Volume 14, Issue 1, Spring 2009
Doing the Will of God from the Heart
Who will replace the Owens?
Over twenty years ago the Lord brought Bob and Georgia Owen to EBI at a crucial time in the growth of the ministry. They brought with them not only years of experience in publications but also their servants’ hearts and a love for people, qualities that endeared them to the local church community and made them a valuable part of EBI.
While Georgia worked with some of the financial aspects of EBI, Bob took us into the computer age. This wasn’t an easy job because in our computer program there were no fonts that handled Spanish characters. So, Bob spent many hours designing an entire family of fonts with all of the accents, special letters and punctuations that were needed. Every letter in every font size, that needed one of those special characters, had to be “invented” and assigned to keystrokes on the computer.
Under Bob’s ministry the production department of EBI experienced advancement in technology, never quite cutting edge, but always adequate for our need and always an affordable step forward. He made sure of that by searching through warehouses and by checking with ministries and businesses to find the best printing equipment for the lowest prices. Here again his missionary heart was on display. The Owens had purchased a pickup truck, and their truck was EBI’s if ever there was a need. To save us the price of having that equipment packed and shipped, Bob would make trips to bring our purchases or gifts home. On several occasions their little truck came back overloaded on trips of over a thousand miles, but never once did we hear him complain.
Along with his servant’s heart Bob also had the soul of a mechanic. We are convinced that Bob could repair or assemble any printing press that was on the market without a manual of any kind. If any of our equipment did not perform the way that we expected, Bob would take a look at it, go to the hardware store, come back and invent whatever was needed to make it do what we wanted. Almost every piece of equipment at EBI today has one of Bob’s inventions attached to it.
The writer of Hebrews in the eleventh chapter, after talking about many heroes of the faith, realizes that he could have gone on for much longer but simply says this in verse 32. “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak…” Well time and space prohibits us from telling what Bob and Georgia have done with the local church in evangelizing, discipling, teaching, encouraging and much more.
We at EBI were fortunate that the Lord saw fit to bring them our way. They have now retired and we are sure that you will understand, they will be missed.
Encouraging Testimony
Gary and Penny Whipple (BMM church planting missionaries), who help distribute our materials in Peru, attended our EBI board meeting in January. They were enthusiastic about the materials we offer. When asked what was needed most in their country, they shared with us the Hispanic focus on children. They suggested we look into producing materials for very young children, as well as developing curriculum for daily vacation Bible school. They have seen this as a great need in their church. These needs have also been mentioned by other of our customers. Pray with us that we might soon be able to address these needs – asking the Lord to provide us with addtional staff gifted in this area. Praise: The Whipples would like to start distributing our materials in other South American countries.
New Web Site
EBI exists for the purpose of equipping the Hispanic Church with the literature resources necessary to fulfill the Great Commission. It is our mandate to provide these resources via a medium and in a format that meets current ministry expectations. Recent statistics show that almost 25% of the Latin American population uses the Internet and that online users have grown more than 650% in the last eight years. This means an increased Internet presence. In response EBI has been in contact with a Christian Web designer with strong ties to both the Hispanic world and Baptist missions. His plan for the Website development will cost $5,850.
This is a significant amount of money for a ministry our size, nevertheless we believe that this change is essential for present and future ministry. It will allow for a greater description of EBI’s literature and it will make it easier to purchase these materials in an international market. In short, this upgrade will strategically position EBI for effective ministry in the technologically-escalating world of Latin America.
Do you want to help?
If you or your church is interested in helping us with this project please specify your gift for EBIWebsite Design. Thank you in advance for your participation.
EBI Sunday School Lessons in Nicaragua
In January missionary to Mexico, Rick Shields, participated in a Nicaraguan Bible conference where he delivered a packet of EBI Sunday School materials to each of the sixty pastors present. The packet consisted of one teacher’s manual and five sets of student’s lessons for all three of the educational levels that EBI offers at present.
Missionary Shields states that over 2,000 people attended the conference. He also reported that the pastors were ecstatic and extremely grateful for the books which they received. He has been invited to a similar conference in Honduras during the month of September in which we hope to supply similar materials to over 120 national Baptist pastors.
Pray for:
1. Health needs of both Joan Stephens and Gary Sammons.
2. Additional staff needs: a General Director and more general Staff: Spanish speaking editors and public relations people; graphic artists and those that are adept in literature development and leadership training.
3. Progress toward finishing the new Sunday School lessons for Primary age children.
4. The development of new Theological Curriculum materials. The following courses are currently being written: Doctrine I, Doctrine III, Doctrine IV and Family.
5. The outreach that the Staff of EBI can have, in the Lord’s “harvest” in Hispanic mission fields, through our publications.