Bibles For Asia- Bible League

How fun we get to fan the flames for Bibles for Asia. We don't often realize the kind of sacrifice they're having to make in order to continue being Christians.

Sometimes as Christians we look the other way and we say God will look after them. We can fan the flames for Bibles for Asia. Five dollars sends a Bible or a hundred sends twenty.

Go to truthnetwork.com and click on the fan the flames Bibles for Asia. Hi, I'm Joanne Vickner, Memaw with It's Storytime Memaw. An answered prayer for stories that point children to God on the Truth Network for Kids. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. Oh, how fun today on Kingdom Pursuits. We're hoping you will help us fan the flame.

Bibles for Asia with the Bible League today. We've got Michael Woolworth with us and Michael, always a joy to have on. You have so many amazing stories on how God is really fanning the flame through his word, right? Well, that's how you do it, Robbie. We don't want to confuse this with what I did this week.

Robbie, I'm in the Chicago area. Weather's gotten warm. I opened the grill for the first time and basically torched our dinner that night. So, you know, I had to put that fire out. But no, this is how you keep Christianity going, right?

By God's grace and helping to fan that flame. Whenever there's opportunities to see the gospel go forth anywhere, that's an opportunity for you and I to kind of follow a call of action. Robbie, you've been a great friend of Bible League. Youth listeners, you've been incredibly kind to us. Every time that we've come and we've done kingdom work, you have hit it out of the park and we're simply asking, will you do it again this time on behalf of believers in Asia? Robbie, this is a great part of the world.

God is doing some amazing things here and it's a joy to spend this hour with you and your listeners and just fill them in on what he's doing. Oh, absolutely. In Asia, wow, there's more people there, right?

And so when the flame starts, boy, it burns quickly, doesn't it? Yeah, you know, this is the most populated region of the world. More than half of the world's population lives here. China used to be the most populated country. You know, India has now taken over that role with China's restricted family policy. That means that India is the most populated country in the world.

But Robbie, let me tell you what's happening here. Not much, except this is where Christianity is growing fastest in the world. Number three is a region of Latin America. Number two is the continent of Africa. And number one is the region of Asia. Think about China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam. We'll talk about other countries as we go along today. This is where it's happening and that is very remarkable.

Why? Because if you think about the storied history in recent decades in this part of the world, the Vietnam War, Pol Pot's regime, you know, many of the people that he killed in the 1970s were Evangelical Christians. The Chinese Cultural Revolution, where family turned upon family. If you had family members that were Evangelical Christians, you turned them in, right? Even in India right now, within the walls of India, there are anti-conversion laws, meaning you could be jailed just for telling people what Jesus means to you. And so the fact that Christianity has really taken off in the last 50, 60 years is absolutely remarkable. And so, here's the problem we're tackling today.

At Bible League, now in our 85th year of ministry, we have estimated that as many as 9 of 10 new believers have no access to the Bible. Here's the easy way to figure this out, right? So if you're driving, don't do this. But hold up both hands, right? You've probably got 10 fingers in the air now.

Put down a thumb, right? So 9 of 10 believers, members of our spiritual family, go without what's so elementary here in America, and that's access to a Bible, right? But we're going to do something about it today, and Robby, again, you can do that at $5 of Bibles. We go along, we'll give our toll-free number and TruthNetwork.com so that your listeners can get involved with this today. Yeah, and it's at KingdomPursuits.com because, again, we are talking about fanning the flame, right? Just think what one Bible had done in your life.

Just one, $5, right? You can imagine what it's going to do where the fires, you know, as one coal gets closer to another coal and the next thing you know, wow, what a chance we have. And I love the, always love the idea of you see what God's doing and get in on it, right? Then here's our chance to get in on it, you know. And, you know, I can't help but, you know, just make a small comment that I don't imagine anybody's done this with your last name before, but Michael doesn't want to nickel and dime you over the fact that he's a Woolworth.

