A religious organization will be in Dallas this week, working with local churches to increase awareness about Christianity leading up to International Day of the Bible.
From November 9 through the 13, Bible League International will be in Dallas training laypeople in Spanish on how to be missionaries.
“The reason we’ve chosen Dallas is because there’s a large Hispanic community and we know that a lot of people in Dallas are coming from different parts of the world and different areas,” said Andrew Earnshaw, director of Bible League International’s U.S. ministry. “Even though Dallas is a Christian city, we want to make sure that everybody is reached. We’re not targeting specifically immigrants who have come over the border but we’re planning on reaching them as well.”
International Day of the Bible is a non-denominational, worldwide celebration of Christianity sponsored by the National Bible Association.
“It’s not just Bible distribution,” Earnshaw told Dallas Express. “It’s an equipping session. We’re actually teaching them to engage other people in scripture, to sit down next to them and form relationships so that it’s relationship-based inductive Bible study.”
The churches participating in the training include Centro Evangelistico Hispano Church in Mesquite on November 11 and IDD Life Fellowship En Espanol in Hurst on November 13.
“A lot of these people coming in don’t have a community of their own,” Earnshaw said in an interview. “They don’t have relationships, don’t have family, or they have family back home. So, we want to build relationships. We want to share the gospel and we also want them to know that there are churches that care about them. We are planning to do English trainings in the future as well.”
Churches interested in the training can contact the Bible League International at [email protected].
Founded in 1938 by Chicago businessman William Chapman, Bible League International has provided more than 920 million Bibles and study resources globally, helped start 6,000 new churches, and trained more than 550,000 people, according to a press release.
“We do ministry work around the nation but we try to help under-resourced churches,” Earnshaw said. “A lot of churches have all the resources they need but we’re there for the under-resourced church that doesn’t quite have money for training or material and things like that. So, we want to be of assistance to them.”
Bible League International also partners with Prison Fellowship International to teach the Bible in prisons in five countries, with ten additional planned in 2021.
“We have something called the Freedom Bible, which has multiple lessons on everything from mental health and how to get a job after prison to how to deal with security guards and how to deal with anger,” Earnshaw added. “We are partnered with Prison Fellowship International to reach people on an international level. We equip them with training on how to train inmates to go and reach other inmates.”
Bible League International Prison Ministry is currently offered in 19 countries, including Africa, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Albania, South and Central American, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic.
