YOU ARE INVITED!
He said, “Hurry! Go into the streets and alleys of the town. Bring me the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… The master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and the country roads. Tell the people there to come. I want my house to be full!’” Luke 14:21,23 ERV
- The table is set.
- The food is hot.
- The time has come.
- All that’s needed are the guests.
The Master wants His servants to extend the invitation to fill His tables.
Across the world, God’s servants, working through Bible League and generous donors like you, invited some 2.8 million people last year to the Lord’s banquet. For context, that’s about the population of Chicago.
In Burundi, a small country in East Africa, the Master’s servants have brought a staggering number of guests to the Father’s feast!
- Since 2022, the ministry has grown 30%, serving 28,000 people last year.
- Bible League has reached more than 22,000 each year in that country, that’s an average of 70 people per day over those three years.
Genard, provides a great example of a Master’s servant, using the Bibles and training you provided.
Genard is a vibrant young man with clear eyes, straight white teeth, smooth skin, and thick black hair. When he speaks, the red-bricked and tin-roofed huts echo his perfectly rhythmic, pure, and full voice. As with many men in their 20s, he chooses active words like: “help,” “thank,” “pray,” “study,” “apply,” and “live.” Neither Burundi’s steep mountains, thick foliage, nor sweltering heat are enough to hinder his purposeful strides across the dry, rust-colored streets. It’s not hard to imagine that when Genard speaks the Gospel, the listener is eased, relaxed, and inspired to move.
Much like Moses when God called him, Genard was originally reluctant. “I didn’t want to do ministry because I had little knowledge about ministry,” he says.
What Genard did have was the voice required to proclaim a message and a heart for the Gospel. A lack of knowledge is far easier to address than an unwilling heart. Genard, a lifelong Christian, already believed “that Jesus’ blood has forgiven us.” The more he prayed, the more he felt prompted to learn how to share the Gospel. There are few places easily accessible to learn, but by God’s grace, there were Bible League-trained teachers available to teach and walk with Genard.
Genard enrolled in Bible League’s discipleship and evangelism training. This training helps new leaders see, connect, and develop relationships with others around them. The leaders then invite these new friends to participate in a Bible study. These trainings equip new leaders like Genard with the Bibles and Bible study materials needed for evangelism. There is no cost to participate—donations/gifts from people like you provide everything needed for these trainings.
Genard saw an opportunity in Burundi’s public schools to actively encourage teaching the Gospel. Wasting no time, Genard began teaching in several local schools. One of the school’s students is Vadeste, a reserved 15-year-old with the frame of a much younger boy (Burundi’s recent civil war caused poverty and malnutrition throughout the region). Genard shared God’s famous invitation, “For God so loved the world, that he sent his only son…” Vadeste accepted those words and testified, “Because Jesus died for me, I decided to obey Him.”
How? By taking Proverbs 14:12 to heart: “There is a way that people think is right, but it leads only to death” (ERV).
This verse, he says, helps him understand to “not follow deceivers.” Of his personal character, he says, “I could lie and insult others, but now I no longer lie or insult.” God touched the heart of another teen in the same school, 15-year-old Irankunda. After hearing the Gospel, she can now recite its essence. She says, “God paid the price for our sins because Jesus died on the cross.” She adds, “We are created in God’s image, I no longer cheat on exams.” She wants others to know of the Gospel, too. She advises her friends “to read the Bible and know God’s will.” These Bibles come because of your prayers and gifts.
The more time Genard spent watching teenagers like Vadeste and Irankunda grow in their faith, the more he came to realize there was much more work to be done—more than he could do by himself.
He asked himself: “What about their parents? What about those who don’t have children in school?”
He was already spread too thin. He needed help. Back to Bible League for further training.
This time, his training was on training others to build those relationships. He says, “I wanted to be a trainer because there was a need to know God in churches as well as the schools.”
With the help of those he has trained, Genard believes he has been able to reach over 10,000 people in the past two years with the Word of God. According to young Genard, “Almost 100 leaders in different local churches” are using Bible League’s Bible studies to share the Gospel. He knows, too, that there’s more work to be done. With a vast majority of people living under the poverty line (less than $1.90/day), hundreds of thousands can’t afford Bibles, and even more need Jesus in their hearts.
Genard is one of the thousands of volunteers around the world who carry out Bible League’s ministry. Each one gives sacrificially of their time and limited resources to see the Gospel brought to the nations.
God’s servants come in all sizes and areas of the world.
In Bangladesh, Bimal and other volunteers are on their way to reaching 100,000 a year, read here.
Together, volunteers in Burundi, Bangladesh, and Chile served over 192,000 people last year.
Genard speaks for all of us at Bible League: “May God bless you and multiply blessings on you.” With you, God’s kingdom comes!