He wants $5 so that he could, you know, so you could get a Bible. But anyway, you know I'm going to have to do this. It's, you know, my shenanigans. So speaking of flames, and I have, you know, since you were talking about your grill, I've got a few fire jokes for you. So, yes, speaking of flames, it actually was my best friend's birthday, you know.

So Christian, I got him a fire extinguisher and used it on his candles, on his cake, as you might imagine. You know what his reaction was guys? No. What was it?

He was absolutely delighted. Yeah, there you go. And I don't know if you've ever thought about, you know, Ham and Noah standing next to each other. They're doing the first burnt offering, right? Yeah. Right after the flood, you know, there's not a whole lot of animals and they're going to burn some of them? Okay. So they're burning this animal and what do you think Ham turns to Noah and says?

What did he say, Robbie? Holy smokes. That's a good one.

It makes sense, right? And, you know, the other day when Michael was doing his torching in his backyard, I accidentally dropped my 70s record in the fire. You know those 70s 45s that we used to have? Oh, yeah. You know what that resulted in?

I don't know. Come on now, you know this. Do you know a Richard?

Richard know it. Oh, a disco inferno. Disco inferno. Oh, God. Disco inferno. All right. Yeah.

And one of my personal favorites, you've probably met somebody with this. There's a movie by the name of it, but you know the name of the lady who burns all her bills. She just throws them right in the fire. I have no idea.

You know, the power bills, you know, the mortgage, all that stuff, the burner bills. Her name is Bernadette. Bernadette. Bernadette.

I love Bernadette. And, you know, if you wake up in the fireplace tomorrow morning or if you've been known to do this over the years, what might people tell you about your sleeping habits if you wake up in the fireplace? Here's your brain, guys. This is answerable.

You look ashy. Oh, you sleep like a log. Oh, wow. And you knew at the end of all those actual shenanigans that we would have a riddle for you to call in and win today.

And then, you know, how fun. This is a different number we're going to have a call in and win, which is 866-348-7884. All you have to do is tell us which fire calling down prophet, which fire calling down prophet belongs in the Bible. And since we're talking about Bible flames, right, what fire calling down prophet belongs in the Bible, Hall of Flames. I wonder, wonder, wonder, 866-348-7884, which fire calling down prophet belongs in the Bible, Hall of Flames. If you can answer that, Christian, tell them what they'll win. They're going to win one of our fabulous prizes from the Kingdom Pursuits Prize Vault. There you go.

All you got to do is call in at 866-348-7884. Tell us which fire calling down prophet belongs in the Bible, Hall of Flames. How easy. I would love to talk to you. But in the meanwhile, I love the stories. I love the stories of how, you know, God has used, you know, these investments that all of us, you know, that listening, a lot of our listeners have invested in the Bible League and the Truth Network's partnership with you guys every year. And so, you know, it's springtime when the kings go out to war.

Do you know that? That's what it says to King David, you know, in the spring, the kings go out to war. So as we come out to war, right, what are we going to use?

A sword. And we can get one for these guys for just $5. What? A hundred buys 20, right? It sure does.

Yeah. And so what are some of the stories, Michael? Yeah, you know, $5 sends a Bible. And we've said together as two ministries, Rob, and again, you've been a great friend of Bible League. You know, you're serious about the gospel, but I'm glad that you can have a little fun with it, right, with your, you know, those great dad and pun jokes. In fact, a little bit later, I'm going to tell you, I had a phone call with one of your listeners, and she shared with me a little joke.

She listens to you regularly, so evidently she's picking up on all that fun that you put forth, but yeah. Hey, listen, we're focused right now on Asia. Why? Because we're in a world where Christianity is growing fast as it's happening here, Robbie, and yet we know that as many as 9 of 10 believers have no access to the Bible. So this hour, let's share some stories and give your listeners the chance to get involved by fanning the flame and sending Bibles to Asia.

