It’s 6 AM and already 17 new emails have appeared in my inbox. No, wait, four more just arrived, so make that 21. By 9 o’clock there will be 40 or more. Here’s one from Stephanie, who coordinates literature shipments from Light Bearers. She is excited to share the good news that the container of gospel tracts we’ve been trying to get cleared for distribution in India has just been officially released from customs. “Praise God,” I reply. Here’s another email from Karl announcing that all the new students for the 2017 ARISE discipleship program are now situated in the dorm and ready for the first day of class. Here’s another one from a brother who lives New York City explaining that he has been so powerfully impacted by watching Table Talk—our discussion format television program—that it has “saved my life and my marriage and delivered me from addiction.”
they will be testifying to the radical transformation that has occurred in their perception of God, themselves, and others.
After a workout, breakfast, and a shower, I head to campus for the first day of a thirteen-week journey. As I stand up to teach the opening day of classes—which is a whirlwind tour of the entire story of the Bible as a preliminary overview for what’s coming—I look out at the rows of students, and it’s a beautiful sight to behold. On the front row to my right is a young man from Croatia named Stjepan. He stands out because his eyes are two different colors. Right behind him is a young lady who’s already had a lifetime of pain and she’s only 19 years old, with cowboy boots on her feet and a big smile on her face. There’s a 22-year-old guy with long brown hair who was raised in the Nazarene church and found us by watching YouTube videos, a 19-year-old boy from Pakistan who’s been preaching sermons since he was a little boy, a slender guy from Uganda, a gangster-looking kid from San Diego, a curly-headed boy from Brazil, and a bunch of others all lined up in rows eager to open the Word of God and do ministry in the community. They’ll all be here with us for a significant chunk of time, and by the end of the experience they will be testifying to the radical transformation that has occurred in their perception of God, themselves, and others. They will never be the same.
When I’m done teaching for the day, I drop by the office. I can hear the hum of the printing press coming from the publishing house, a 20,000 square foot building behind the Light Bearers office. Brent and Daniel are hard at work, printing, folding, boxing, palletizing, and organizing a nonstop stream of gospel literature, which is loaded into containers and then shipped to designated areas around the world. These two men are performing a hugely impactful ministry for millions of people. Each piece of literature is a sermon, a message, a powerful declaration of God’s saving love. In the work they do, Brent and Daniel preach more sermons in a single day than I’ll preach in my entire lifetime. But sermons must be preached, and what a privilege it is to do so. I’ll spend the rest of the evening preparing messages for an upcoming evangelistic series in Denver.
Each piece of literature is a sermon, a message, a powerful declaration of God’s saving love.
Of course, there is a lot more to it than this and there are many other Light Bearers team members engaged in various ministry projects for the proclamation of the gospel, but this gives you a simple snapshot of what a day in the life of Light Bearers looks like. What an awesome privilege it is to work with this dedicated team of people to advance the kingdom of Christ and hasten His soon return! As 2017 begins to draw to a close, we want to thank you for being a part of this ministry through your prayers and support.
Ty Gibson
Ty is a speaker/director of Light Bearers. A passionate communicator with a message that opens minds and moves hearts, Ty teaches on a variety of topics, emphasizing God’s unfailing love as the central theme of the Bible. Ty and his wife Sue have three adult children and two grandsons.
