Imagine discovering a life-changing mission born out of a broken foot, a voyage to an Indian village, and the determination of three courageous men. That's the captivating genesis of the Bible Baptist Translators Institute (BBTI). Join me as I sit down and chat with Rex Cobb, the current director of BBTI, unraveling the dynamic narrative behind this impactful institution.
We delve into the transformative journey of BBTI, from its humble beginnings over 50 years ago to being a beacon of support for missionaries across 56 countries today. Rex shares fascinating insights into the nine-month program, the ingenious approach to funding, and how they've managed to revolutionize missionary preparation. You'll hear about their students, who receive their education free of charge, and how the staff sustains this through the support of churches, graduates, and individual contributors. You won't want to miss the inspiring story of a graduate who mastered the art of drywall before embarking on a mission to China.
As we round off our chat, we delve into the often-underestimated significance of missions in today's world and how we can contribute to nurturing future missionaries. Rex underscores the necessity for active church and individual engagement in missions, be it through prayer, financial aid, or local community work. We also share some moments of profound gratitude and words of encouragement for those contemplating a life in missions. So come, embark on this stirring journey of faith, resilience, and service, and discover the incredible legacy and ongoing work of BBTI.
https://baptisttranslators.com/
Imagine discovering a life-changing mission born out of a broken foot, a voyage to an Indian village, and the determination of three courageous men. That's the captivating genesis of the Bible Baptist Translators Institute (BBTI). Join me as I sit down and chat with Rex Cobb, the current director of BBTI, unraveling the dynamic narrative behind this impactful institution.
We delve into the transformative journey of BBTI, from its humble beginnings over 50 years ago to being a beacon of support for missionaries across 56 countries today. Rex shares fascinating insights into the nine-month program, the ingenious approach to funding, and how they've managed to revolutionize missionary preparation. You'll hear about their students, who receive their education free of charge, and how the staff sustains this through the support of churches, graduates, and individual contributors. You won't want to miss the inspiring story of a graduate who mastered the art of drywall before embarking on a mission to China.
As we round off our chat, we delve into the often-underestimated significance of missions in today's world and how we can contribute to nurturing future missionaries. Rex underscores the necessity for active church and individual engagement in missions, be it through prayer, financial aid, or local community work. We also share some moments of profound gratitude and words of encouragement for those contemplating a life in missions. So come, embark on this stirring journey of faith, resilience, and service, and discover the incredible legacy and ongoing work of BBTI.
https://baptisttranslators.com/
Welcome to the Mind Body Project podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, erin realized that our bodies change only short-term unless our mindset changes. For long-term success, both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone we call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life, erin Zegler.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Mind Body Project. Thanks for taking a little time to join me today. In late July of 1979, a missionary came to my parents' church all the way in Potstown, pennsylvania. This missionary had shared about BBTI, about Bible Baptist Translators Institute. My parents were in the congregation Afterward they sat down with the missionary and he shared about the work that BBTI was doing here in Texas.
Speaker 2:So just a week later, on August 1st, my parents, as my dad told me the story. August 1st they got on a plane. They come to Texas, george Anderson picks them up at the airport and brings them to BBTI and so George gives them the tour, tells them all about it. That was August 31st. Just one month later my parents load up four kids and they pull into BBTI and I was four at the time and that's how we landed in Texas and we've been here ever since. So today with me. I'm excited about my guest. He was a missionary in Columbia in Mexico, is a weekly radio host, a teacher, a leader and the current director of Bible Baptist Translators Institute. Please welcome my guest today, mr Rex Cobb.
Speaker 3:Thank you for…. Thank you, aaron, it's good to be here with you and we remember some of those old times.
Speaker 2:And this is part of my series of World Impactors and you know, wow, this BBTI has impacted really globally. It's just amazing the impact they have. It's amazing the impact that it has had on my family. So I'm excited to be here today and as I drove down here, you know it's…. Bbti is about to celebrate just tomorrow the 50-year anniversary of BBTI and as I drove down, so much looks different but yet so much looks the same. I remember being, you know, five and six and out here playing and all the pastures and all that. So for me it brings back a lot of great memories. Rex, I'd like to go way back because I didn't know some of the history of BBTI. My parents shared your weekly or monthly newsletter with me that kind of celebrates the past 50 years. And how did the idea for BBTI start and where did it start?