Right. And that number, if you've been waiting, is 1-800-YES-WORD, or 800-937-9673, 800-937-9673. We'll be right back with more Bibles for Asia. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom, and today we certainly all have a passion for what God's doing in Asia, specifically fanning the flame with Bibles for Asia today with the Bible League and my friend Michael Woolworth. And wow, right?

There's so much that our listeners would love to hear about. Well, let me take you to the country of India here in just a second. You know, if you follow Barna Research, they will tell us that church growth in America is somewhat stunted, almost on the decline, Robbie, so that does cause you to look elsewhere in the world and see where is it growing?

It's places like Latin America, the continent of Africa, and the region of Asia. This is number one, but as many as 9 of 10 believers have no access to the Bible, so we're doing something about it. In fact, Truth Network and Bible League, we said, you know what? By the time we observe the somber holiday of Memorial Day and throw some brats on the grill, hopefully not torch them like I did the other night, we'd love to be able to say 3,000 Bibleist believers in places like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, other places we'll talk about as we go along today. Hey, those Bibles you're praying for? They're on their way.

They're on their way at $5 a Bible. Let me tell you about Shanti Vardan. The story is this. Born outside of New Delhi, blind at birth, lost his father at age 10, Robbie. He and his mother lived in extreme poverty.

Have you ever seen some pictures or video of extreme abject poverty in India? It's absolutely true. That was his story because of all of that despair. He wanted to end his life only a few years ago, but his godly mother prayed for his salvation. He came to saving faith.

That was about three or four years ago. We were able to give him a Bible from Bible League, an audio Bible, an audio Bible in this case, so Robbie, he could listen to that any time he wanted. He heard the precious promises of God, and he said, you know what? God's given me something special. I've never seen anything in my life, but I think I've seen God.

He says, you know what? If God didn't afflict me with his blindness, I would be a pagan. I wouldn't be a born-again believer. Robbie, to date, as he has ministered to other blind people there in India, those that are physically and developmentally disabled, and just people in his neighborhood that share in that extreme poverty, 192 people have come to Christ. I think it was only a few years ago this man wanted to end his life, and now he is pointing people to the bread of life. This is why Christianity, I believe, is growing fastest in the region of Asia.

It's through people like Shanti Vardan. Today, his prayer, Robbie, as we spend the hour together and point people to what's happening in Asia, is for about 200 Bibles. He's not asking for the miraculous, right, that he would have his sight, but he's praying for 192 Bibles right now.

It's all part of the bigger picture. 3,000 Bibles by the time we hit Memorial Day weekend, we'd love to be able to say to those 3,000 Bibleist believers in the region of Asia, hey, your Bibles, they're coming. They're on their way. Yeah, wouldn't that be amazing?

Or will that? I'm convinced it probably will be amazing because, I mean, when we think about, you know, how important to you is your Bible, right? Like, you know, can you imagine having to, I don't even know what they do to share the Bible, but I know that, I remember I did an interview with Transworld Radio one time about a guy that had no Bible and clearly didn't have any discipleship, and so what had happened to him is, you know, they were being persecuted in a house church, and the communists came in, and they all scattered, took off running, and this guy fell down a well as he was running, and on his way down the well, somehow or another, the rope that was in the well wrapped around his leg, and he just hung there.

Of course, the communists went running by. They didn't see him because he'd fallen down the well, thank goodness, so he didn't get captured that way, but now he's hanging upside down in this well, right? And he starts praying that somebody would save him, and lo and behold, within about, you know, 15, 20 minutes, somebody comes by and fishes him out of the well. Well, he decides, of course, he doesn't have a Bible to understand that prayer doesn't require hanging upside down, so he starts, because there's no discipleship, he starts the church of the upside down prayer, and so they create this building where they all hang upside down every Sunday morning, right? Because they think that this is what it requires. Well, when there's nowhere to God to go by, right?

