July-Aug-Sept 2016 Number 3Volume 47

2101 Hwy 231 South • Shelbyville, TN 37160-6718(931) 684-0304 • Fax (931) 684-5442

Email: officeblmf@bellsouth.net • web site: www.biblelit.comDr. Bob Lemmon, Founder • Dr. Robert M. Lemmon, Jr., Director

Sponsored by Victory Baptist Church, Shelbyville, TNDr. Jim Tedder, PastorPrinting Scriptures since 1968

Bible & Literature Missionary Foundation

Global Witness

Reaching This Generationin This Generation

Reaching This Generationin This Generation

The great commission is recorded in the Scriptures five times instructing the church to “GO” preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be witnesses to every creature in every nation all the way to the uttermost. The command to “GO” is clear but since the days of the Apostles and the

early New Testament Church there seems to be some misunderstanding as to who is to go, when are we/they to go and, who is going to pay for all of this going! The answer is very simple, “EVERY”, every Christian to every creature in every nation!

God’s word is very precise concerning the time we should trust Christ, it says that “…now is the accepted time; behold, now (today) is the day of salvation.” There is an urgency since we do not have any promise of tomorrow, and today is all we have! Would it not then be logical that if today is the day of salvation that the lost must also hear the Gospel today? The great commission started when God gave the command to “GO” and it became our responsibility the instant we received Christ and our responsibility won’t end for us until our death or the rapture. We don’t need a call when we have a c o m m a n d ; we all have a command to go, some to Jerusalem and Judea with others to Samaria and to the uttermost. Every Christian has a personal responsibility to take the Gospel to the whole world, God just calls some of His special servants to leave home and take His Word to the regions beyond while He leaves

the rest of us at home to evangelize our Jerusalem and Judea. Since God accepts volunteers we have a choice where we serve, but not “if we serve”.

According to Acts 2:45, God’s people sold their possessions and gave them to the Church so that the needs of all of the people were met; and the church

was responsible to distribute those funds accordingly. In Acts 13: 2&3 we see that God called, the Holy Spirit directed them; but it was the responsibility of the Church to send the missionaries and provide for their financial needs, II Cor. chapter 8. God’s people giving to be a supply for their want

(need). God has a very specific plan for reaching the world with His Gospel! God’s plan is also perfect; our failure to evangelize the world is because of our dereliction of duty! The Scriptures teach us that there should be an equality in our service, our giving and in our sacrifice! I think it is pretty obvious, that we will never evangelize the world with the Gospel until those who set in the church pews are willing to make an equal sacrifice for Christ as those who are leaving their families, homes, safety and financial security to go to the uttermost!

How long are we to go and give, according to the instruction God gave Isaiah (6:11), we are to go until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and

the land be utterly desolate. We’re to work while it is yet day because the night cometh when no man can work, meaning we’re to go and send while there’s light because the time is coming in a few hours when the “Son” will set and our opportunity to go and send will

end. And, simple logic tells us that we can only go or send while there is life so we can conclude that the time to reach this generation is right

Coming soon to Shelbyville, TN! Better than the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration, more spectacular than the county fair or the mule show, it’s the BLMF annual Scripture Conference, Monday October the 17th and Tuesday the 18th! Cancel all other plans, mark your calendar, make your motel reservations, dust off your Bible, catch up on your praying and gas up the old car because you sure don’t want to miss this year’s conference.

This will be our eighth conference since we started back having them in 2008 and each year they seem to just get bigger and better! This will be the third time that Dr. David Gibbs has come as our featured keynote speaker. Our keynote speakers in previous years have been Dr. Joe Arthur, Dr. Tom Sexton, Dr. Raymond Barber, Dr. John Hamblin, Dr. Bobby Roberson and last year, Dr. R.B. Ouelette. Our Scripture Conferences have become the highlight of our year! We look forward to this time of fellowship every year with all of our friends and family. The wonderful attendance is a blessing and an encouragement to the Lemmon family, our BLMF Board, representatives and staff, thank you! We especially appreciate and thank the Lord for you dear wonderful friends who make it a point to come every year, you are family.

