LAST LESSONS #94 – RJBF

 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11

Two years after Bob had died and I had suffered from several strokes, I asked the Lord why I was still alive. I had learned enough to know that God keeps us alive until we have finished the “works” he planned for us beforehand (Eph. 2:10). My problem was that I did not know what God wanted me to do as a disabled widow. I don’t hear voices, but it seemed that the Lord asked me what was it that I loved. After all, the Lord gives us the desires of our hearts! (Ps. 37:4). I loved the Bible and I loved Africans so the thought came to me that I should put the two together! The first thing I did was to ask Ligonier Ministries how much they would charge me for 1,000 Reformation Study Bibles, and they gave me a good price. Then I asked them to give me a second 1,000. My pastor R.C. Sproul who headed Ligonier, asked me what in the world I was doing! I told him that he was right – that I wanted to continue working in the world by getting Bibles into the hands of Africans. I knew that Rafiki sent containers to Africa and that I could get the Bibles to Africa, so in 2017 I set up a 501(c)3 organization so that I could ask my friends in the US to help me buy Bibles to send to my friends in Africa. I got a board together and we decided to call the organization the ROSEMARY JENSEN BIBLE FOUNDATION (RJBF).

Of course, all work of RJBF is done by volunteers enabling 100% of donations to be applied to the purchase and shipping of Bibles. Donations are tax-deductible and can be sent with an email address to the Rosemary Jensen Bible Foundation, P. O. Box 488, Eustis, FL 32727.

 

Since Rafiki works with 23 denominations and 30 seminaries, so far, we have sent 50,000 Reformation Study Bibles to seminarians with Ligonier’s promise to give us 50,000 more in the next five years. We have also sent Crossway’s Systematic Theology Study Bible to 20,000 pastors, thousands of Crossway’s Study Bibles to teachers and secondary school graduates, Following Jesus Bibles to school children, and Holy Bible for Kids to Rafiki and church schoolchildren as soon as they were able to read. Praise God, he has seen that close to 100,000 Bibles have been sent to Africans with who knows how many more in the days to come!

 

It’s hard for me to believe that God would allow an old disabled widow to be involved with something this exciting. The Africans appreciate these Bibles and they use them! Pastors preach from their Bibles. Teachers use their Bibles to instruct their students. Schoolchildren take their Bibles home and read them to their parents and siblings. God says that his Word “shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

I know this is true, and I am grateful that I have been able to see a little of the fruit in the lives of the Bible recipients while I am still alive. I am also grateful for:

• The ability to still put some of my money into the RJBF fund each month.
• The friends who are donating to RJBF to get more Bibles to Africans.
• The board members who are giving of their funds, time, and effort to make RJBF successful.
• That when I die, Rafiki will manage the RJBF so that thousands and thousands more Africans, especially children, will receive Bibles to accomplish the purpose for which God wrote it.

What an amazing God we have!