Then people can get all sorts of erroneous stuff going on and all sorts of legalism and all sorts of things that write the Bibles there to give them a true line in order to find their way. And again, we've got an opportunity right now to help with that. I mean, what a cool thing someday into heaven we'll be able to see these people. Again, five dollars buys one Bible, a hundred dollars buys 20, and all you have to do is, of course, go to kingdompresuits.com, and you'll see the Fan the Flame banner, or you can see it at truthnetwork.com, or you can just dial 1-800-YES-WORD, or 1-800-937-9673, 1-800-937-9673, and you can get the whole process started. And so, Michael, you've been doing this a while.

Yeah, you know what? I have a great gig, Robbie. You know, Bible league sends me all over the world. Here are people that fund those trips where I can go and meet with our end users. Those are those pastors, those evangelists, lay people, men and women, who are on the front lines of gospel work. And we do this in six regions of the world.

We do a little bit in Latin America and the Middle East, Europe, on the continent of Africa, the region of Asia, a little bit in America, but again, it's mainly around the world. And Robbie, I come back. People ask me, okay, Woolworth, what do you personally get out of this? And I say, you know what? There is not a day that I don't come back and open my Bible and thank God that I have His Word in my own language at a level I can understand, right? I mean, I think about, gosh, the last few years with COVID, you know, to know that 1 Peter writes, you know, Castor cares on him, for he cares for you.

And my mother graduated to heaven last June. You know, I remember Jesus in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you, right? I mean, the comfort that has come from being able to open our Bibles every single day, here in America, gosh, you probably have, what, 10, 15, 20 Bibles in your home.

Now it's just staring at you on your phone, right? And so, what's so elementary to us in the Christian faith here in America is so hard to find in a place like Asia. So we're doing something about it. Again, we have said by Memorial Day, we'd love to put the Bible into the hands and hearts of about 3,000 Bibleist believers. Robbie, people ask me, how do you do it for $5 a Bible? Well, gone are the days where you print a Bible here in America, sticking on a ship, right, gets there in six months, right? As we meet financial goals, we're able to say, look, fire up the presses. We say this to printers all around the world who print Bibles where it's safe to do so.

And we say, hey, we've met this need. We need 50,000 Mandarin language Bibles for the country of China. We need Vietnamese Bibles. We need Hindi Bibles in the country of India.

So that's how we do it right now. And we never go into a village and willy-nilly say, hey, Bibles, anyone? All of the Christians that we're talking about right now, we know by name. We know where they're located. They've come to saving faith through a Bible study from Bible League.

It's eight to 12 weeks in length. And it asks questions like, how is Jesus both God and man? What's it mean to diet itself? What's it mean to put on Jesus? So when Jesus says, if you want to be great in this kingdom, you learn to serve. And so somebody has invited this person to come learn about Jesus. And then as they come to saving faith, they're connected to a local evangelical church.

It's under resource. That doesn't mean they lack zeal for God or love for others. Probably it means that God has them positioned where it's a little more difficult to live out your Christian faith. And so we promise them at the end of that study a Bible in their own language at a level they can understand. And listeners, that's what you're doing today is helping us make good on that promise to put a Bible into the hands and hearts of these new believers who are praying for a Bible. And the story I just mentioned of Shanti Vardan, here's a young man who had his audio Bible.

He would gather people to go through this Bible study. And again, a lot of these people are leaving all the isms of Asia. What is that? Well, it's Hinduism. It's Confucianism. Taoism. Islam. All those isms, right?

And so a lot of what they know about Christianity, you know, about hanging upside down to pray. Robbie, right? Yes. It's a caricature. It's incomplete.

It's untrue. And so when you can open up your own Bible, you begin to learn about Jesus, the great lover of your soul. And so listeners, you have been incredibly kind.

We've worked together for many years. Robbie, you and I have had a chance to hop on this wonderful show, Kingdom Pursuits, and just share the tremendous need that's in that part of the world. Why is that? Because the move of the gospel means what? It means that there's revival breaking out. People are not keeping Jesus to themselves. They're sharing him with others. And then there's these spiritual awakenings.