These conferences are very meaningful and beneficial to this ministry in many ways, the great preaching, music, food and fellowship sure but more than that, to Conference continued on Page 2

Rowallan Park Primary SchoolSouth Africa

Reaching continued on Page 2

Bibles for Belizeshipped out September 14, 2016

2Conference continued from Page 1know and be reminded that we have a lot of friends who love this ministry and are praying for us. As I remind you every year, those who love their Bible and missions support this ministry financially, those who love and appreciate this ministry attend the Scripture conference. We understand that some of you cannot come every year because of your schedules, bi-vocational pastors who can’t get off work, the distance and expense or age or health reasons. This being the case however, I would certainly like to encourage every supporting pastor to make it a point to attend at least once and as often as possible! These conferences also give us the opportunity to give a personal report of what the Lord has enabled us to accomplish in the past year and to share our goals and visions for the coming year. And last but not least, it gives you, our friends, family and guests the opportunity to visit in the shop, to see firsthand and in person what the Lord is doing through this ministry, to smell the ink and chemicals that are part of what we do every day and to feel the presence of the Lord in this place. If the eye affects the heart and it does, then you can’t visit this ministry without it touching your heart and blessing your soul! If you have not, you definitely need to come see the magic that takes place when we put black ink on white paper and it instantly becomes the living Word of God!

The Victory Baptist Church of Shelbyville, our home church is our also our Host Church again this year pastored for 54 years by Dr. Jim Tedder, our Host Pastor. Our conference schedule for 2016 is consistent with those of previous years as well. You will however, find a schedule located elsewhere in this newsletter along with a list of our many outstanding speakers. Dinner and supper will be provided both days for all pastors, preachers, their wives, all missionaries, full time Christian workers and all of our out of town guests. If you are a pastor and unable to provide your own accommodations for Monday night of the 17th please contact us before Monday, October the 10th. Pastors traveling without their wife will be asked to share their motel room with double beds with another pastor. As always, every pastor present will receive a special gift. This year’s gift to supporting pastors is a beautiful, limited edition $50 value produced by Awake America. This is their third book, in their series entitled “The Sacrifices that Defines America”! A REMINDER - as with all previous Scripture conferences, our Monday, October noon “Lunch with the Board” is by RSVP! Please return your RSVP card to us, phone our office or email your RSVP for this special gourmet lunch on or before October the 10th. Thank you!

Also, please be praying for this year’s meeting and our speakers as we truly desire first and foremost that Christ will be exalted and glorified in everything that we say, do, sing, and preach; that His precious Word will honored and magnified; and that this ministry will be strengthened and built up!

At both evening services, we will recognize the church with the most in attendence. The pastor of the church will receive a special gift each night.

There they were…ordinary men who met the Saviour and accomplished extraordinary things – turning the world upside down,

in fact. All of them going to different destinations preaching the Gospel and winning souls for Christ. Not just one disciple deciding to make a difference, but all of them. Besides, why is it so exhilarating

to watch a classic game of pigskins being hurled across a long field of green? Eleven determined players on 100 yards have one common goal, and it is apparent as each of them give it “all they got” through tackles, passes, and catches to achieve that goal. There is certainly a

powerful dynamic in team.

The idea of teamwork is Biblical and definitely predates any modern invention of games and recreation. God’s Word says that in marriage we are, “heirs together of the grace of God.” Jesus sent His disciples out two by two, demonstrating the importance of team. Paul had a

team of seven who assisted him in the ministry. We at BLMF are fully aware of the concept of team, as we would not have presses running or Scriptures being shipped without local churches that see the need

to be involved with the production of God’s Word…fruit that may abound to their account.

We offer another opportunity of teamwork to you as a Pastor. While we are incredibly grateful for every door the Lord opens allowing us to present this ministry to churches across the Nation, we also must admit that we simply are not acquainted with every single

Fundamental Baptist Pastor out there. This is where you may be a great blessing to BLMF and its continued growth. You have

other Pastor friends and family members or local Pastors in your fellowship with whom you may be able to share this Bible-printing work. A simple mention of all God is doing through His “Bible Barn” in Shelbyville, Tennessee, a referral to our website, or giving a BLMF

representative’s prayer card to your Pastor friend could result in tremendous additions to our Scripture production.

A terrific way to introduce them to this ministry is by bringing them as a guest to our Annual Scripture Conference at Victory

Baptist Church coming up soon on October 17th & 18th. Join us for a delectable Luncheon with the Board of Directors and a tour of the print shop where they may see the Scriptures produced first

hand. They will be refreshed by two days of exceptional, Spirit-filled preaching and Southern hospitality.

Perhaps you might inform them about great ways to partner with BLMF through being a yearly paper roll sponsor – taking up offerings throughout the year – or about our Legacy Program of

memorials, through which many churches have sponsored tens of thousands of dollars in Scriptures. Please let us know if we may

assist you in this prayerful endeavor. We are happy to provide you with our Pastor Portfolios containing concise information about

BLMF and its local church mission.

