Paths v6n2 2017 spring by MK Designs

News & Views from Walk Thru the Bible

Serving Special Needs in North America Sowing Seeds of Growth in Bangladesh Weekly Devotionals for Spring

Spring 2017

Walk Thru the Bible 5550 Triangle Parkway, Suite 250 Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 www.walkthru.org Volume 6, Number 2 Spring 2017 Published quarterly President Phil Tuttle Vice President of Advancement Michael Gunnin Editor Ashley Mosteller Designer Michael Koiner Contributors Emily Tuttle

Walk Thru the Bible ignites passion for God’s Word through innovative live events, inspirational biblical resources, and lasting global impact.

© 2017 by Walk Thru the Bible® Ministries, Inc. Contents may not be reproduced in any form unless authorized in writing by the publisher. Printed in the U.S.A. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 2011 by Biblica. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ne of the things I love most about God is the way He communicates with each of us as individuals. He understands how we think and learn, and He meets us where we are. In this issue of Pathways, you’ll read about a class of special needs adults who have struggled in the past to understand the Bible because they learn differently from most of the people around them. Amazingly, God is using Walk Thru the Bible’s unique way of teaching to reach them. Where traditional resources prove inadequate, years of learning the Bible with hand signs are leaving a lasting impression on hearts and minds. In a small classroom in a large Baptist church in North Carolina, God is at work. Just as God speaks to people with special needs in a way that will move them, He speaks to persecuted Christians in Bangladesh right where they are. As you’ll read in our donor profile later in the issue, He also speaks to well-fed American believers who are still hungry for more of Him. I pray that as you read the stories, profiles, and devotionals we’ve included in Pathways, you will invite God to meet you where you are this year. I pray that you receive encouragement from the ways that God is using Walk Thru the Bible all over the world—from vulnerable new Christians in Bangladesh to Christians in our own cities and neighborhoods. Thank you for your faithful support as we undertake the work God has prepared for us in 2017.

Phil Tuttle President

If you are not currently receiving Pathways and would like to, email pathways@walkthru.org or use the attached envelope to let us know.

SPRING 2017

VOL. 6

NO. 2

FEATURES

6 Serving Special Needs in North America

Walk Thru the Bible Rises to the Challenge For many adults with special needs, kinetic learning succeeds where traditional learning fails. In a Sunday school class in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Walk Thru the Bible has transformed the way that adults with special needs experience God and understand His Word.

Fertile Ground

Sowing Seeds of Growth in Bangladesh Bangladeshi Christians form a small but growing religious minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim society. As they confront societal pressure and growing danger from radical Islam, Walk Thru the Bible comes alongside them to help them grow in their faith.

Devotionals 22 T P P he

ower of

rayer

Weekly readings excerpted from indeed magazine

DEPARTMENTS Regional News Highlights from around the world

Country Profile

Step Into the Story

Leader Profile

Donor Profile

Bangladesh

How Josiah’s Story Illuminates the Path to True Cultural Impact Ready for Anything Balázs Kovács, Country Director for Hungary Going Deeper Rob & Susan Turner

Regional News North America > Walk Thru the Bible President Phil Tuttle just finished filming a DVD series called Revolution: How Millennials Can Change the World. This new installment in our Biblical Character Series studies the life of Josiah. To learn more about Revolution, go to

teaching opportunities in this school.

Europe > Under the leadership of Regional Director Beni Lup, Walk Thru the Bible launched God’s Grand Story in Serbia. For six weeks, our innovative campaign

Teaching with Style and 7 Laws of the Learner and trained 53 pastors and church leaders from the gypsy community in Romania. We’re also thankful for the 40 survivors of human trafficking who are using Walk Thru the Bible resources in their healing process. Pray that God would use these resources to restore and disciple them.

Asia >

page 27. Mark Schaaf, a Walk Thru the Bible instructor in the U.S., had the opportunity to teach a portion of Walk Thru the Old Testament to 300 sixth-graders at a public school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Learning 18 hand signs in an hour kept the students fully engaged, and their teachers were impressed by Walk Thru the Bible’s unique method of teaching. Pray that God opens the door to further

immersed 53 Serbian churches in the big picture of the Bible. At the same time, Beni’s team engaged 86 public school principals with

Phil and Ellen Tuttle traveled to Hyderabad, India, to teach and encourage Walk Thru the Bible’s 30 South Asian leaders at their annual training conference. Praise God for giving these faithful leaders and their wives a time of rest and discipleship. Alongside Sathyabal, Walk Thru the Bible’s South Asia director, Phil and Ellen taught about the importance of building marriages and ministry on a solid biblical foundation. They’re grateful to partners like you for providing the funds to make this conference a fruitful and transformative experience.

Australia > Walk Thru the Bible’s leader in Australia, Al Watson, taught eight Walk Thru the Old Testament live events in churches that had never heard of Walk Thru the Bible. He and his wife, Judy, logged 5000 miles traveling around Australia to visit these churches. Al also requests prayer for more opportunities to teach Walk Thru the Bible events and resources in schools. As more independent Christian schools emerge in Australia, the opportunities to provide them with quality instruction and resources abound.

Africa > New Fire for Christ, an evangelistic ministry in Webuya, Kenya, has used Walk Thru the Bible resources to great effect in schools, universities, and youth events. Rev. Evans Ulwami, a leader in the ministry, says that “many lives of young people across Western Kenya have been saved and transformed through the Walk through the Bible lessons. In December 2016 we managed to reach 4,000 children and youth in various churches and communities. More than 2,500 prayed to receive Jesus Christ. Pray for us as we continue to reach and disciple these children.”

Latin America >

Middle East >

Last November Phil Tuttle visited Honduras to launch Chosen, Walk Thru the Bible’s study on the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. One month later, two Walk Thru the Bible instructors named Nora and Celia entered an overcrowded women’s prison outside the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa to teach Chosen to a group of prisoners. The session made a deep personal impact on the women present, and 20 prisoners committed their lives to Christ. Pray that God will continue to use Chosen to draw people in Honduras to Himself.

At the Cairo International Book Fair in late January, Walk Thru the Bible worked through the Middle East Leadership Training Institute (MELTI) to sell biblical resources. Pray that God will use these resources to transform the lives of those who purchased them. .