People are coming to know the God who loves them. And Robbie, always a joy to be with you today to share these stories. Got a lot more coming up on the other side of the break. But listeners, don't barely say today that's an interesting story from India or several that we'll share on the other side of the break.

Say, you know what? I'm going to get involved today. I know it's still tax season. Inflation's still up.

But do something about it. You can do that today at only $5 a Bible. So I find it, like, mind-blowing that God orchestrated, right?

You guys have all these resources in all these different countries. How did that get started, really, that they started doing these Bible studies through these churches that you guys were affiliated? How did that grow like that? Well, you know what?

Our origin came on Good Friday, 1938, to Chicago area. Our founder was on his deathbed. Robbie, an elder of his church, came and said, God, would you restore his health when that happens? Would you give him the ministry? They had no idea what the ministry looked like. He was all about that health returning. When it happened, there was this deep burden to engage people, the Word of God.

So in the Chicago area, they began knocking on doors. You got a Bible in the home? No? Okay, if we gave you one, would you read it?

Yes. Here is a Bible. And on that premise, Bible League was birthed 85 years ago. And we've expanded globally.

We did that many, many decades ago. And Robbie, we worked through the under-resourced church. As I say, they lacked nothing on the ground materially. They might lack a lot materially, but I can tell you spiritually, they have got it all. A great love for God, a great love for others, a zeal to share Christ with others. And again, the under-resourced church means they may not worship in a big bricks and mortar structure like you and I do at the corner of First and Main Streets.

And they may not have a coffee bar in the back. You know, they may have to worship in a house church that's unregistered with the government, let's say, in the country of China, one of the countries we're focused on right now. But all that to say, they're no less of a church. These are members of our spiritual family. And that's how we do this. Again, God leads the way. We've been uniquely positioned, just like that evangelist, Philip Anaxes, right? Oh, yeah. And you think about all these, they're still knocking on doors, right?

But they may be knocking on tents or they're knocking on whatever, but they're making relationships with people and sharing Christ and sharing the way to follow Him through His Word. It's amazing. So again, I love, love, love having the Bible League on. We've got another couple of segments to go, so stay tuned with Michael. You're going to get more stories. It's wonderful.

Stay tuned. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom. And today, how fun.

We've got Michael Woolworth with us with the Bible League. And I don't know if all of you heard the same break that I did, because I know sometimes that's different. But Adrian Rogers was talking about Charles Lindbergh getting ice on his wings and pulling up on the stick and flying up into the sunlight, which I thought was, of course, Adrian Rogers can tell a story like nobody.

But the way that they'd said that was with the Word of God, right? And so how many times in your own life were you in the fog, man? I know it was probably this morning.

Yeah, I was early. I was in the fog, right? But man, as you begin to read the Word, it pulls your head up, you know, out of the clouds. It burns off that fog.

It burns off that ice. And you can begin to sense his presence and his sunshine smile. And wow, what an opportunity to put that in the hands of somebody that we don't even know.

Like, man, $5. You know, it's just an opportunity or $50 or whatever, whatever God puts on your heart. It's as simple as going to KingdomPursuits.com or TruthNetwork.com and hitting the fan the flames button or dial on 800-937-9673. Again, you know, see where God's working and get in on it. These people are knocking on doors in Asia. They're knocking on tents or whatever they're doing and they're reaching out and they're promising these people a Bible. And thank you to the, what was the man that was the founder's name in Chicago? Bill Chapman, William and Betty Chapman, yeah, here in the Chicago area, 1938, Good Friday. Here we are 85 years later.

And Robbie, you know what, we could not do this without listeners like yours. I mean, that's the bottom line. I think the Chapman's always envisioned there'd be caring groups of people that would say, okay, I have a glimpse now of what God's doing in Asia. I mean, frankly, I don't wake up Monday morning and think about, you know, the Philippines or Vietnam or Sri Lanka, but God hasn't forgotten. You know, He's redeeming the world. Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw the nations to myself. Hey, if I may real quick, we're already a few hundred Bibles toward this goal of 3,000.

