Publishing Ministry
It did not take long for us to learn that a significant struggle for the local church in Bolivia was in the securing of quality printed materials to use in their ministries. The few trusted options that are available here are often too expensive for the church to purchase. We knew God had prepared us to help meet this need since we had already taken advantage of the privilege of being part of the printing/publishing ministry of our home church. We gained some experience and the desire to begin that same type of ministry here in Bolivia.
We started small by printing right from our home office printer. However, the need is so great that after a couple of years, and 2-3 printers later, we began outsourcing some of the work to local printers. We have also been able to enter a whole different realm of provision by having scriptures come to us in quantities of hundreds of thousands via 20–40-foot shipping containers.
“And the gospel must first be published among all nations.”
With these 3 different facets of the printing/publishing ministry, (at home printing, outsourced printing and shipped in printed materials) we have been able to provide scripture portions and many other printed materials, to several other South American countries - Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina. Scriptures have been supplied to churches, schools, police departments, prisons, and into the streets of our communities and beyond.
We believe it is important to equip the churches with the materials they need to reach and teach their people. Beyond the printing and dispersing of the scripture portions, this also includes graphic design work and printing of materials like signs and tracts, Sunday School curriculum, hymnals and more. As an example of the impact that the printing ministry has on the local church here, we have been able to supply several churches with full sets of Sunday School material, so that if a child were to start attending Sunday School classes at 6 years old, they would be 23 years old before they ever repeated a lesson.
Of course, this printing ministry, which we are privileged to continue, could not have been established without the continuing help and support from our home church and other generous stateside printing ministries. What more important gift could we give than God's Holy Word?