Serving Special Needs in North America Walk Thru the Bible Rises to the Challenge

Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina 6

“

Woman at the well!” Logan shouts as he leaps out of his seat to mimic the motion of hoisting a bucket out of a deep well. Seated in a semicircle around him, the other members of his adult Sunday school class smile at the familiar routine. Gradually their attention returns to their teacher Robby, who moves animatedly from side to side as he conducts a chorus of hand motions and carefully ordered catchphrases. On Logan’s left, Leigh’s smile lingers as she curves her pointer finger down around her upper lip to represent the “sad” in “Sadducees.” Motion by motion, phrase by phrase, they recall the stories of the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation. Robby, his wife Tammy, and their co-teachers at Calvary Baptist Church have spent years helping their students learn the stories of the Bible through motion. They take Walk Thru the Bible’s innovative live event format, which uses hand signs to impart a big-picture understanding of the Bible, and break it down into manageable pieces for their students to assemble. It takes the class two Sundays to add

Deena (right) and her mother, Edith, look through family photo albums. 8

a new hand sign to their repertoire and two years to learn the signs for each testament. Progress is gradual but steady. Week after week, their hands weave the Bible’s people, places, and themes into a cohesive narrative. Many exceed their Christian family members in their understanding of the Bible, despite the fact that they face far greater challenges. Each one of them has autism, Down syndrome, or another special need that presents unique obstacles to understanding and communicating biblical truth. Robby has taught the church’s special needs class with his wife for 17 years, but he once considered himself an unlikely candidate for the role. He had spent very little time with people with special needs before Tammy urged him to become involved. The first Sunday he entered the classroom, he recounts, he encountered a group with a wide range of ability. Some students punched the air and made noises throughout the class, unable to speak. With others, it only became apparent that they fell somewhere on the autism spectrum

when he engaged them in conversation. “I went in there that first Sunday and thought, honestly, I don’t know that I can do this,” Robby recounts. Nevertheless, the radio show host felt that God had called him to use his communications skills in this ministry. For a decade, he persevered and developed a close bond with his students as they grew and matured. Still, he and his fellow teachers felt an acute sense of frustration at the difficulty of helping their students retain Bible knowledge. “We didn’t really feel like we had any place that we really made progress,” he remembers. When Robby would quiz students about concepts they had learned six months prior, “they would look at me with a blank look on their face.” Six years ago, one of his co-teachers decided to try Walk Thru the Bible’s method of teaching. Robby realized right away that they had stumbled upon something special. Looking back over the past six years, Robby credits Walk Thru the Bible for providing the tools to engage an overlooked population with the power of God’s Word. In a

cozy, colorful classroom in one of Winston-Salem, North Carolina’s largest evangelical churches, Robby and his co-teachers are using Walk Thru the Bible’s sources to reach the unreachable, help adults with special needs gain a deeper understanding of the Bible, and help them to participate more fully in the body of Christ.

RAISING EXPECTATIONS Walk Thru the Bible equips Christians to reach the unreachable and point them to the gospel. “For a lot of folks, they see the special needs Sunday school class as a way that we can keep the students occupied so their parents can go to worship,” says Robby. In his estimation, many sincere Christians make the mistake of expecting too little from their fellow believers with special needs. They can’t conceive of a way in which to teach deep biblical truth to people with special needs, so they don’t try. They limit themselves to affirming the love of God for each individual regardless

Calvary Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 9

of ability. But, according to Robby, “If you’re their parent, you want to know that they’re in heaven. You want to know that they know what Jesus did for them, that they know what sin is, what it means to confess.” So every week, Robby attempts to reach the seemingly unreachable with the gospel. Every Sunday, the class includes a small number of adults from a local group home who live with severe physical and developmental disabilities. Most are nonverbal and confined to a wheelchair. One student, Marius, was “very standoffish” when he first began to attend the class, according to Robby. “He would never get close to anybody; he would rarely ever look at you.” Other than moving his hands to the lesson of the day, he demonstrated little proof of comprehension. Then his life changed. Robby will always remember the Sunday when he asked the class if anyone would like to commit their life to Jesus. To his astonishment, Marius’s hand shot up. Since the day when Marius prayed with Robby to receive Christ, his life has become a beautiful illustration of what it

Robby (center) joins Logan (left) and Leigh (right) in using hand motions to summarize the New Testament. 10

means to be born again. Now, the first thing Marius does when he enters the classroom every week is reach out his hand to shake Robby’s hand. Robby grins widely when he talks about the transformation he’s witnessed. “This person who would no more touch you than the man on the moon is now reaching for you because he is now your brother in Christ. You can see actual spiritual progress.” Some students seem unreachable because of their mental and physical limitations, while others retreat into themselves in response to deep emotional pain. Leigh, who has attended the class for nearly two decades, once found herself in prolonged emotional crisis. You wouldn’t know it by spending time with her today. Currently in her late 30s, Down syndrome doesn’t prevent her from living a rich and fulfilling life. When she’s not working at her local opportunity center, she fills her time with volunteering, swimming, singing and dancing, and rooting on her favorite sports teams—especially her beloved Georgia Bulldogs. She exudes empathy. When a friend breaks down

Logan listens to the lesson of the day.

in tears, she breaks down in tears. A number of years ago, this exquisite sensitivity contributed to a period of severe depression. Her mother, Jan, remembers this season with sadness. “We didn’t think we’d ever get her back,” Jan says. “I mean, she was gone . . . she stopped talking for about four years.” Robby remembers what it was like to have Leigh in class during this time. “She wouldn’t talk to anybody but she still came to class. It was a way that we could reach Leigh when she seemed unreachable, and she could participate where she wasn’t participating in much.” Even though she remained silent, she seemed to enjoy using hand signs to participate. God used loving people in Leigh’s life, including her Sunday school teachers and classmates, to restore her speech after four years. When Walk Thru the Bible caught up with her, she was able to tell the entire story of Jesus’ death

and resurrection, from the Lord’s Supper to His encounter with her favorite Bible character, Mary Magdalene. Leigh struggles to make herself understood verbally, but according to her mother, Walk Thru the Bible has “brought her out and given to her a new way of learning the Bible. She’ll come home and get her Bible out during the week and just find the Scripture they’ve been talking about and read it. I dare say she knows more about the books of the Bible than your average Christian.” In Robby’s mind, one of the greatest challenges of teaching a special needs group “is finding a curriculum that’ll go across all sorts of different barriers.” From students like Marius with severe developmental disabilities to students like Leigh who have experienced deep emotional trauma, or even students who are blind or deaf, Walk Thru the Bible’s unique method of teaching knocks down barriers to Bible engagement among the special

needs population. To reach students who lack verbal expression, it offers a method of learning that goes beyond words. It reaches the previously unreachable.

GOING DEEPER Walk Thru the Bible helps nontraditional learners understand and communicate the Bible—not just bits and pieces, but the grand scope of it. “Normally in church, you’re either listening to someone speak or you may be reading something,” reflects Robby. “But usually you’re not animated.” Before Robby’s special needs class began to learn the Old and New Testaments using Walk Thru the Bible’s teaching method, they were using an adapted curriculum from children’s Sunday school classes. Ultimately, the lessons couldn’t bridge the gap between verbal and nonverbal learners. Neither group felt engaged in a way that helped them retain knowledge. For students like Logan, learning through motion is the key to understanding the Bible and retaining knowledge. Logan, a kind-hearted high school student in his early 20s, lives with his parents in WinstonSalem. He moves with ease in the world of concrete things and ideas. He delights his neighbors by taking out their trash for them, clips and organizes coupons with gusto, and helps his father with home improvement projects. Because he is autistic,

he struggles to translate abstract concepts into concrete things he can understand. His father, Dwight, marvels at how learning Bible stories through hand signs “got things to click for him.” Dwight says, “I think that by doing the sign language in this Bible class, it’s such an effective way that he can learn and comprehend what they’re talking about.” Logan’s mother, Debbie, agrees, noting that for those with autism, visual learning is a valuable tool. “I think most people can learn something better if they have a visual,” she says. Logan doesn’t “care to sit and read a book. But with the visuals, it’s a different story.” Robby explains, “You could never get him to connect anything biblically. He could tell you where he’s going to lunch . . . but you wouldn’t get much out of Logan that would explain that Jesus fed the 5000 or that He stilled the storm. Logan now is not only signing those things, but he can tell you. He puts that together in his world . . . that’s significant.” Acting out Bible stories using hand signs gives every student a universal way to communicate major themes and concepts. Through signing, a student who is completely nonverbal can understand the big picture of the New Testament and communicate it in a short length of time. For verbal learners like Logan and Garrett, the hand signs help them to recollect a phrase or a verse and place it into the biblical narrative. If their annual Christmas presentation is any indication, Robby’s