That's how good listeners to Truth Network are. I had a little downtime this week. I picked up the phone. I called John and Gail.

They're in somewhere in North Carolina, right? God's country there. And I said, Gail, thank you for your gift. Why'd you give? She said, well, first of all, Michael, she said, I normally listen to Robbie and Kingdom Pursuit. I said, well, I'm going to be on there on Saturday. She said, first a joke, then I'll answer your question. She said, who was the most business-savvy woman in the Bible?

I said, oh boy, I don't know. She said, Pharaoh's daughter, right? She went down to the bank of the Nile and pulled out a little profit.

I said, I bet Robbie Billmore has shared that, hasn't he? She said, yeah. Anyway, I thanked her for her gift. But you know what she said, Robbie? She said, you know what my husband John and I said?

If we were the ones in those stories, Michael, when you're on Truth Network, you know, a couple times a year, you know, it dawned on us, what if we were the ones in those stories? She said, we would pray that someone, anyone, would, you know, bring us a Bible. She said, if you know, if it was a neighbor of ours or, you know, an adult child or somebody that we, you know, went to high school with 50 years ago, said, hey, I'm a new believer, I need a Bible. She said, we'd do anything, anything to get them the Word of God, and we have this opportunity right now.

So Robbie, that's who your listeners are. We're so grateful for every gift. We know that people are sacrificing in their budgets, right? If it's still tax season and inflation is at an all-time high, you know, that means you're sacrificing somewhere in your budget to see that Christians half a world away will have a Bible in their own language. And that's what we're doing today.

It's kingdom work on kingdom pursuits. Yeah, I'm always just, you know, so honored that we have so many listeners that just dearly, dearly, dearly love the Word of God, and they're in it all the time. And so, you know, it's kind of like God's audience, right? Because, you know, they're tuned in to WGOD. And so, you know, that's when you read his Word, you actually are able to dial your radio for the first time, you know, you're just able to, able to tune in.

And so I think, you know, what an amazing thing it is. I don't think I've ever told this story on this show, but I'm going to tell it. So when I was actually in the fourth grade for the first time, I did it a couple of times. I was given, we went to a congregational church. I was not a believer by any means. And we didn't go to many churches when I was a child, but we did go to this church in Naperville, Illinois, and they handed me a Bible, which I had no concept what it was, but it was beautiful.

And it had red around the edge, and I still have that Bible. As a matter of fact, you know, I moved over, I think, 38 times in the 34 first years of my life. And so I threw out most anything that I had from my childhood and all those different moves because I was in the car business.

So we just moved all the time. But you know what you can't throw out? Even if you're a complete heathen car salesman, you can't throw out a Bible. It's impossible. So I never threw out that Bible.

It's got red around the edge. And then one day I was trying to sell more cars. That was my idea. And I picked up this book by, or it was actually a tape set by Norman Vincent Peale. It's called The Power of Positive Thinking. And I spent $100 for this wonderful tape set from him. And the very first thing he said, I'll never forget, he said, well, if you want a positive mental attitude, the first thing you need to do is get up an hour earlier every morning and read the Bible and pray that God will show you what it actually means.

Well, that sounded crazy to me, but I just spent $100 on this tape set. So I, you know, I said, I have a Bible. I didn't have anything else from my childhood from Naperville, Illinois, I can assure you, but I still have that Bible. And so I began to read the Word of God and it was canonized.

You know, that means that there was a cannonball that was headed for my head. And actually I was saved by reading the Bible. I read the book of Job and it confused me so much that I went out and bought a commentary.

