Trusting the Bible / M&M's / Biblical Bunyan!

View this email in your browser

From Steve Lancaster, UK Director - July/August 2025

Trusting the Bible / M&M's / Biblical Bunyan! 

M&M’s - not the sweets! Last month I travelled to Hermanus in South Africa for five days of Management Meetings. Travel plans and connections all went very smoothly; no delays or setbacks, so to those who prayed for this trip, thank you. Many of the sessions included personnel from one of our funding partners, the Seed Company, who are now in their fourth year of partnering with us. It was great to meet folks face-to-face instead of on-screen, and to meet staff from around the world, some of whom work in vastly different circumstances to me. It was also good to get a progress report from our president, Kobus van Aswegen. According to our latest stats we’re now involved in 434 Bible translation projects in 32 different countries, with 1,127 indigenous translators beavering away verse by verse! It’s amazing to think that it was only back in 2018 that we passed the milestone of being involved in 100 projects!! Thank you Lord for this rapid growth. 

Lifting up our Translation Teams in Troubled Times:

We’ve recently had the following prayer request from one of our teams in an Asian country: “We ask for your urgent and heartfelt prayers for our finance manager who is currently facing danger due to the recent enforcement of the new military conscription law in the country. Under this law, all men under a certain age are being forcibly drafted into military service. Last night, local authorities entered his home, confiscated their family registration documents and national ID card, and placed the household under close scrutiny. This is a deeply distressing time for him and his family. Pray for God’s protection over him and his family; for wisdom and peace in the face of fear and uncertainty, and for divine intervention for justice, mercy, and peace in this country. Please uphold the other members of our team, including staff & translators who are similarly affected, or at risk. Your prayers are deeply appreciated. Thank you.” 

Please also pray for D who is one of our leaders based in an Asian country. He was able to attend last year’s leadership meetings in South Africa, but this year he wasn’t there. It turns out that his government has charged him with various ‘offences’ and have restricted his movements, whilst also monitoring his emails and phone calls - all because of his faith. Please pray for this guy as there is a sense of frustration, loneliness, and isolation.

Please pray that even though they walk through the valley at this time, they would fear no evil and they would sense God with them, comforting them with his presence (Psalm 23:4). And pray that these “disciples may be strengthened in their faith and encouraged to remain true” (Acts 14:22).

Why Trust the Bible? Amy Orr-Ewing.  

Back in mid-April we were able to hold our first vision-casting event in the south-west of England, with nearly 80 people in attendance. Amy Orr-Ewing was the key-note speaker who spoke on the subject of ‘Why trust the Bible?’ It’s a huge subject and not one that she had time to deal with fully in a 40-minute session! Here’s a snippet from the intro to her book with the same title:

“There is absolutely no doubt that the Christian message stands or falls upon the authenticity of the Bible. Believing it to be God’s Word, millions across history have staked their lives on it. Destiny-defining trust has been placed on it. Graveside hope has been based upon it. Extraordinary good has been spread because of it. The charters of nations have been built upon it. With equal intensity others have sought to expel it, and wrong-headed zeal has caused untold evil in its name. There is no book in history that has been studied, so used, and so abused as the Holy Bible.”

So – is God’s Word really God’s Word? Why can we trust the Bible? In her book Amy seeks to answer this question, but for a shorter article written by Amy for the event, please click on this link to our website.
https://www.twftw.org.uk/news/why-trust-the-bible 

Welcome to our new Finance Officer! 

Someone else who believes in the power of God’s Word is our new Finance Officer, Rachel Booth. She started working with us at the start of June and lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children. Rachel brings with her a lot of accounting experience, having studied for a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, and also having lectured in finance during a previous role. She belongs to Hope Community Church near Cambridge, where she is also the treasurer. We praise God for Rachel's appointment and look forward to working with her as she ‘crunches those numbers’ and keeps an eye on our finances. 

Bunyan's Blood was Bibline!

Over the past few months whilst driving the UK roads, I’ve been listening to John Piper’s biography lectures on well-known Christians from yesteryear. There are over 20 biographies on his website – all of them well worth listening to, providing a huge amount of inspiration and challenge!
https://www.desiringgod.org/biographies. 

I was recently listening to the one on John Bunyan, the man who wrote one of the most significant works of literature the world has seen! In fact, his allegory on the Christian life has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print! It is of course, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’. One literary editor said of this book: “Apart from the Bible there is no book in English to equal Bunyan's masterpiece for the range of its readership, or its influence on such a diverse number of writers.” Bunyan spent 12 years in a Bedford jail cell; his ‘crime’ had been to preach the gospel without a license and to hold services without the backing of the established Church of England! 

What struck me most was how thoroughly biblical Bunyan was. Charles Spurgeon put it like this: "Bunyan had studied the Bible until his whole being was saturated with Scripture. Why, this man is a living Bible! Prick him anywhere and you will find that his blood is Bibline, and the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.” And this is why Bunyan was able to say of his writings, "I have not fished in other men's waters; my Bible and Concordance are the only library in my writings.” He was indeed a man who reverenced the Word of God and trembled at the prospect of dishonouring it - "let me die with the Philistines rather than deal corruptly with the blessed word of God!”

The influence of John Bunyan is still felt today because he so reverenced the Bible. But back in the seventeenth century, what would Bunyan have done if he had not had a Bible he could read and understand? Not a great deal! As an organisation, TWFTW continues in its efforts to bring God’s Word to people who don’t yet have the Bible in their heart language. Who knows, there could well be a future Bunyan out there somewhere who, with the help and use of God’s powerful Word, could influence millions! 

Out & About Diary Dates for July/Aug

6th July:         Strete Evangelical Church, Devon (AM)
30th July:       Corsham Baptist Church mid-week service (PM)
17th Aug:       Hanham Baptist Church, Bristol (AM)
24th Aug:       Oak Hall Church, Caterham, Surrey (AM)

Praise & Prayer Points:

Please pray for our new finance officer, Rachel, as she gets to grips with her role

We praise God for a peace treaty signed between DRC Congo and Rwanda at the end of last month. Pray that this would hold! May this breakthrough significantly help our translators in reaching those who don’t have God’s Word. 

Barry Funnell (trustee) is the International Training Consultant for TWFTW. He is always on the lookout for more consultants! Praise God that nine experienced translators from different language groups in south-east Asia are right now being trained to become translators. 

Barry and his wife Julia, and a couple of TWFTW supporters, are also heading to a south-east Asia country for the launch of 3 different New Testaments (25 July-2 Aug). This will take our New Testament total very close to the 100 mark! Pray for their safety and for the urgent issue of their visas!  

July & August are quieter months for me in terms of travel. This will give me more time for sermon prep, as I’m starting to prepare for two teaching series in August & Sept. As I prepare, please pray that I wouldn’t “water-down God’s Word to make it more palatable, or look to see which way the wind is blowing”!!