Heartland's Bible Conference gave the members of HBF a chance to again put their hand to the task of assembling whole Bibles for missionaries around the world and for our own ministries locally. The goal this year was to produce 5,000 Bibles to send to East Africa; 1,000 bibles to send to Jamaica, and 500 bibles for use locally. Additionally the upcoming Burnt District Festival outreach will need at least 3,000 John and Romans booklets to share with the community on October 6 and 7.
This also was a great chance to put into action the Horizon HT70 trimmer that was donated to the ministry earlier this year. The Word First Bible Publishing Team spend the summer cleaning the trimmer up and learning how to both operate and maintain it. While there were a few ripples in the process, the trimmer produced outstanding finished bibles that were boxed and then shipped.
The church body worked at rapid pace all week getting the materials moved around the church from collating through rolling and checking and into the binder room in such record time that the pastoral team was able to find a way to add another project to the week. In the aftermath of hurricane Irma, Flordia churches had a need for John and Romans they could use to share the gospel with. Missionary Miles Wallis from Reeds Springs drove into the night on Tuesday to be able to set up an assembly process to assemble 14,500 John and Romans in about 9 hours. It truly was a sight to watch the material being handled rapidly but with love and concern for the person that would recieve it.
Our nightly preaching was from Brett Bartlett pastor of Wyldewood Baptist church in Michigan. Pastor Brett's motivating and challenging messages stirred the hearts of everyone there. He even was able to send the last of the 6,500 bibles through the binder as the work progressed.
Please pray for the bibles as they make their way to Milford Ohio where they will join another 5,000 and then be shipped on to Africa. The bibles for Jamaica will be sent next spring to our partner there Bob Westin who loves God's word and loves God's plan to reach the lost.
If you were not able to actively participate in the production, you can still help by giving to support the cost of the assembly project and by praying dilegently for the word to work in the hearts of men and women around the world.