I can't imagine a car salesman going by in a commentary, but I did just so that I could try to understand what in the world this was saying. But when I came to the conclusion that God had a really high standard, I didn't mean it and I was in big trouble. And praise God, I got to the New Testament, I understood Jesus and I found out how I too could be a son of the King. And that happened for me through a Bible that was given to me, you know, when I was in school that I never could throw out. That's why for me personally, like man, to give that life that was given to me to someone else, like man, because those things, they are in fact a sword and they can pierce people's souls. They will. I mean His Word doesn't go back void, right Michael? You know, we've got that etched in the front of our building here in the Chicago area, right?

That particular scripture, Isaiah 53, 55, my word will go forth, it will not return void. You know, that happened in the country of the Philippines before the break. Robbie, let me just share a quick story about a woman by the name of Betty. What was her story? She was forced into prostitution by the drug cartel.

I'll keep this PG-rated, right? But the story is this, she lived in utter hopelessness just outside of Manila, the Philippines. There's this infamous trash heap there. It's a mountain, it's a community. Families live around this thing. Kids rummage in this, they find hypodermic needles, they find corpses.

It gives us this tremendous stench. Anybody who knows anything about Manila knows what I'm talking about right now. That's where Betty's domain was. And I can tell you, she lived in utter hopelessness.

She had forced abortion, she had very poor health. Very, very sad story until a former prostitute, somebody who received a Bible in a previous Bible league campaign, rescued her, brought her to a place of safety, shared her faith with her, introduced her to Jesus. Betty came to know the great lover of her soul, of which you know. She said, now that I'm a child of the heavenly, I've got to do something with this.

And Robbie, she would, you talk about a kingdom pursuit, right? She would go to a hundred families in that area and invite them to come learn about Jesus through these weekly Bible studies I mentioned earlier in the hour. And one by one, those families would come to Christ. Today there's a hundred families just outside of Manila near this trash mountain who've come to Christ. They're members of our spiritual family. I wasn't there to collect this audio cut, and I wish I could play this for you this morning, but about 50 of those women that were rescued along with Betty's, about a hundred in total, but 50 of these women gathered in the English language to sing till the whole world knows. And Robbie, they were saved. We're new creations in Christ.

We were in distress. God has saved us, and now they're growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. That's what God is doing right now in Asia, and we get to be a part of it. Ah, so amazing. Again, all you got to do is go to Kingdom Pursuits and click on the Fan the Flame button or TruthNetwork.com or dial 1-800-YES-WORD. We'll be right back with one more segment of Yes Word.

You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom. And, wow, I know that for most of our listeners, the Bible is definitely their passion and so what an opportunity we have to share that with Michael Woolworth and the Bible League as we are Fanning the Flame Bibles for Asia today. And, you know, your chance to get involved with what God's doing all over Asia in places that, honestly, that's one part of the world I have never visited or had much connection with.

But I do know that, right, I mean, like you talked about, it's the largest population in the world. And the great news is it really is a flame right now as God is really coming for those people groups. Well, Robbie, you've been a great friend of Bible League.

Listeners, you've been incredibly kind to us over the years. We're focused right now on Asia. Why? This is where Christianity is growing fastest in the world. More than half of the world's population lives here, but as many as 9 of 10 new believers have no access to the Bible. I mentioned this earlier. Now, don't do this if you're driving, but hold up both hands, right? You've got 10 figures.

You put down a thumb. What is that? Well, it's 9 of 10 believers, right, helps you understand. That's a significant portion of the evangelical Christian who lives out their Christian faith on the day-to-day without what is so elementary to the Christian faith.

What is that? It's a Bible in your own language. At a level you can understand. Robbie, we're about 20% of the way to this goal that we've set for ourselves to bless 3,000 Bible-less believers. By the time we observe the somber holiday of Memorial Day, right, we're throwing brats and dogs on, we want to also be able to say to believers around the world in the region of Asia, hey, those Bibles you're praying for, they're coming. They're on their way.

And you know, you probably picked up pretty quickly. This is our 85th year of ministry. God has his position in some of the more difficult parts of the world. You think about Shanti var and the abject poverty of India where you can be thrown in jail right now. If you tell somebody what Jesus means and you try to appoint them to Christ, there's a price for that right now, right?

