. Currently, with translation and production, it’s about $45 per Fire Bible to launch the first printing, sometimes called the first edition. After that, the price goes dramatically down because it’s now purely a production cost. All of us should be motivated by the words found in Amos 8:11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”