students are retaining the knowledge they’ve gleaned. Every year, the class walks their family members through the Bible using hand signs. “I know there was not a dry eye in the house the first year they had a chance to show their parents what they learned,” Robby says. Not only are the students retaining Bible knowledge—they’re sharing it. Deena, an autistic woman in her late 30s, has attended Calvary Baptist’s special needs class for the past 22 years. According to her mother, she’s transformed during this time from a shy, aloof teenager to a confident woman who is eager to teach others what she’s learned. “When Deena first started going [to class], she was very shy—didn’t want to talk to anybody, didn’t really socialize with people,” Edith remembers. “Now she’s just very open.” Years of learning the Bible through hand signs “has helped her communicate with other people and it’s given her confidence to be in front of a crowd.” This confidence has translated to her job as a bakery inspector, where she offers to sit and pray with coworkers who are struggling. At home, she involves her

young niece and nephew by teaching them the hand signs she’s learned in her Sunday school class. “My niece and nephew want to know what I learned in church,” Deena says. “I want them to know that God loves them. I feel like when you do the hand motions, you’re learning more from it. We get to act out the stories. It’s actually making it fun.” As her own knowledge of the Bible increases, she tries to impart this knowledge to her niece and nephew as they grow. For Deena, Logan, Garrett, and their classmates, Walk Thru the Bible’s unique way of teaching accomplishes what a traditional curriculum never could. Somehow, learning through motion helps them overcome obstacles to understanding, retaining, and communicating God’s Word.

SERVING THE BODY OF CHRIST Walk Thru the Bible empowers believers with special needs to participate more fully in the body of Christ. In Romans 12, the apostle Paul writes that those who belong to Christ form one body with

many members. The body can only function effectively when its members are united and supportive of each other. Sadly, many Christians with special needs feel as if they have been severed from the rest of the body, dangling precariously in isolation. Even within the special needs population, different developmental levels can result in internal division. When Robby first began teaching the special needs class at Calvary Baptist, he observed a tendency “to split up people by their functionality— this is a verbal group; [that] is a nonverbal group. And all those things lead to a sense of disunity.” When Robby began to use Walk Thru the Bible’s hand signs to teach Bible lessons, he watched the walls of divisions between his students begin to crumble. Hand signs, unlike words, unite his students around a universal language. He expresses relief that “Walk Thru the Bible gives us a way that we can be together. . . and all on the same page at the same time.” While the use of hand signs helps unite Robby’s class internally, they also help plant his students more deeply in the body of Christ. Thinking about his students, Robby reflects, “Most of them unfortunately live very secluded lives, not connected to a lot of people, and if they were connected, how do they communicate?” What Walk Thru the Bible gives them is a new way to communicate. Every student in the class, whether he or she has autism, Down syndrome, or another special need, can build a biblical vocabulary through hand signs and share the stories they’ve learned. When people with special needs have no way to communicate with the rest of the body of Christ, the rest of the body doesn’t function like it should. Too many Christians miss an opportunity to learn truth about God that people with special needs can grasp more readily. “I feel like they get the love of God in a way that we can’t,” Robby contends. “Special needs folks as a general rule don’t have a lot of masks that they wear. They receive [God] at a level that we really can’t because we are filtering through our bunch of masks.” In his experience, God has seasoned the hearts of many Christians with special needs with a rare blend of

humility and authenticity. “Here are some people who can worship in a way that nobody else can,” Robby concludes. What they have to offer the rest of the body is “something phenomenal.”

A WAY FORWARD In North America, ministering to people with special needs presents challenges that many churches have yet to overcome. Jesus commands His followers to make disciples of all nations, but too many people with special needs are viewed as out of reach, even in the church. While people with special needs may function and learn differently from most of the population, their deepest need is the same. “Ultimately, redemption is what all our students want,” says Robby. “Everybody wants to know that God sees them. And when they hear those stories about Jesus and how He reaches out,” how He cares for people like them who are too often overlooked by society, “then they know He sees them. As we go through story after story . . . people realize they can relate—all of us can relate—to these characters that have been through all this turmoil.” When they hear about the ways that God redeems their favorite characters from the Bible, they recognize God’s redemptive work in their own lives. At Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Robby and a team of teachers are answering the call to make disciples of all people, and Walk Thru the Bible is helping them do it. Through its unique, kinetic method of teaching the Bible, Walk Thru the Bible gives people with special needs a way to understand, express, and live out the truth of God’s Word like never before. In the original Greek, the word disciple means “learner.” When Christians with special needs have an effective way to learn the Bible, they become empowered to participate fully in the body of Christ. They uniquely reflect God to the world, and His kingdom advances. If you're interested in becoming a Walk Thru the Bible instructor or bringing a Walk Thru the Bible live event to your church, email customerservice@walkthru.org. .

Fertile Ground

Sowing Seeds of Growth in Bangladesh

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What’s it like to be a Christian in Bangladesh?” Thomas Sakar lets the question hang in the air for a moment before answering in his native Bengali. “To be a Christian in Bangladesh means being a faithful servant. You need to have courage, because we have a lot of challenges.” To say that Christians in Bangladesh encounter challenges is an understatement. Nearly 90 percent of the country’s 156 million people are Muslim. Thomas, a fifth generation Christian in his family, is proud to trace his spiritual heritage back to the ministry of missionary William Carey, who arrived in Bangladesh 200 years ago to carry the gospel to what was then a predominately Hindu society. The country’s Hindu majority gradually gave way to a Muslim majority as its government adopted Islam as the state religion. Though the Christian church took root and produced fruit in Bangladesh, it remains small and embattled. Despite the government’s attempts to combat ISIS and other radical Muslim organizations, recent attacks on civilians reveal the extent to which radical ideology has taken root in Bangladesh. Last July, ISIS claimed responsibility for a knife attack that killed 28 civilians in an upscale bakery in Dhaka, the capital city. In the past several

years, Islamic radicals have systematically targeted religious minority communities with a string of murders. “We are praying that our country should not be used for terrorist activities,” says Thomas, but he recounts stories of Christian leaders he knows receiving death threats over the phone from extremists. In 2015, security threats forced nine Christian churches to close their doors. With every passing year, daily life becomes more precarious for Bangladeshi Christians. There are pockets of light, Thomas is quick to point out. “We find people from Muslim communities accepting God and growing in faith,” many of them through the outreach of missionary groups who move into small communities or villages to share the gospel. According to Christian Freedom International, a human rights organization, over 90,000 Muslims have converted to Christianity in the last six years. God is clearly at work in Bangladesh, calling people out of Islam to Himself as the tide of radical Islamic terrorism rises. But after people turn to Christ, they find themselves in desperate need of biblical truth. Though religious freedom is a constitutionally enshrined right in Bangladesh, new Christians face immense social pressure and discrimination from their

“TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN BANGLADESH MEANS BEING A FAITHFUL SERVANT.”

non-Christian family, friends, and neighbors. While they may not confront death threats, many will face social ostracization and suffer devastating blows to their livelihoods. Those whose faith does not mature past spiritual infancy become like the rocky ground Jesus warned against in Matthew 13. They initially receive God’s Word with great joy, but they quickly wither because they have no root. They lack the spiritual grounding to withstand the daily barrage of threats to safety, comfort, and acceptance that Christians in Bangladesh must withstand. Thomas Sakar’s concern for these Christians has fueled a lifelong desire for teaching the Bible. Before becoming a Walk Thru the Bible instructor in 2000, Thomas recalls the frustrations of ministering to new Christians. “In our churches,” he says, “the teaching of God’s Word is not that in-depth. I felt that the people really lacked the Word of God and lacked knowledge of it, and so they were not able to practice their faith. Scripture says faith without deeds is dead. I felt like without action, their faith was dead.” Early in his ministry, Thomas recognized a pressing need for resources that could illuminate biblical truth in a way people could understand and apply. That’s where Walk Thru the Bible stepped in. After Thomas was trained to teach Walk Thru the Old Testament, he discovered a new platform for teaching God’s Word. “People previously would never call me to teach. Now people are asking me to come and I don’t have time to give them. Walk Thru the Bible is leaving an impact on people’s lives. They are just small, newborn babies—they are to be nurtured. I thank God for Walk Thru the Bible for helping us to equip them with the Word of God.” Since he became an instructor, Thomas has shown no signs of slowing down. “I thank God for this great ministry, Walk Thru the Bible, that has sown a seed in my life which is growing in

me and in my family,” he says. While raising two teenage daughters alongside his wife of eighteen years, Parmita, he accepts frequent invitations to teach Walk Thru the Old Testament and other biblical resources in local churches. “Today I am proud to say that I am able to teach people because I am trained myself.” Of the 500 instructors who are equipped to teach live events in Bangladesh, Thomas has trained 300, more than a third of whom are actively teaching live events. In 2016, 13,769 people attended one of Walk Thru the Bible’s 461 live events in Bangladesh. Through his dedication to teaching events and raising up new instructors, Thomas has reached more people with the Bible than he could have ever thought possible. At the beginning of 2017, Thomas and his family traveled to Walk Thru the Bible’s annual South Asia conference in Hyderabad, India, to receive training and encouragement. Alongside other families from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, the Sakars learned about building family life and ministry on a firm biblical foundation. “I thank God that this week has helped us to think of our family life from many different angles,” Thomas says. “The best part is thinking about the legacy we want to leave.” At the end of the conference, Thomas and his family returned to Bangladesh better equipped to serve their fellow Christians and stoke a passion for God’s Word amidst growing uncertainty and persecution. “I pray that God uses me in a larger way in my country,” is Thomas’ constant refrain. It’s safe to say that God is answering his prayer. .

“I AM ABLE TO TEACH PEOPLE BECAUSE I AM TRAINED MYSELF.”

Thomas Sakar with his wife, Parmita, and daughters, Priscilla and Elisa 19

Country Profile

Bangladesh the world) Population: 156.2 million (9th in ethnic groups 1.1% Ethnicity: Bengali (>98%), other Language: Bengali

republic Political system: Parliamentary Iowa in the world, slightly smaller than Geography: 95th largest country 10%, Religion: Muslim 89.1%, Hindu n & Buddhist) 0.9% istia Other (includes Chr

China Nepal

Bhutan

Bangladesh India

Myanmar Laos Thailand

hough Bangladesh was once majority Hindu, Islam is the dominant religious force in the South Asian country today. The number of Christians has steadily risen since a missionary named William Carey brought the gospel to Bangladesh 200 years ago, but Christians face strong societal pressure and persecution. While their government defends freedom of religion, Bangladeshis have watched ISIS and other radical Islamic groups infiltrate their country in the past decade. Prayer Needs: • Spiritual growth. Christians in Bangladesh need solid biblical teaching and resources to grow in their faith so that they can stand firm in times of persecution. Pray that God will give Walk Thru the Bible the opportunity to reach more Bangladeshi Christians this year. • Safety. As radical Islam gains traction in Bangladesh, Christians are increasingly susceptible to threats, attacks, and financial hardship. • Leadership. Pray that through Thomas Sakar and other Walk Thru the Bible leaders in Bangladesh, God raises up hundreds of other leaders who are equipped to invite their local churches deeper into the Bible. .

Into the Word w e e k l y

the

d e v o t i o n a l s

POWER of PRAYER

alk Thru the Bible exists to ignite passion for God’s Word wherever we go and to provide the opportunities and resources for eternal truth to work its way into people’s hearts. One of the best ways for the truth of Scripture to sink in is to meditate on it daily. The following devotionals, adapted from indeed magazine, are a valuable tool to aid that process. One devotional is provided for each of the next 13 weeks. You can read the weekly reading any day during your week, but you may also want to revisit it every day of the week to make it a regular part of your time with God. If so, many have found this approach helpful: On Monday, read the devotional. Become generally familiar with the Bible verse, its original context, and the insights in the devotional reading. On Tuesday, look upward. How does this verse or passage apply to your relationship with God? What does it teach you about His will and His heart? What aspect of His character is He inviting you to experience and enjoy? On Wednesday, look inward. How does this truth apply to your heart

WEEK 1 April 3-7

Mark 10:46-52

ASK AND RECEIVE “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51) IN WORD Why did Jesus ask this? A blind man is screaming at the top of his lungs for Jesus to have mercy on him. The need seems pretty obvious. But the Son of the Omniscient, the very One who had “seen” the entire sordid past of a woman at a well, asked the noisy blind fellow what he wanted. Why?

o n

and your own spiritual growth? What does it teach you about yourself, your needs, or your goals in life? In what aspects of your personal life is God inviting you to grow and mature? On Thursday, look around. How does this truth apply to your relationship with others? What does it teach you about how to relate to them? What is God inviting you to do differently in your relationships? On Friday, look outward. How does this verse or passage apply to your ministry and mission in life—to your role in God’s kingdom, in society, and in the world? What does it teach you about God’s purposes? What part of His mission is He inviting you to participate in? On Saturday, look forward. How does this verse or passage apply to your future, both in this age and in eternity? What does it teach you about God’s plan for your life, now and forever? What aspect of eternity is God inviting you to participate in? This approach can help you look at God’s Word from every angle and incorporate its implications into your life. As you saturate yourself in Scripture, God will shape your heart to align with His own.

Because it is important for the blind man, and for us, to ask for His help. To assume that God will meet our needs without our asking, even though He often does, is to desire a Savior and Provider without the “bother” of a relationship with Him. “You do not have because you do not ask God,” writes James (4:2). Jesus says clearly, “Everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:8). In fact, many of His parables are about asking—persistent, bold, specific asking. Just as many rebuked blind Bartimaeus and told him to be quiet, many will tell us that being specific in prayer is unspiritual or theologically misguided. With Bartimaeus, and with us, Jesus overrules their objection.

