Discovering Jesus: Stories of His life, His teachings and His first followers is a new resource produced by the South pacific Division’s (SPD) Discipleship Ministries Team (DMT) to meet the desperate need for more Bibles in the Pacific Islands.
Partnering with Signs Publishing and Tyndale Publishing, who licensed Signs the New Living Translation for the booklets, the resource contains the books of Mark, John and Acts.
Thanks to funding approved by the SPD last financial year, 250,000 copies of Discovering Jesus have been printed to be distributed in time for Papua New Guinea for Christ in May, but more Bibles are always needed.
The need is due to an explosive growth in Adventism across the Pacific, combined with the fact that Bibles in the Pacific cost, on average, more than one week’s income.
“I was liaising with missions on allocations for World Changer Bibles in 2019 on behalf of the youth department and saw the distress at the inadequate number of Bibles across the Pacific Islands, and the desperate need,” said SPD DMT stewardship specialist Christina Hawkins.
Arising out of a shared vision between Mrs Hawkins, SPD DMT and Sabbath school specialist Dr Leigh Rice, Signs Publishing book editor Nathan Brown and retired pastor and renowned author Dr Peter Roennfeldt, the team hopes the resource will also be used as a Discovery Bible Reading (DBR) resource.
In addition to Discovering Jesus, Dr Roennfeldt’s new manual and conversation guide entitled Cultivating Movements has been published and will be sent out, along with its accompanying book Following the Apostles Vision, to pastors trained in DBR.
In addition to Papua New Guinea for Christ and DBR groups, Discovering Jesus is intended for tourism evangelism in the Cook Islands and Fiji, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries (ATSIM) in Australia, and in Western Australia for reaching Muslims.
“The resource is equally suited to the Pacific Islands and postmodern Australia and New Zealand,” explained Mrs Hawkins.
Currently, the training and resources are producing promising results.
