Epic International Update

Kansas City Church Publishes 52,000 Farsi New Testaments

When Guttenberg invented the movable type printing press in the 14th Century, the church, for the most part, delegated the responsibility of "publishing" the Word of God to the business world. Many believers today are convinced that this was not what God intended when we gave His Word to His church.

In Old Testament and Medieval times, scribes would meticulously pen copies of the sacred manuscripts. It was a hallowed responsibility. Worshippers considered the copying process to be of the highest honor to God Almighty. Through the years, this has been lost.

Kansas City Baptist Temple in Kansas City, Missouri feels that much of this hallowed responsibility still rests upon the church. Annually, during the week-long Bible conference, their church members are engaged in "publishing" Bibles and Scripture portions. They collate, bind, trim, and finish Bibles. They then box and ship them around the world. For thirty years this process has grown to be one of the most exciting weeks in the church.

This year, KCBT's project was the Farsi New Testament and a partnership with EPIC. Farsi is the language of the Persian speaking world in modern-day Iran. The strategy was to print pages for 52,000 New Testaments, ship them to the church and, during the week of the conference, finish the binding process and ship them to EPIC for distribution in Iran and other Muslim countries.

Hundreds of church members participated in the 24-hour daily process by coming to the church to work. The amount of 52,000 was the largest ever attempted by the church in one week. But they reached their goal before the week was over and more than one-half of these books are on their way to various staging areas of the world and will soon be in the hands of Muslims seeking the truth.

Dr. Jeff Adams, the pastor of KCBT, stated, "this years' project is by far the largest we have ever attempted and seemed to challenge our people more than in earlier years. It was exciting to see it come together and it was obviously a God ordained project. We are now in regular prayer as a church for those who will be receiving these New Testaments."