IN DEED So Jesus insists on specific requests, even though He knows all of our needs before we even ask. Perhaps He insists so we’ll recognize His answer when it comes—a gift specifically from Him and specifically for us. Perhaps it is so that when the answer comes we will clearly see how His will differs from our own limited vision. Perhaps it is so we will remember, having voiced our request, to give thanks when it is granted. Perhaps the asking and receiving witness to the world in a way that the presumption of providence would not. We wonder sometimes why God has not met a certain need. Our first step, often neglected, is to be specific. We must ask.

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

Luke 11:5-10

John 11:1-44

Luke 11:5-10

April 10-14

GOD’S PLEASURE IN PERSISTENCE “Because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” (Luke 11:8) IN WORD “Blessed are the meek,” Jesus tells us (Matthew 5:5). But there are some circumstances in which He calls for brashness. In this parable on persistence in Luke 11, a man seeks help from his neighbor on behalf of his friends, knocking repeatedly on the neighbor’s door at midnight with an unusual request for bread. It was an unlikely and inconvenient time for such a request. But because of his perseverance, the neighbor answers. A story in Luke 5:17-26 relates a similar persistence. Several men carried their crippled friend to Jesus on a stretcher, lowering it through the roof so that the Healer could not avoid seeing him. Like the man in the parable, they are tenacious—all of them are zealous for the welfare of their friends. Our Western sensibilities make us want to tell the stretcher-bearers to get in line, or to tell the man to quit pestering his neighbor at inappropriate hours. Jesus has no such rebuke for them. Their brazenness honors Him. This is how the Father is to be sought—with a clear knowledge that it is His nature to meet needs. If we are zealous to have others’ needs met, certainly He is even more zealous. IN DEED How persistent are we in seeking God’s help for the needs of others? When we are told to “bear one another’s burdens” (Colossians 3:13), do we interpret that as a brief mention in a prayer meeting? Or are we zealous and bold in our approach to God? Far from offending God, this boldness pleases Him. In this parable, He almost begs His disciples to pester Him. Let us consider our zeal on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Does it equal the boldness of the persistent neighbor?

April 17-21

April 24-28

PUBLIC PRAYERS

KEEP ON ASKING

“I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:42)

“Ask and it will be given to you.” (Luke 11:9)

IN WORD our prayers are the private matter of our own hearts. That is, of course, where they begin. That is where God deals with us and speaks to us. But not all prayers are to be left there. The glory of God is a public matter, and nowhere on earth is God more glorified than when He is clearly at work. Miracles occur every day, but they often go unnoticed or are considered “coincidental” because no one heard the specific prayer of someone’s heart that God answered in His mercy and power. When mercy and power come, the prayer needs to have already been on record. God is glorified as He responds to public requests. Jesus spells this out for us. As He approaches the tomb of Lazarus, He is grateful for the public forum. He could have done this miracle with a minimum of onlookers and in the privacy of the tomb. He could have lifted up a silent prayer, leaving people to wonder whose prayers were answered. Was Lazarus raised because of Mary and Martha’s goodness? Because of Lazarus’s faithfulness? Because of a huge medical misunderstanding? No, it was a divine response to Jesus’ prayer. It was, in essence, yet another sign from heaven saying, “This is My Son.” It was validation that God was at work in Jesus and that Jesus was doing God’s work. How do we know? Because before Lazarus got up, Jesus prayed. Out loud. IN DEED We’re afraid to pray such risky prayers. That’s understandable; we should only pray them after we’ve arrived at a position of faith and confidence in God’s will and with sensitivity to His timing. But once we’re there, we need to let God show His glory publicly. His demonstration of power is usually not a private, personal matter. It is more often a showcase for His mercy. When our prayers are witnessed by others and then God answers, He receives honor, and the faith of others is strengthened.

IN WORD Jesus has just finished a curious parable about a man banging persistently at his neighbor’s door in the middle of the night, asking for an inordinate amount of bread. This is prayer, Jesus says. It doesn’t matter if the hour is inappropriate, the request is large, and the initial answer is “no.” True prayer means desperation outweighs protocol. Some translations capture the continuous nature of this verse. Jesus implied to His disciples that they are to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking; then they will receive. We don’t know why persistence is required; Jesus doesn’t tell us that. But the fact that it is required is clear. Prayer calls for boldness and relentlessness. If you are like most people, you pray about a matter for a while. Then, having not heard from God, you give up, assuming it wasn’t His will to answer. But nowhere in the Bible are we told that God’s silence means “no.” In fact, Jesus demonstrates to a Canaanite woman that His silence means “keep on asking” (Matthew 15:22-28). Scripture never gives us permission to drop a request because we got no immediate answer. We are to have a no-ceasing attitude to our prayers (1 Thessalonians 5:17). If God wants to show us our prayers are unscriptural or out of line with His will, He will show us. If He wants to say “no,” He will actually say it. Silence is not “no.” IN DEED Often our prayers are characterized by tentativeness and transience. They are not confident declarations of His will in a situation and expectant invitations for Him to RSVP in power. While we should always be open for Him to redirect our prayers, or even to say “no,” we should never assume that a slow answer, by our standards, is a non-answer. Jesus never gives us a hint that God is rejecting us in His silence. Like the farmer who waits for his harvest, we are to wait for His answers. Jesus is clear: Keep on asking!

WEEK 5

WEEK 6

WEEK 7

Matthew 6:9-13

Mark 7:24-30

Matthew 6:9-13

May 1-5

May 8-12

May 15-19

OFFERING PRAYERS

FOR SUCH A REPLY

A CALL TO ARMS

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Luke 7:47)

“For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” (Mark 7:29)

“Your will be done.” (Matthew 6:10)

IN WORD When we pray, we are often quite focused on our own preferences. We want God to act on our behalf and to accomplish what concerns us, as His Word has promised He will do. Jesus nowhere condemns this type of prayer, contrary to some pseudo-biblical teaching. He is intensely interested in our concerns, and He encourages us to ask what we will. But there is a better way, and a prior focus that must precede all such prayers. It is a preoccupation with His kingdom and the glory of His name. It is a greater appreciation for His will than for our own. God is the owner of this world, but He created it with mankind as its stewards. His verbal contract with earth’s managers stipulates that generally He will intervene not arbitrarily, but when asked. In His sovereignty, He has often limited His earthward actions to depend on the invitation of man. Even when He required an Intercessor, He came Himself in the form of a man. It is His modus operandi in this world. Therefore, when we pray, we must understand our requests to be the medium through which He acts. First and foremost, our prayers are the holy offerings by which He moves. We must ask not only, “Will You accomplish this for me,” but, “Take my prayer and use it as You wish.” Our requests are His treasured currency, not simply our pleas.

IN WORD Jesus has just told a woman exactly what she didn’t want to hear. She came to Him in desperate need, falling at His feet, crying out on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus’ response seems callous and brutal: “You’re a dog, a Gentile, a foreigner with no claim to the Jewish Messiah.” Was this tonguein-cheek? An inside joke? Was there a twinkle in His eye that softened the cruelty of its content? We don’t know. What we do know is that she persisted, and Jesus responded positively. Her persistence was no affront. It honored Him. Often God’s initial answer to us after a prayer is not His final word; it is a test. It is given to see how we will respond. Is it a response of faith and trust? Or a response of complaint? The nature of the reply may determine the result we see. We will either honor Him with a confident declaration of His merciful nature that gives to “dogs” like us; or we will dishonor Him with resentment and resignation. In either case, He may or may not give us the answer we expected or hoped for. But when we respond in faith, He will answer, one way or another. It is inconceivable that He would ignore those who fall at His feet and pray to Him in faith and on His terms.