As many told Grandpa 48 years ago when he and my Dad started this ministry, “Bob Lemmon, you’re a nut. One church cannot produce

the Word of God for the world,” his response would always be, “No, one church can’t…but together, we CAN.” May we seize these last

days and do all we can to produce more Scriptures for the lost and dying world. May we inform those God has placed in our paths about BLMF and be more diligent in “getting the word out” about “Getting

the WORD out!”

LABOURERS TOGETHER WITH GOD:Pastors Partnering in Printing

-Shannon Lemmon-

now, before the unreached perish and become unreachable and while we have life and the ability to go. The only window of opportunity that we have to reach the unreached people that are living today, in this generation is to go now, this generation!

If we (this generation of Christians) do not reach this generation (of lost people) then who will? To quote a

dear pastor friend, “The u n r e a c h e d people of the world are not unreachable; they just haven’t been r e a c h e d yet!” No, my dear friends, God’s written Word is not secondary to the preached

word nor is it a cheap substitute for sending missionaries, they must have both! If God is not a respecter of persons, and He’s not, then why should the privileged few be the only ones to have a copy of His written Word? We must give the unreached people something and must give it to them now for behold today is the day of salvation! This year’s BLMF 2016 Scripture campaign is very appropriately called “Reaching This Generation In This Generation”. If you and your church have not already made a financial investment in this campaign please prayerfully consider what the Lord would have you to do to help. We have commitments to produce and ship 6 more containers of Bibles and Scriptures this year with less than 4 month to do it. By the time you receive this newsletter we will have produced and shipped 8 containers of Scriptures this year from 10 trailer loads of paper. To fill these remaining commitments this year we need to purchase 7 more trailer loads of paper and the plates, ink, glues and cover stocks to produce and finish them into Scriptures.

Reaching continued from Page 1

New Testaments in Zambia

Create a lasting memorial by sponsoring Bibles for those in need! Just $2.50 provides a Bible in honor or in memory of your loved ones. Beautiful cards available for all occasions.

Debt-Freeand

500 in TwoSee enclosed article!

2018

3

The Bible & Literature Missionary Foundation is a co-operative effort of Independent Baptist Churches working together collectively to produce and distribute the verbally inspired, infallible, inherent, pure, preserved written word of God, what we call “partner churches”. In addition to these “partner churches” and individuals, their prayers, financial support and volunteer labor, we have a few other churches and Christian friends who give as they can and when they can. Together, these churches and Christian friends have contributed $487,908.68 from 1/1/2016 thru 8/31/2016 designated as support, paper and Bible sponsors.

Since 1/1/16 we have spent $552,221.47 to print 1,075,000 Bibles, New Testaments and Bible portions and shipped or have ready to ship 956,204 Scriptures, 108,136 Bibles, 321,836 New Testaments and 526,232 Bible portions in 16 languages going into 48 countries. If the Lord should enable us to fill the remaining commitments that we have for this year we should end 2016 with a distribution of around 1.5 million. This will be short of our original goal for the year but 300,000 Bibles and Scriptures above last year’s production. As you know, we can only produce what we can raise the funds to pay for! To God be the glory for the increase and a very big, sincere thank you to all of you BLMF Bible partners and Christian friends who have given so generously to make this ministry possible. Thank you!

If you run the math you can see that we have actually spent more to produce these Scriptures than we have received as we owe for the last two trailer loads of paper that we purchased in August, a cost of $69,080. The good news is that a church that has already purchased 2 trailer loads of paper this year has committed to pay for one of these, praise God. And by faith, we have already purchased and received two more trailer loads for September and have two more trailer loads of surplus paper on order for October. When surplus paper is available we have to purchase it right then or pass on it, if we pass, we lose out on the savings. For these five remaining trailer loads of paper we need to raise $160,000, a savings of $12,700 on the surplus paper. Now the bad news is, we need to raise half of the $160,000 this month (September) and the balance in October. With all of the requests that we currently have, we definitely need the paper and we need it now. We have gone from no paper on the floor to five trailer loads. If we can keep the web press running every day, and we plan to, we can consume all of this paper in the next two months. If we are ever going to reach this generation for Christ we are going to have to reach this generation now!

For the benefit of those who do not receive our monthly “Prayer/Support Letters” here is a list of the containers that we have shipped this year; (1)Missionary Joshua Rhodes, Guyana, S.A., (2)Missionaries Rodger & Cheryl Riley, Philippines, (3)Missionaries Jerold & Karen Myers, South Africa, (4)Cornerstone Baptist in Crossville for national pastors in the Philippines, (5)Dr. R.G. Smith, Kenya, (6a)half of a container to BEAM’s ministry for the Philippines, (6b)a half container to a missionary in Honduras, (7)Ed Stanley with missionary’s Helps Ministry for Togo and (8)one for missionary Selmer Peterson and three missionary friends in Belize. In addition, several pallets and hundreds of smaller quantities and cases have gone to numerous other missionaries in many other countries.

