What a year! Over the past 365 days we’ve seen multiple millions of pieces of literature fly off the press, equipping thousands of gospel workers across Africa and Asia to bear light in their communities. With your support, more than 725-million gospel publications have been put into the mission field to date.
Hundreds of eager students from around the globe have had transformative encounters with God through ARISE. More than 3,000 eager Christ-followers have been discipled and deployed since ARISE began.
Through preaching and media ministry, many others have encountered a picture of God that has changed their lives.
Light Bearers was born from our own life-altering encounters with God. “Tell the world” seemed to be the only appropriate response. So, in 1987, with a printer and no experience whatsoever, we began doing just that, and for over 32 years this ministry has been sustained by countless others who share that same vision.
While we believe that it is ultimately God who gives success in this work, we also recognize the generosity and sacrifice shown through your financial contributions. In a very real way, you are bearing the light God has given you to the world.
So, we want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you and share what God has accomplished through your financial support of Light Bearers this past year. We think it’s pretty great!
On behalf of the entire Light Bearers team,
Ty Gibson
Publishing Impact
It has toppled world powers, unearthed corruption, shaped modern society, and transformed countless individual lives—it’s a publication known to us as the Bible. Publishing is powerful. That’s why we believe that the work of publishing literature to distribute to the world isn’t just a good Christian thing to do—year by year, it’s transforming the world.
18
Containers with over 24-million pieeces of literature were shipped around the world.
1813
Churches have received literature to use for Bible studies and evangelism.
7801
People were baptized as a result of Bible studies given using these publications.
ARISE Impact
Jesus’ ministry on earth was only three and a half years. Of all the things in which He could have invested His time, He chose discipleship. He spent those short years pouring into twelve people. And when He left, they turned the world upside down.
True discipleship has the same potential today. This is the mission of ARISE, and the impact this year has been incredible!
42
Disciples graduated from ARISE in Australia this year.
378
New disciples signed up to study through ARISE Online.
764
Disciples attended an ARISE Intensive weekend event.
Life Impact
There are so many in this world who are longing for the peace, joy, and belonging offered by God. While numbers help us glimpse the scale of what your support is accomplishing, the real impact is seen in individual lives.
These are stories from around the globe that truly represent the impact of this ministry and serve as a reminder of just how precious this message and work are. From prisoners in Kenya to someone stumbling across online resources, these are a few of their stories—stories made possible by your support.
Without you, many of these stories would not exist. Not only are you a part of this ministry, you are an integral part of these people’s lives. So we’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you and once again say thank you.
Greg Leavitt
I just completed reading Ty Gibson’s book The Sonship of Christ.
Wow!
This is not a “good book” (which I don’t have time for), this is in the category of “best books!” It will be well worth your time. If you are like me, you are going to be seeing some simple, yet profound things you have not seen before.
I purchased my first copy on December 5 in the evening, and finished it by December 9 in the evening (and I’m not a fast reader). As I read, I laughed, I wept, I experienced Pentecostal joy, I was physically shaken and was overwhelmed with the insights and revelations! There were times I experienced for myself what the hymn writer of “Were You There” wrote about: “Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.” This was literally my real experience while reading this book.
It is an amazing journey of getting to peer a little deeper into the loving heart of God!
Geoffrey Nyambuto
My name is Geoffrey Nyambuto. I am 23 years of age and hail from Kisii County, Kenya.
When I came to prison, I felt that life had come to an end. A fellow prisoner asked me whether I had any idea about the Discover Guides. I told him that I didn’t. He humbly explained to me about the study of the Bible. I then started following up on the studies and becoming quite interested in them. I thank God for that Adventist prisoner who helped me see the light and I started seriously reading the Bible.
After reading Psalm 67:71, I realized my sins, desired to change for the better, and made up my mind to be baptized.
I am grateful to the printers of this course since they are changing the lives of many prisoners through the good news. Now I urge my peers to take the Discover Bible studies because there, they will find answers to their needs and problems. These studies opened my eyes and can do the same to all the others who can believe in Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Be blessed, Amen.
Martijn Veenman
I want to thank you for making the truthlink.org website with all its content. My name is Martijn Veenman. I am a 20-year-old and I live in the Netherlands.
Normally I don’t really like Bible reading as I don’t see the links between the different books and events.
Truth Link helped me discover that the Bible is an awesome puzzle of endless knowledge. I am almost finished studying the course and don’t even know what to do afterwards as I love Truth Link so much!
I am grateful to God for helping me understand the testimony of Jesus a lot better than I did. I now know the love of Jesus.
I can’t thank you enough for Truth Link. Keep it up. I will share the website with my friends!
Kind regards,
Martijn Veenman
Didier Brival
My first encounter with ARISE was in college. I clearly remember an ARISE alumni arrived at Southern and delivered a message that was so profound, it didn’t sound like the other messages I’d heard, after over a decade of Adventist education. The years went by and I met more people that went through the program and I was interested but could never find the funds or the time to attend. I’d been a very frequent listener to Pastor Asscherick through the years and was always moved deeply by his messages. Then for my 33rd birthday, my wife got us tickets to the ARISE Intensive in Columbia, MD. The fundamental shift in the basis of my understanding of who God is and how He views me is what has really stuck with me for the weeks and now months since my attendance. Things I’d learned as a lifelong Adventist seemed unpacked and unlocked in a way I hadn’t previously experienced. Creation. Conflict. Covenant. All things we’ve heard before, all explained in a new way. It was a massive blessing to be with believers all while nurturing our understanding of our beautiful Savior.
Timothy Kazembe
Timothy, who is only nine years old and in third grade, decided he wanted to share Discover lessons with his teachers. At his school there are six teachers who are all men. Timothy made sets of Bible lessons with his family, one for every teacher. Timothy took all the sets to school at once and gave them to each teacher, explaining that they were supposed to read the lesson and answer the questions. He would collect them for his father, a Riverside Farm Institute Bible worker, to mark. He took the lessons to school on Monday. Timothy was anxious and on Tuesday he asked the teachers about the lessons but none of the teachers had filled in anything yet. On Wednesday he collected studies from two of the teachers and told the others that their friends are already returning some of the sets. Every day he brought them new lessons to study along with previously marked lessons.
Today all six of the teachers have completed the 26 Bible lesson studies and received certificates. Two of them decided to follow Christ through baptism and a third has accepted Christ as his personal Savior.
Thank You!
We want to say a special thank you to those of you who regularly support Light Bearers financially. Your sacrificial generosity is what makes this ministry possible. You are more than donors, you are partners.
Bear Your Light
Everyone has a part to play in sharing God’s love with a dark world. Wherever you are and whatever you do, you have a part to play. Here are some ways you can join us in bearing this light to the world!
Partner with us by giving regularly. Then this ministry becomes your ministry, because it’s the modest, regular contributions that sustain this work and bear light to the world.
Sponsor a student to attend ARISE through our scholarship program and make it possible for someone to attend ARISE who couldn’t otherwise afford it.
Attend one of our numerous speaking events around the world and encounter God on a deeper, more personal level. Don't forget to bring a friend!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with what’s going on and tell your friends about Light Bearers.
For more ways to get involved, please contact us.
