“The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.” – Psalm 68:11

With great joy, First Bible Church has had the privilege of helping to publish (finance, print and ship) the newly translated Cebuano Bible. This twenty year project, by God’s grace, reached a milestone this month (December, 2010). The containers are on their way to the Philippines! Praise the Lord!

Earlier this month, 20 tons of scriptures (2,000 hard-bound copies of the Cebuano/English Bible and 350,000 copies of Cebuano John/Romans) were printed and shipped by Bearing Precious Seed from Milford, Ohio.

On Friday, December 10th, a 40ft container loaded with another 21 tons of God’s Word (almost 9,000 Cebuano Bibles printed by BEAMS, 18,000 Cebuano New Testament signatures printed by Gleanings for Christ, 18,000 full color covers for the NT printed here at the FBC print shop, Cebuano discipleship lessons, three skids of blank paper for the F.R.E.E. printing ministry in Iligan - along with 1,000 pounds of steel shelving) was shipped from our dock here in Staten Island. The vessel is scheduled to arrive in Cagayan De Oro on January, 22, 2011. In February, pastors throughout Mindanao and the Visayas will be meeting in different places beginning in Cebu and Bohol, to thank and praise God for what He has provided and to take home to their churches the precious Word of God!

We are so happy and grateful to God to have been a small part of this. We give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was his grace and provision that made it possible to pay for the printing and shipping (almost $100,000) and it was God who moved in the hearts of many good men and printing ministries to help us. We are thankful to the families of First Bible Church whose financial sacrifices and enthusiasm for this endeavor was a huge encouragement to their pastor. We are thankful to the churches that allowed us an opportunity to tell them about it and who gave sacrificially to see it finished. And we thank God for the faithful brethren in the Philippines, Pastor Ruben Sulapas and the other translators and workers at F.R.E.E., who nurtured the Cebuano translation along from its birth twenty years ago. Only Heaven will tell the true worth of these dear men. We count ourselves blessed to be their friends and co-labourers. And for the people of the Philippines, especially our brothers and sisters in Mindanao, whom we love in the Lord: we pray that God will bless these scriptures to your homes and churches and magnify His Son through you. “…that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” – 1Peter 4:11b

Yours, in Christ,
Pastor Mike Veach