Commitments that we need to supply before the end of this year; 300,000 Creole Bible portions for Haiti, 5,000 English Bibles for a national pastor in Kenya, 10,000 English Bibles for New Guinea, 25,000 Spanish New Testaments & 50,000 Sp. Bible portions for Columbia, S.A., 12,000 English Bibles for Liberia, 500 Sp. Bibles for the Dominican Republic, 2,000 English Bibles & 6,000 English N.Ts for Botswana, 10,000 Zokam N.Ts for the U.S., container of 25,000 Burmese Bibles for Miramar and 25,000 Croatian N.Ts for Croatia. The paper that we have on hand will not be sufficient to print all of these!

Other request for Scriptures but not committed; 20,000 Tagalog/Eng. N.Ts for the Philippines, container of 30,000 English Bibles for Zimbabwe, container of Tagalog/Eng. N.Ts for the Philippines, a second container of Burmese Bibles for Miramar, 50,000 Soul-Winning booklets for Honduras. Plus request to print French, Japanese and Koran whole Bibles. These are projects will have to be carried over into next year as we would not have time to do them this year even if we had sufficient funds to purchase the paper and materials.

If you and your church are not already involved with or supporting a Scripture printing ministry we invite and encourage you to join hands with us as a “Bible partner” in this ministry. Please help us to be able to supply these Bibles and Scriptures so that our missionaries who are serving the Lord in these impoverished countries can obtain God’s Word for their people free of charge, many of whom do not have or possibly never will have a Bible. We’re trying to reach this generation in this generation, will you help us through your regular financial support or as a paper roll or Bible sponsor? These missionaries cannot do the work of God without the Word of God!

P.S. We just received confirmation that container 7 to Togo has arrived safely and in very good condition; on the first day of distribution 60 people were saved. All containers that have been shipped this year have reached their destination and are producing fruit!

Production and Financial ReportThrough August!

Bibles in Guyana

A Special Message From The Director!

“Debt Free and 500 in Two”

I would like to preface this article by thanking all of you who partner with

this great ministry, for your prayers, your friendship and faithful financial support! Many of you have been dear friends and faithful partners for many years, some thirty, some forty years or more, and a few of you, since this ministry began in 1968, to God be the glory! But whether you have been a BLMF Scripture partner for 48 years or for 3 weeks, we thank you! With your help this ministry has come a long way, from a few pallets of paper a year producing a few thousand New Testaments and Bible portions to 12 to 16 trailer loads of paper a year producing 1.2 to 2 million Bibles, New Testaments and Bible portions a year. With your help, this ministry is making a tremendous impact around the world, from our last container of Bibles and Scriptures to Kenya this year. Dr. R.G. Smith the field representative with IBOM has reported 3,035 saved, 800 in just one service. Brother Ed Stanley with Missionary Helps Ministry with the recent container to Togo reporting over 100 saved the first day the container arrived. We used to ship cases and “M” bags by the post office, now it’s containers! God has been faithful and has blessed and honored the distribution of His precious written Word. As a result of churches and God’s people investing in the production and distribution of His Word, our missionaries are far more effective and productive today than ever before in reaching the lost and training their people.

In those early years some of you, in addition to helping purchase paper

and materials, also helped us to purchase the additional equipment that we needed and in 1972 to purchase property and build our first building here in Shelbyville. Along the way we added two more buildings and two additions to existing buildings at the old property, our first web press in 1978 and over the years we up graded several older pieces of equipment and finely the old web press in 2004. Because you gave toward these special projects, all of these additions and up grades were accomplished without any sacrifice to or decrease in our Scriptures production. After paying off the web press purchased in 2004 we were completely debt free and had not raised any money for buildings or equipment until we launched our campaign to purchase the Bible Barn, modify and get moved into it in 2014. It was during those years that we were able to see our Scripture production experience its greatest growth from 2007 to 2013. Many of you have given to some or most of these projects, thank you! You are the reason that this ministry has been able to produce and distribute the millions of Bibles and Scriptures that we have. As a result of your generosity and faithfulness, millions of lost men, women, boys and girls have come to know Christ

as their Saviour. It’s been worth all of the money, long hours, hard work, blood, sweat and tears that we have invested!