IN DEED Prayer is not so much an act of persuasion as it is a gift for Him, a rolling out of the red carpet for God to intervene in the world He created and owns. Our requests are the vehicles by which the Landlord may politely—and without violating His original agreement—step in to help us property managers. Do you ask with a spirit of offering? Do you see your prayers as gifts to Him that He may use as He wills? Try praying with this mind, and watch Him meet you there.

IN DEED We have many responses to unanswered prayer. We may try to assert our “rights” and demand God’s intervention on our terms. We may grow critical, forgetful of His unwavering love for us. Or we may just get discouraged and resign ourselves to His apparent lack of concern. How do you respond when Jesus answers “not a word”? Do you turn away in bitterness? That’s certainly not what He wanted. His desire is to see us profess our knowledge of who He is, even when the superficial evidence we see seems to contradict His true nature. He welcomes persistence, He expects faith, and He sympathizes with those who know their desperate need.

IN WORD When Jesus instructed His disciples to pray that God’s will be done, He never intended it as the feeble resignation to some mysterious will that we can’t quite comprehend. We too often use this phrase as a caveat to those who hear us, in effect saying, “I really don’t know what God’s will is, but let’s see if this prayer hits the mark.” No, when we say “Thy will be done,” it is to be an assault on the gates of hell. It is an offensive march against the evil of this world. There is nothing defensive or ambiguous about it. It calls for God to make His kingdom manifest in this enemy territory, taking ground that the adversary has stolen. It is specific and assertive, a battle cry against everything that is not His will. It is war. Observe the Master who gave us this instruction. When did He pray “Your will be done”? It was before the ultimate battle against His human nature and the powers of darkness, as He pondered the coming Cross in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42). IN DEED This request is not to be a statement of our resignation or the fine print at the bottom of our prayers that takes our will out of the situation. We are right to be suspicious of our own wills and defer to the Father’s. But while this request is an appropriate deferral to His higher plan, it is much more. It is a conscious appeal to bring God’s kingdom into victorious conflict with the hostility and depravity of our world. We are not only saying “not my will,” we are also saying “not the enemy’s will.” Wherever human tendencies or a corrupt world comes into conflict with the revealed will of God, we are to pray “Thy will be done.” We know what His will is with regard to our own hearts, sin, evil and violence, salvation, and much more. Shall we be tentative in these areas? No, Jesus gives us a call to arms: Pray that God’s will be done.

WEEK 8

WEEK 9

WEEK 10

Matthew 6:9-13

Mark 11:22-15

May 22-26

May 29-June 2

June 5-9

WHOSE WILL?

AN ETERNAL OBSESSION

DEEPER WARFARE

“This, then, is how you should pray: . . . ‘your will be done.’” (Matthew 6:9-10)

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

“Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7)

IN WORD Occasionally in the Old Testament, God is referred to as Father, but He is never addressed in prayer as Father. Jesus’ intimate opening to prayer may have stunned His listeners. They might not have been surprised to hear Him say “My Father,” since He clearly had some special relationship with the Almighty. But to instruct His disciples to address God this way? That level of familiarity made God out to be accessible and affectionate—not easy concepts for those of us steeped in formal religion. As soon as Jesus tells us of the intimacy with God that is available to us, He stresses the utter transcendence and “otherness” of God—His holiness. “Hallowed be your name,” He says. In two brief phrases, He has captured the essence of our relationship with God. It is at once intimate and unfathomable; familiar yet mysterious. Though we may know Him deeply, we will never know Him fully. We often take this opening to the Lord’s Prayer to be a prelude, similar to the salutation of a letter. But this particular salutation is actually the substance of our faith. It is full of mystery and intrigue. We’re waiting to get to the good part of the prayer—the part about us—but this opening line is the good part. It contains the truths that will preoccupy us for eternity in His presence. It captures both the closeness of God and His unreachable distance. We will explore such mysteries forever, always growing in intimate knowledge of Him, but never exhausting the exhilaration of new discovery.

“When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25)

IN WORD In our prayers, we often feel a tension between two teachings. Jesus tells us to pray for the Father’s will (Matthew 6:10). He also tells us to pray for our will (Mark 11:24; John 14:13; 15:7). Which does He want us to do? On the side of asking for His will, consider this: If God’s will is perfect; if He loves us even more than we love ourselves; if He knows everything about us and everything about our future; if He crafted us Himself; if He is powerful, able to do beyond what we can even ask or think (Ephesians 3:20); if He desires to bless us with the best (Psalm 84:11; Matthew 7:11); if His desires for us are infinitely better than our requests for ourselves; why—for any reason—would we ever ask anything other than His will? On the other hand, Jesus is quite specific: If we remain in Him and His words remain in us, we are to ask whatever we will, and it will be given (John 15:7). Why the difference? Why would Jesus tell us to ask what we wish when He knows it will be inferior to what God wishes? IN DEED When we break down the question this way, we are focusing on the object of our prayer—the answers we expect to receive. But prayer is a relationship. Jesus has more in mind for us than the cause and effect of requesting. He wants to bring us into union with the Father in the arena of our wills. Yes, He wants us to ask for God’s will. He also wants us to ask for our will to be done. He wants those two wills to be one and the same. Are they? Are we finding that our hearts burn more and more with a passion to see God’s kingdom come, His will to be done? If not, this should be our first request—that God would conform our hearts, drawing us up to the level of His will and His ways.

IN DEED This verse is too often considered the opening formality of the prayer that Jesus taught, and we are prone to skim over formalities. We cannot afford to skim over this. It will be our eternal obsession, the truth that fills the depths of our souls. Meditate on its riches. The greatest commandment—to love our transcendent Father with all of our being—begins here.

IN WORD There is a direct link between the forgiveness in our hearts and the efficacy of our prayers. Those who are reluctant to forgive others are out of sync with God’s character. Those who know the depths of God’s forgiveness for themselves apply that depth to their forgiveness of others and are at one with the Father’s purposes. They therefore pray consistently with godly character and are aware of God’s purposes in the world. Their prayers avail much. It is on this point that we often misstep. When we run into difficult people, we focus on resolving our relationships with them. We may believe that Satan’s warfare against us is also focused on these relationships. If he can disrupt them, he wins battles; if we can maintain them, we think we win. But there is a deeper battle going on. The enemy uses contentious relationships as a tool toward a more profound warfare. If he can sow seeds of bitterness and resentment in our hearts, he hinders our prayers. And he is far more interested in hindering prayers than simply seeing people argue. IN DEED When we try to resolve broken relationships, we cannot afford to focus on the externals, seeking to preserve civility and keep the peace. There is a much more intense and high-stakes war going on in our hearts. We must not only preserve peace with our friends and enemies alike, we must also preserve peace in our hearts. A restored relationship is fine with the evil one if we lose a worshipful, joyful, prayerful, forgiving attitude in the process. This is one reason God often puts His people in difficult and even oppressive circumstances. When we have learned to remain worshipful in an oppressive situation, we have won the battle, regardless of the outward resolution. This is the “standing firm” referred to in Ephesians 6:13. And our prayers can remain unhindered.

