Judith and The Fire Bible

Judith and the Fire Bible

By Dr. Dave Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

Judith* was an avowed atheist and worked for a printing company that printed literature parroting this worldview. After a number of years, Judith’s printing press was sold to a new Christian publisher in the same town. In her country, the law required the Christian publisher to employ all of the employees of the press that they had purchased, so Judith the atheist began publishing Christian literature. She apparently didn’t mind. After all, a job was a job!

One day she was asked to proofread a new of the Fire Bible, also known as the Full Life Study Bible (www.biblealliance.org), in her own language that her company was printing under contract with LIFE Publishers (www.lifepublishers.org), the publishing arm of Assemblies of God World Missions. To do this job correctly, Judith had to read the Bible that she had been taught to despise! While she was carefully checking the grammar, punctuation and spelling, the Holy Spirit began to move in her heart, revealing God’s truth through the written Word and exposing the lies of atheism. She was convicted of her sin, acknowledged Jesus Christ as her new Lord and her life was radically transformed.

After completing the Russian Fire Bible, Judith’s company was asked to print other editions of the same study Bible in other languages. Since she couldn’t read these other languages, she became responsible for quality control, making sure that the pages were printed correctly and other jobs that did not actually require needing to read the text.

As she grew her faith, she grew in her passion to publish the Word of God. Today, Judith oversees the entire printing operation and has printed thousands and thousands of copies of the Fire Bible in the various languages of the world. The most recent edition she printed was 10,000 copies in Cebuano, one of the major languages in the Philippines.

This Bible was translated from the original English into Cebuano right here in the Philippines in a partnership between LIFE Publishers, which has now printed over 7 million copies of this Bible in 38 languages, the Assemblies of God missionaries in the Philippines (Dave was the managing editor for the project) and the Philippine Bible Society (www.bible.org.ph), who did the actual translation. They have been faithfully translating and printing the Word of God in this country for 113 years! LIFE put it in layout form in the United States and was printed and bound by Judith’s company and shipped to the Philippines.

This Bible will be used by our pastors and church members for the glory of God to grow in their faith and deepen the quality of their ministries throughout the Cebuano speaking region of the Philippines in anticipation of a greater harvest. We are believing that, because of this Bible, tens of thousands of lives, like Judith’s will be transformed by the power of God.

Thanks, Judith!

Thanks, LIFE Publishers!

Thanks, Philippine Bible Society!

And, especially, thank you Jesus!

*Not her real name

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation. For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “join this site.”

Copyright 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

An Appeal For Partners

Dave and Debbie Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionaries to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

 (616) 558-1889

August 18, 2011

Dear Friends,   

For many years now Debbie and I have been serving with the Assemblies of God World Missions in the Philippines.  For some time now, we have been home itinerating and plan to return to the Philippines in late September 2011.  Our vision is to share the gospel with all of the four to five million Filipinos in the Bicol region of the Philippines where we live and plant a church within walking distance of every one of them. Raising up and training Filipinos to accomplish this vision is at the core of our strategy. For more information on our ministry, please visit http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.  Among other things, you can download a copy of our latest ministry video and get a copy of our bio-data.

Our vision is two pronged.

First, direct evangelism.  Over the last 17 years we have conducted approximately 700 evangelistic crusades in conjunction with local churches.  Many new churches have been planted and others have seen increased attendance at either church services or Bible studies.  We conduct about 45-50 outreaches every year, each crusade lasting three nights.  Except for Debbie and me, all members of the team are Filipinos, as are all of the pastors with whom we work. While the Filipino churches do partner with us in sharing the expenses of this ministry by shouldering the expenses over the dollar figure given above, the nature of this type of work is finance intensive and more help is needed.

Second, in 2007 God gave Debbie a vision to plant house churches.  Working hand-in-hand with Filipino church leaders in our region and one other missionary couple from another organization, three house church planting schools were started and about 12 house churches were started.  Today, this movement has grown to include 15 house church planting schools and at least 191 house churches have been started.  The possibilities for expansion are almost limitless.  God’s blessing on this effort is obvious, and we are anxious to see this movement grow. We foresee the need for expanding the level of training and are excited about participating in it.    

I am writing today to ask for your help.  First, your prayers.  I have taken the liberty to add your name to our email list, which we use for sending out prayer requests.  If you do not wish to receive it, please let me know.  Second, we also send prayer requests over Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and you can easily find me there. 

Second, we need financial support.  Our deadline is August 31, 2011.  Here are the details of what we still need:

Monthly Support Still Needed:  $801.32

Cash Still Needed:

General Cash Budget: Completed!

Evangelistic Crusades: $28,000.00

House Church Planting:  $5,000.00                  

Cash Reserve Fund: $8,011.00            

If you can commit to monthly support, you can download a pledge for from our website, http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/, fill it out, and follow the instructions given for sending it in.  Your CASH offerings can be sent to AGWM

1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO, 65802

, designated for Dave and Debbie Johnson, Philippines, acct 2256006, or you can donate online at http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call on my cellphone at (616) 558-1889.

Thanks considering partnering with us,

Dave and Debbie Johnson