By Dr Matthew Elliott, President of Oasis International

I recently got back from about three weeks in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and South Africa, where we witnessed the urgent need for Bibles in Africa. In Zimbabwe, only about 25% of the 12 million Christians have access to a Bible. In Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria, with 70 million church members, has an equally urgent need for Bibles and has committed to providing the Africa Study Bible to their pastors as their next major project. The first phase involves supplying 185,000 Bibles, which is close to a $3 million project. Given Nigeria’s current economic crisis, a project requiring this amount of financial resources will be exceedingly challenging, but it has the potential to make a huge impact as pastors are equipped to teach and preach according to their local context.

Pastors training with La Bible d’étude: perspectives or BEPA (Africa Study Bible French edition)

It is encouraging to see multiple other mega-projects, that aim to get Bibles to where they’re needed most, in their final stages. However, almost every single one has faced significant delays and complications, including our partners experiencing unexpected deaths and staffing changes. More and more, I have been asking myself, “I can see one or two being delayed, but all? This must be spiritual warfare. Our enemy does not want God’s Word in the hands of God’s people.” 

Will you pray for God’s specific provision, that these transformational projects would be brought to completion? I’ve listed some of these opportunities by name below:

  • 185,000 Africa Study Bibles for the Christian Association of Nigeria
  • 14,000 La Bible d’étude: perspectives africaines or BEPAs for French Africa Study Bible Partnership
  • 50,000 New Living Translation: Africa Edition Bibles for Christian schools in Africa
  • 60,000 New Living Translation: Africa Edition Text Bibles for evangelism outreach
  • 15,000 assorted Bibles for an East Africa Bible agency
  • 30,000 – 50,000 Bibles for students with a child sponsorship agency
  • 50,000 New Living Translation: Africa Edition Bibles for students in Kenya public schools as official textbook
  • 100,000 New Living Translation: Africa Edition Bibles for students in Nigerian public schools as an official textbook (there are about 24 million students in Bible classes 6-12 grade in public schools in Kenya and Nigeria)
Children in Northern Uganda receive their first Bibles through LMIY (#letmeintroduceyou), an evangelism and discipleship ministry

I have three closing thoughts.

First, if we begin producing and distributing Bibles for at least 50% of these projects, it could be a great start to what we have been working and praying for over the past few years!

Second, each of these orders is not just a hopeful idea. Our team has been diligently cultivating these relationships for years. Some have official letters of intent, others are follow-up orders agreed upon verbally, and all but a couple have verbal confirmation that the order will be placed.

Finally, I love that each project is planned, led, and driven by Africans to meet the needs in their own communities. There are no large US ministries planning these projects from home offices. Although this approach takes longer, is more difficult to finalize, and is harder to fund, it’s the right way forward. This is Oasis’s vision at work – Africans discipling and working to provide Bibles for their own communities. This is really exciting!

Pray with me, and together we can rejoice in all God does in this next season.

Dr Elliott’s passion to help leaders in Africa develop and access ministry tools, with content addressing needs in their contexts, has driven him to lead Oasis International for over two decades. Click here to learn more about Dr Elliott.

Learn more about the work of Oasis and how you can support discipleship through publishing African voices, here.

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