WEEK 11

WEEK 12

WEEK 13

Matthew 7:7-12

John 17:6-12

Matthew 7:7-11

June 12-16

June 19-23

June 26-30

GOD THE BLESSER

FULFILLING HIS PRAYERS

PERSISTENCE REMEMBERED

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)

“I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” (John 17:9)

“Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:8)

IN WORD Just as Jesus’ work was not scattershot, hoping to hit God’s target, neither are His prayers. There is a plan in action here. It isn’t that Jesus doesn’t care for the world—His familiar statement in John 3:16 would rule that out, as would verse 21 of this same prayer. Rather, He knows that the fate of the world is dependent on the faith of those who have followed Him. His sovereignty will accomplish His purposes, but in His sovereignty He designated simple human beings as His means for reaching the world. If they fail, the message He has entrusted to them is lost. If they falter, the spread of the gospel is limited or corrupted. The gospel mission of the Son of God is now dependent on the disciples He has called. The situation has not changed. The gospel mission of the Son of God is still dependent on the disciples He has called. His kingdom is being built by His ministry through those who can envision it and who rely on Him. We are active participants in the mission of God. For that reason, we can apply Jesus’ high priestly prayer to us. Just as He prayed specifically for the eleven who were with Him that final night, His strategic prayers are still targeted on us. The exalted Savior still makes intercession on our behalf at the throne of the Father (Hebrews 7:25). Our High Priest has not left us in this world alone with a message to tell and no support for telling it. He is not just a heavenly observer. He is an active participant in the work He initiated.

IN WORD The verb tenses of the asking, seeking, and knocking in this verse (and v. 7) imply continuous, persistent action. Jesus could have told His disciples to ask once, seek briefly, and give a single knock when they pray to their Father. But the fact that He didn’t leads us to one of the most perplexing set of questions about prayer that confronts believers regularly: Why is there a delay? Isn’t God willing to answer us? If so, why is persistence important? Since God already has provision for all of our needs and every aspect of His mission even before we ask, He could give His answer immediately. But He usually doesn’t. He has far greater purposes in our prayers than just the asking and receiving. He wants us to learn more about who He is. A lot happens between the time we present a request to God and the time He provides the answer. If we grow more intense in our request, we create a situation that will stick in our memories—and that of others, if we’ve drawn them into our petition—long after God has resolved it for us. When His answer finally comes, we have a memorable testimony of His goodness to us. But if we forget about the request soon after asking it, we were not very serious about it and never would have turned the answer into a testimony about Him anyway. An unfortunate side of human nature is that we are forgetful recipients of good things. Immediate answers to casual requests would reinforce our forgetfulness. It would not establish God’s name in our lives.

IN WORD Crying out to God in a situation of need is a normal—and universal— human experience. But when we cry out, what do we expect? Don’t we often ask from a heart filled with despair, as though our prayer is only a shot in the dark? “I have no doubt He’ll hear it,” we think, “but He probably won’t answer. I’ll plead as a last resort, but I’m not holding my breath.” In other words, we pray with high hopes but low expectations. We make false assumptions about our Father’s willingness to give. God is a blesser by nature. He gave us life. He gave us a beautiful creation. He sustains our every moment of existence. We’ve rebelled and corrupted it all. And His response is merciful. Through miracle after miracle, He brought His people into a saving relationship with Him, and He has demonstrated His commitment throughout the millennia to continue saving. He gave us unequivocal, mind-boggling promises about the power of prayer. And yet we still think He might be reluctant to hear us in our hour of need. IN DEED This is what sin does to people. It corrupts our understanding of God. We come to see Him as a distant Sovereign who only rarely grants us His favor. We think He is reluctant to grace us with His gifts when, in fact, He constantly gives us His grace. With pretty strong language, Jesus attacks this distorted concept of the Father. It is an abominable view that assumes God’s generosity is comparable to man’s. No, Jesus says. God blesses. Lavishly. Far beyond our comprehension. It’s who He is. Every petition must begin here. We pray without faith—and therefore without much result—when we start with a lesser view of God. The one who comes to God with the assumption that He blesses will find that He actually does.

IN DEED If ever we feel weak or alone in the work to which God has called us, we can turn to John 17 and read Jesus’ prayer. It is a prayer for us, and the Son of God does not have unanswered prayers. His will is one with the Father’s, and His prayers are accomplished. Dwell on this encouraging thought: If you belong to the Father through faith in the Son, the Son is praying for you even now.

IN DEED How many prayers have you dropped because God seemed not to be hearing? If He did not give a definite “no,” He may have wanted the delay to draw you closer to Him and establish a better sense of His provision in your need. Don’t just ask, seek, and knock; keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Such times of persistence lead to a greater, more memorable experience of His goodness. .

Step Into the Story

Rediscovering God’s Word

How Josiah’s Story Illuminates the Path to True Cultural Impact

s winter thaws into a long-awaited spring, Walk Thru the Bible is hard at work in preparation for the launch of a new resource in our Biblical Character Series. Through our books and small group studies on the lives of David, Joseph, and Mary, millions of people have learned that God uses ordinary people to accomplish His purposes—people like them. We’ve watched teens from a Honduran street ministry realize that God chose an ordinary girl their age to give birth to His Son. We’ve seen men and women in prison identify with the frustration of Joseph through long years of imprisonment. We’ve witnessed leaders from persecuted countries like Syria and Iraq find comfort in the story of

David. God has given Walk Thru the Bible countless opportunities to touch lives with the Biblical Character Series. This spring, we are excited to launch the next study in the Biblical Character Series on the life of Josiah, the young king of Judah. WHY JOSIAH? When Walk Thru the Bible President Phil Tuttle was reading through Josiah’s story a few years ago, it occurred to him that what Josiah needed as a young ruler is exactly what the younger generation of Christians needs today—the rediscovery of God’s Word. When Josiah was in his mid-20s, one of his servants rediscovered the Book of the Law under a thick layer of dust in a temple

Representatives of four generations participate in a panel discussion for the Josiah DVD series. 27

Step Into the Story

(Contd.)

that had long fallen into disrepair. The words of the law seared the young king’s heart as he realized how far the people of Judah had strayed from the God who rescued them from Egypt. Despite his youth, Josiah renewed his people’s covenant with God and set out to change the nation’s culture. He inherited an apathetic and rebellious nation from his father, but he was not content to let it remain in that condition. Like Josiah, today’s millennial generation is passionate about fixing the problems it has inherited from previous generations. They’re often portrayed in an unflattering light, but young Christians understand the importance of living out the gospel by addressing both physical and spiritual wounds in our society. They are the cause-oriented generation. But like Josiah, their effectiveness depends on rooting themselves in the truth of the Bible. Through Josiah’s experience, they learn that social reform is only sustainable through spiritual renewal. WHAT COMES NEXT As with previous studies in the Biblical Character Series, Revolution, the study of Josiah, will launch in the form of a small group study with a corresponding DVD series, as well as a longer book with more detailed teaching.