But that’s not the end of this story! As a result of our purchasing well-

built, good equipment, over the last twenty or twenty-five years we are in really great shape equipment wise for the future with the exception of one older digital printer that needs to be replaced. With the addition of the beautiful five color 23”x29” sheetfed press that we purchased after moving into the Bible barn last year this ministry is ready and in a wonderful position to be able to double our current production. In the purchase of all of this equipment the Lord has wonderfully blessed enabling us to find what we needed, when we needed it for extremely good prices such as the web press in 2004, a $375,000 press for $200,000 and this $350,000, 5 color press for $135,000. God has been so good! He provided the $670,000 to enable us to purchase the Bible barn in May of 2014, and with your generous contributions since our Scripture Conference in 2014 we have paid off our $400,000 building loan used to modify the building. With this behind us, our only remaining debt is for our five-color press and a small balance for the conversion of our web press from two to three webs. In light of the actual value of this equipment and the benefit they are and have already been to this ministry, this $200,000 investment is small in comparison to the dividends received from them.

Now, the purpose of this article! As the director, I have two

personal goals for this ministry with a set date that I am asking the Lord to enable us to accomplish them by. Goal # 1. To pay off this remaining $200,000 equipment debt! Goal #2. To raise an additional 200 new, regular supporting churches or annual paper roll sponsors. And, to accomplish both of these goals in two years before our 50th anniversary in 2018. The purchase of the 5-color press and modifications to the web press were absolutely necessary to make it possible for us to be able to double our present production and the increase in support will help us to get there. The timing to do this while we were moving into the Bible barn was also very critical, a savings of $75,000.

Will you please join me in asking the Lord to help us to reach

these two objectives before our 50th anniversary in 2018 and then, please prayerfully consider what the Lord would have you to help with the financial need to achieve these goals. With the 300 regular supporting churches that we currently have this will raise our support level to 500 churches enabling us to purchase one trailer load of paper a month, every month. This goal is to be “Debt free with 500 Scripture partners in two years.” For short, we’ll call it “Debt free and 500 in Two”!

-RobeRt Lemmon-

4

Dr. Bill BoruffPresident

Dr. Jim RolenVice President

Dr. John HillSecretary

Pastor Tony AyersTreasurer

Pastor RickEverhart

Dr. Charles Redmond

Dr. Jim TedderPastor Sandy Seaba

BLMF Board of Directors

We have two plaques in the lunch room of the Bible Barn listing the names of the churches and individuals who made contributions October of 2013 thru Resurrection Sunday, April 20, 2014 sponsoring 10 sq. ft. or more of the 32,850 sq. ft. Bible Barn. We came up a little short of the $670,000 that we needed to pay cash for the building when we closed on it on May 15th but within a matter of a few weeks the Lord had provided the balance. In an effort to get the building ready to occupy as quickly as possible our Board of Directors unanimously voted to borrow $400,000 to modify the building as necessary to make it suitable for printing Bibles, replace 24,000 sq. ft. of a gravel floor with 550 cubic yards of concrete, heat and air condition 27,750 sq. ft., convert all of the electrical over to 3-phase, change out the 100 ceiling lights over to ones that would be more energy efficient and then wire in every piece of equipment as it was moved to the new building.

Folks, I never dreamed that it could or would be so expensive and time consuming as it turned out to be but God saw us through it and with most of the equipment already in we moved the offices in and started operating out of the Bible Barn on Monday, January 12th, 2015. What a glorious day! What a tremendous blessing! What a miracle! What a mighty God we serve, praise His blessed name! There is no doubt in my mind but what the God had this building saved and waiting for this ministry. We probably could have been in it several years earlier than

we were but it took us seven years to ask God for the building, two more years to exercise the faith to make the owner an offer on it, but only 6 months to close the deal and raise the money to purchase it. A miracle building for a miracle ministry! I thank God for this building and for each and every one of you who helped to make this building a reality. I praise God and tear up with gratitude and thanksgiving every time I come on this property. To God be the glory!

This $400,000 loan enabled us to pay for all of the modifications that were necessary and, for some of our moving expenses. Following our appeals for help to pay this note off at our 2014 Scripture Conference and again at our 2015 Scripture Conference, God provided by way of the generosity of churches and Christian friends with many giving sacrificially and beyond their means. Another miracle, $400,000 paid off in only two years! Here’s another miracle for you, the total cost to purchase and modify the Bible barn came to $32 per sq. ft., go build a building for that if you can! Unfortunately we do have a small equipment debt remaining as a result of two opportunities that the Lord put before us, while we were moving, both of which the Lord gave us total peace about, the purchase of a used but like new 5-color sheet fed press and we modified our web to run 3 webs. These are decisions which have already proved to be invaluable to this ministry and to our future growth. Please see a separate article in this issue entitled “Debt Free & 500 in two”!

$400,000 Building deBt

Paid Off in twO Years!

and not pictured: Robert M. Lemmon, Director