Bibles for All

(1936 - 2009)

"The Word of God is a Human Right"  
Founder of Bibles for All
Back during the early 1980's, when the cold war was still at its height, Kaleb was given a great opportunity. He was taking food into Poland, when the request came for Bibles; The Word of God. The communist government had denied the Polish people a basic human right.

The Beginnings

As a child I grew up in a home often visited by missionaries from around the world. Our little church of less than 150 members had three missionaries as far away as you can get from Norway, and I thought as a young boy that I should also be a missionary. This idea planted within me began to bear fruit in the early 1980's...
It was the Cold War. Strikes ran rampant and martial law ruled Poland. In the midst of this Bibles for All was born as a result of a campaign we started to bring 10 truckloads of food to the Oasis summer camps for the Life and Light youth movement in Poland. There were about half a million members which weekly gathered in small groups. Their leader was my dear friend Father Blachnicski. He was a close friend to cardinal Woytula (now Pope John Paul) who took part in the camps every year. "Life and Light" was listed along with the solidarity movement as a threat to the communist regime. The government tired to stop the camps by stopping access to food. That persecution became a key to open up the door for the Word of God in a country where both communists and Catholics had locked the doors so ordinary people had no access to the Bible. Our campaign did not stop with ten trucks of food. People kept giving and more that 240 trucks were sent to Poland. Then father Blachnicksi said, "Kaleb, we need the Word of God more than food; please send me 1,000,000 Bibles." That was impossible I thought. That many Polish Bibles had not even been printed for the last 400 years! Not only that, but recently I had a hard time getting just 800 New Testaments into the country.
But nothing is impossible for God. The Catholic Church gave me the rights to print unlimited copies of their new millennium translation and the government gave me license to bring freely into Poland one million Bibles. After a couple of years with many problems (like marshal law) 1.4 million Bibles were delivered.
Satan was angry with me and a press release from the Catholic News Agency all over Europe told the world that I was a dangerous right wing militant politician who used manipulated pictures of me and the pope, food and Bibles to overthrow the communist regimes. Another of my polish friends, bishop Romaniuk, told me he was sitting waiting to be arrested because of working with me. When the truth was finally revealed to the Church, they asked for forgiveness and gave me access to all their Bible research and pictures from the Holy Land. Trials can become blessings if we are working within God's calling and we keep faith in the midst of whatever trial may come.
As a part of the Bibles to Poland event, I had traveled to Washington DC. The first night in the hotel I could not sleep. Spending some time in prayer, I almost audibly heard our Lord say: "I have more peoples than the Polish who have not heard my word. These peoples are unknown to the Church. They are like 'blank spots' on the world map of Christianity. This Gospel of the Kingdom must first be preached to all nations - then the end shall come." That sleepless November night in Washington DC in 1982 "Bibles for All" was birthed - first as an idea expressed in the words that later became the slogan for our ministry when BfA was constituted:
Frank Kaleb Jansen

The Kingdom

The Bible starts from Genesis 1:1 to tell us that God created "heavens", which is the invisible realm, and the "earth" the visible realm. The word "God" - "Elohiym", though plural, is translated to "Theos" in Greek, not "theoi" (pl.). It is not a name, but the character of who and what He is. The word describes a "self-existing", "self-sufficient" one that needed nothing to exist. Though difficult to understand, this is why He and only He qualifies for the title "God". He the Creator is "the ruler" - or with another word "the King" over the domain heaven.
He created the earth and everything to fill the air, the water and land including mankind which He authorized as rulers -"kings" over His domain called earth. Jesus confirms that the Kingdom has been prepared "since the creation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Mankind lost the kingdom when we broke the commandment that we should not "eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil". Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden, but God protected them and clothed them and repeated His command to mankind to go on "to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken." (Genesis 3:23)
Therefore our responsibility and authority as rulers of the creation which God "saw was good" has never changed. My only question is: What do we do now in our time, or have we simply neglected this command? Let's walk in this world with the understanding that we are the representatives of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Frank Kaleb Jansen
 

The Body of Christ

Every human being has a God given right to have and to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom!
In spite of the immensity of the vision it has always been clear to me that we are to remain small. Our vision - Bibles for All - can never be fulfilled by any one single ministry. It can only be fulfilled through the cooperative body of all Christians. Therefore our ministry has mainly been as partners and consultants - servants to those who serve God. By staying small in size, numbers and economy we have posed no threat to others. The joy of having worked with and served more than one hundred different mission agencies/denominations around the world surpasses any other joy from any other ambition. For example, a spin off from the Polish campaign was giving the bible research and Holy Land pictures to another ministry for use in the production and publishing in all Scandinavian languages of the Illustrated Bible Encyclopedia. Some of this research was then used in American to produce the 38 volume Complete Biblical Library (BfA now has the right to publish this on DVD).
In a few cases the front-line work has been carried out in our own name; like when the iron curtain fell and we could freely preach and plant churches in the former Soviet Union. Another major achievement has been the publishing of a map which shows our "unfinished missionary task" as Christians. This map helped thousands focus on what many have called "the unreached peoples". Yet, the thousands of Bibles distributed, the many truck loads of relief sent and the distribution of prayer maps was no more important than bringing Christendom to the tiny, unreached Buddhist people group - the Shora people - in south eastern Siberia. For me, that was an emotional highlight from the past 15 years.
Frank Kaleb Jansen
 

The Challenges

The many unreached peoples in the Himalayan mountain region of North India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan still need to hear the Gospel. We have had long partnerships with ministries working in these areas, and these partnerships continue to expand. As we under gird national evangelists we partake in their church planting. Frequent trips taking in supplies offers encouragement and ministry to those who walk the hills and villages with the Gospel of Jesus.
Some might wonder what this has to do with the vision of Bibles for All. To you I will say: "Our calling was never to bring a book to people, but to make the content alive and relevant to them." Nations and homes may be flooded with Bibles. Who reads them? It was important that the Word became flesh through Jesus. It is just as important that the Word also becomes flesh through us, his body; the Church. We shall be His letters posted to every home for every person to 'read'.
Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to a church door in Wittenburg. We continuously hold up 33 points as a challenge to the Church in the 21st century. (You can get these too by writing to us.) We do not expect popularity, but we do expect revival, renewal and a reformation in the Church here, there and everywhere. Looking back on the history of "Bibles for All" we are grateful to you; and to God who made it possible, and surely he who supported us in the past will be the same tomorrow.
Thank you again, and may God richly bless you, your home and your Church!
Frank Kaleb Jansen