Walk Thru the Bible President Phil Tuttle teaches lessons from the life of Josiah on camera. 28

Thousands of instructors will learn to teach the study live. Within three years, Revolution will be taught in 15-20 languages around the globe. In some countries, the six DVD sessions will air on local television channels. Walk Thru the Bible will hold its annual Middle East-North Africa conference in Jordan this July, and the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation presents a perfect opportunity to introduce Josiah and study his successful reformation of the country he ruled. HOW YOU CAN HELP • Contribute $25, $50 or whatever amount you feel called to give to help support the production of Revolution. The total cost of producing the DVD series and workbook, writing the book, creating marketing materials, and developing the leaders guide to teaching is $75,000. • Purchase the study for your church groups and friends. The Josiah study will be available in the U.S. in early spring. • Pray that God would use the story of Josiah to encourage and challenge our leaders in Jordan and around the world. .

Leader Profile

Ready for Anything BALÁZS KOVÁCS, COUNTRY DIRECTOR FOR HUNGARY

alázs Kovács has never been one to back away from a challenge. When he was only 10 years old, he watched his father, Walk Thru the Bible’s former country director in Hungary, teach a Walk Thru the Old Testament event. After the event, Balázs spent hours alone in his room practicing the hand signs until he knew them so well that his father began to rely on him when he needed to jog his memory. At the same age, he undertook a project to convert the ministry’s overhead projection slides to PowerPoint. In childhood he demonstrated the persistence that would drive his ministry forward in later years. Walk Thru the Bible’s story in Hungary is one of stops and starts, of overcoming cultural barriers and navigating complex political environments. As a second-generation leader, Balázs has experienced the hills and valleys firsthand for decades. After ten years of teaching live events, his father suffered a heart attack in 2007 that forced him to step down from ministry. Walk Thru the Bible in Hungary went silent. Balázs recounts the difficulty of this period as he struggled to find his footing as a young youth pastor. “I didn’t lose my faith; I lost my trust. It was a time of great fear.” He believed God had a plan for his life and ministry, but he struggled to discern a path forward. After four years had passed, Balázs and his father attended a regional Walk Thru the Bible conference. They left encouraged and inspired to pursue a new vision for Hungary. With the help of several friends, Balázs built a Walk Thru the Bible website for Hungary and began to teach live events in churches regularly. Then he faced another hurdle. When the

Hungarian government passed a law invalidating the status of all but a handful of religious denominations, Walk Thru the Bible lost a significant portion of its market for live events. Fortunately, a new government requirement that schools teach the Bible presented a new opportunity. In the 2015-16 school year, Balázs taught 51 live events for more than 8300 high school students. For most of them, Walk Thru the Bible’s material “gives them the opportunity to hear what they’ve never heard.” While some students are hard to engage, many respond favorably. “Some say they’ve tried to read the Bible, but it was too hard. Now they finally understand how it fits together. Others say they never supposed they’d be interested in the Bible, but they found the event interesting.” Balázs dreams of expanding Walk Thru the Bible’s school ministry during the week and restarting the ministry with adults on the weekend. Working with the country’s government-supported Christian denominations can be a challenge, but Balázs has worked hard to build bridges with each of them so that his ministry moves forward. In a country that politicizes religion, he sees a need for biblical resources that transcend denomination and rhetoric. “The government is always talking about the Bible and Christianity but without any deep meaning. There is a need to answer this basic question: ‘What is the Bible?’ Walk Thru the Bible should be the one who is answering that question.” Through every challenge that comes his way, Balázs is determined to answer that question for the Hungarian people. When asked how the Walk Thru the Bible family can keep him in prayer, his answer was clear: “To live out my calling and be open to what’s ahead.” . 29

Donor Profile

Going Deeper ROB AND SUSAN TURNER

or most of their lives, Rob and Susan Turner went through the motions of a Christian life without experiencing the joy of a deeper relationship with Christ. After they married in 2006, God began to cultivate in them a renewed desire to know and follow Him. Rob recounts, “We were at a point in our lives when we knew the Lord had given us a second chance—or third or fourth—to really serve Him in some way. We were searching for a way to serve.” In 2010, their search led them to the home of a friend from church, where Walk Thru the Bible President Phil Tuttle shared about the ministry’s global impact. That day in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Rob and Susan are certain, “God put Walk Thru the Bible in our lives at exactly the moment He ordained.” Since then, they’ve discovered a deeper, more active faith through their partnership with Walk Thru the Bible. “Blessing,” “encouragement,” and “connection” are the words Susan uses to describe Walk Thru the Bible. She says, “We experienced all these things in our trip to Lebanon,” where the couple attended Walk Thru the Bible’s Middle East-North Africa conference in 2015. As they helped collect stories of impact from the Middle Eastern leaders in attendance, they witnessed firsthand a level of sacrifice and perseverance that “changed our hearts and bound us to the ministry of Walk Thru,” said Rob.

While their experience in Lebanon and their interactions with Walk Thru the Bible’s regional leaders has fueled their passion for the ministry’s international work, Rob and Susan also feel strongly about growing the ministry at home. “We see an opportunity for Walk Thru to be more impactful through the North American ministry,” Rob says. They would love to see more frequent live events and a wider distribution of resources in a North American context. “We’ve been able to give devotionals to friends and family,” says Susan. “We hope that it’s been as fulfilling to them as it is to us.” Walk Thru the Bible’s Biblical Character Series has made a special impact on Rob and Susan. “The series makes you think about these characters in a different way,” says Susan. “My favorite is Chosen, because we don’t talk about Mary that much.” Rob agrees, saying, “One Sunday afternoon, I took our copy of Chosen to my mother. We watched the entire series back to back and just wanted it to continue. My dad passed away two years ago and there are parts of Mary’s story that relates to my mother as a widow—the reliance on God and His Word and His promises when your world’s turned upside down.” As they look forward to another overseas vision trip with Walk Thru the Bible this year, Rob and Susan are sure about one thing. Whether they’re at home in North Carolina or halfway around the world, they can count on Walk Thru the Bible to invite them deeper into God’s Word and deeper into a life of service. .

The Last Word

ne of the things that makes Walk Thru the Bible so impactful is our ability to reach millions of lives with a small staff and budget. All around the world, we invest deeply in the training and equipping of local leaders so that they are mobilized to train and equip hundreds more in their own communities. Sometimes the transformation of an entire city starts with a single leader with a passion for God’s Word. We know that not every person who receives training will train others, but the ones who do can start a chain reaction. Walk Thru the Bible’s model of empowering local partners is critical to our success—not just for training purposes, but for supporting the ministry financi ally. I recently returned from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where I spent several days leading Walk Thru the Bible’s local leaders in an intensive fundra ising seminar. I often find that while many leaders overflow with passion for the daily work of teaching the Bible, they don’t always know how to commu nicate that passion to potential partners. Throughout the course of training, I returned to one basic truth—that true impact comes from the local level. In every country where Walk Thru the Bible works, we must empower local leaders to invest in training, share their vision with potential partners, and take respon sibility for their success. By helping support Walk Thru the Bible’s spiritual multiplication model, you’re making a difference. You’re helping us invest in local leaders so that they can grow their ministry from the ground up and sustain it for generations to come. Thanks to your faithful prayers and support, Walk Thru the Bible is poised to reach more people than ever with the truth of God’s Word in 2017. Sincerely,

Michael Gunnin Vice President for Advancement

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