You think about Betty being forced into human trafficking along with many, many other women there, but they've been rescued. God's doing amazing things. He's doing it through some of the most unassuming people, if you will, Robbie, and to think that we can step into their stories today at 800-yes-word. 800-y-e-s-w-o-r-d. Just click the Bible league banner either at kingdompersuits.com or truthnetwork.com. Hey, I thought I'd kind of wrap up our final segment together, just mentioning some names of Christians in Asia right now who are praying for a Bible.

If I can do that, Robbie, let me start with Dhillon of the Philippines. He's in his 30s. He's a former Buddhist, a brand new Christian this year. He's praying for a Bible.

Robbie's in Sri Lanka. He's in his 50s, lost 20 family members to the country's civil war that happened not too long ago. He's a new believer praying for a Bible. Daiku is in China, a former atheist shunned by his family. When he came to Christ, more than anything, he's praying for a Bible. Einar is in Thailand. She's a widowed mother of three, lives just north of Bangkok, wants to raise her three children to know and love Jesus.

She's praying for a Bible. And then Ming is in Cambodia. He is a former Buddhist. He denied Christ for 67 years of his life and actually attacked Christians. He hated Christianity, but one of those believers that he attacked turned the other cheek, if you will, led him to Jesus, and now at 65 years of age, Ming in Cambodia is a born-again believer.

He's praying for a Bible as he's just recently begun his walk with Jesus. Robbie, I mentioned earlier, I had a quick call with John and Gail, North Carolina, listeners of yours. They love the joke.

She was able to pair one of those back to me on that call. But, you know, your listeners get this. They understand. How would you live out your Christian faith? How would you read about Jesus, the great lover of your soul, if you didn't have a Bible? And so we're focused right now on Asia. I can tell you, I know it's a tough time to give. Inflation, tax season's kind of still upon us here. And so if you're sacrificing to send Bibles half a world away, you're giving up something in your budget.

I don't know if that's a Friday night piece or what that looks like for you. But thank you for every single gift. We're praying expectantly that we will hit this goal together of about 3,000 Bibleist believers being able to get a Bible in their own language this year, Robbie. Yeah, what a neat opportunity, really, whether it's five or 10 or 15 or 20 or like 100, like it says. You know, there's just an opportunity to make a real impact with whatever God puts on your heart. And it is really, really easy, as we talked about.

You can go to truthnetwork.com, or you can go to kingdompersuits.com, hit Fan the Flames, or dial that number 1-800-YES-WORD. If you're good like that, I'm not. I would rather hear 1-800-937-9673 because, you know, I'm not that good with the numbers and the letters. But nonetheless, you know, it is an opportunity as spring comes along in so many different ways. These new believers are coming to life, and boy, they need food, you know? They need good food, and they couldn't get better food than to have their own Bible. And you don't think once they have that brand new Bible in their hands, like, oh, my goodness, right? In their own language. You know, that's the amazing thing, that you get them printed in their own language, and you get them shipped, and you get them in the person's hands. It's really all around amazing, you know?

Well, you know, every story I've shared today, I wish we had more time together. It all started with one Bible, right? It began with somebody who could share what was in that Bible, and one God willing to bring people from the grips of spiritual darkness. Robby, I've been all over Asia, just got back from Malaysia, but I can tell you, Revelation 13 comes to mind. The kingdoms of this world, they're becoming the kingdom of our Lord, and you get to be a part of that with every call and with every click. Robby, what a joy to be with you today, brother.

Oh, absolutely, Michael. Again, you go to kingdompersuits.com or thetruthnetwork.com, and there is a listener calling in that may have the answer, and it was Elijah, and we're going to give them the prize just because they called in, so we're grateful for that. And we thank you for listening. You got so much truth coming at you, right? You got the encouraging prayer followed by masculine journey. So much truth coming at you. We're so grateful for your listening today. Thank you. This is the Truth Network.