Speaker 3:Well, actually it started with a broken foot. We wrote about that in our paper many, many years ago in our publication. There was an Indian man named Faustino, who'd come down out of the mountains and he was in a city, and I believe it was Cuenavaca, in the state of Morelos or Guerrero, I'm not sure the state, but anyhow, there in Mexico he became a Christian and he was actually in a Bible Institute and a man who lived here in Buoy for many years, don Frazier. He was the one that began the Bible publishing ministry that we call Bering Precious Seed. Well, he went down there and he was with the missionary, ralph McCoy, and he spoke to the students. He challenged the students, including Faustino. He said you men need to go back to your homes, back to where you came from, and tell others about Christ and take the gospel back with you. We can't go there, but you can Well, faustino, he was from an Indian tribe called the Tlapanecos and he was not a Christian when he left, and I'm not sure if he left under good circumstances we don't know all of the history, but anyhow, he came out of the mountains and was challenged to go back.
Speaker 3:His father was, I believe, the village leader, the president of the village or whatever. He did not know how he would be received and because sometimes the gospel is not always welcome in some of those places, they're very traditional, very fanatical about their religion. But another man from Bowie, texas, paul Henderson, who was the pastor of Central Baptist Church for well over 50 years, he was a photographer and he knew Brother Frazier and he knew Brother McCoy. They asked Pastor Henderson to come and go on that trip up to the mountains, up to this Tlapaneco Indian village and take pictures of this event. It was kind of an historic event. It was the first time that the gospel message had gone into this place.
Speaker 3:And so now Brother Henderson and this is early 70s, this would have been the late 60s, actually probably 68, 69, I'm not exactly sure. But Brother Henderson, he'd been to Mexico many, many times but he couldn't speak Spanish, and so the son of Brother McCoy, lyell McCoy, was going to go with him. He grew up there, he spoke English and Spanish perfectly, but he broke his foot playing soccer. So they needed somebody who could speak both English and Spanish to help Brother Henderson, and so they called on George Anderson, and George was in another part of the country, of Mexico, and he drove all night, I guess, to get to where he needed to be. They got on a horse. I saw a picture of Brother Henderson on a horse and George on a mule, and when I point him out I say now this is George and this is the mule, and so Brother George will be here, Lord willing, tomorrow. He's still with us, still going strong. He pastors a church. Well, so they take off up into the mountains. They're well received in that village, and George and another brother named Travis Duffy. They returned to the village later to try to win the people to Christ and disciple them and teach them the Bible.
Speaker 3:The problem that George found was that they spoke a different language. Their Spanish was very poor at best and of course he knew nothing of their language. So he said why can't I learn their language? How do I learn their language? And so he thought maybe he had missed something in Bible college that he should have learned. So he contacted the Bible college. He says do you teach missionaries how to learn languages? And of course they said no. And he inquired around the country, even I think he even contacted places in England and Canada. Probably no school, especially no Baptist school, taught how to learn a language, and especially an unwritten language in the Tlapaneco. I'm pretty sure it was unwritten at that time. So he said how can I do this? How can I learn their language?
Speaker 3:Well, he heard about an organization called New Tribes Mission and they're a good group of people. They weren't Baptist exactly probably pretty close but they were training their missionaries in linguistics and language learning and all of these things. So George talked to them and said hey, can I come to your school? It was a two-year school. He said I want to start a school like this for Baptist missionaries and they said come on. He went with him, he and his wife Sharon. They studied and got all of the information that they could get from the New Tribes people, and they came back to actually to Fort Worth is where we began, and that was in the fall of September, I believe, of 1973, 50 years ago. My wife and I were planning to be missionaries in Mexico and we heard about this school, and so we said, hey, let's find out about this. And I flew down, just like your dad did, I guess. And George Anderson is well, he's a salesman.
Speaker 3:I guess, he sold me on the idea of preparation and, besides, bible school, it's wonderful to know the Bible, but that doesn't enable you to communicate the Bible in another language and another culture. So that's the challenge. So he explained to me about phonetics and linguistics and culture learning and all these things. I didn't understand probably much of what he was saying but it sounded good. So my wife and I we were a little younger back- then, and we had a three-month-old baby.
Speaker 3:We came to Fort Worth, texas. We started in a church there, in a Sunday school room, and started having classes. Well, that wasn't the best place for training missionaries, and so we started looking for property somewhere where we could develop a school. And Brother Henderson just happened to know of this property here. I don't know how much detail you want me to go into, but a lady named Maggie Brown and her husband Leon. They're from Buoy. They had a boys' home here on this property and I believe Brother Leon's health got bad and they were not able to continue and so they had the property 117 acres, and you've been around it as a kid. It's a beautiful place really woods and pasture I mean, it's Texas.
Speaker 3:It's dry right now, and hot, but this is a and we're out in the country in a safe place. We don't worry about people coming here and doing any bad things. And so we found this property and the Browns donated the property to the church and the church gave it to us. Half of it was paid for and the other half was they still owed some money on it, and BBTI assumed the responsibility and that's been paid off for years.
Speaker 3:So, everything we have here is free and clear and we don't go into debt. The Lord provides. Everything we've built or houses We've moved on to the property for the students, all of it is paid for and God provides. We're not a big school. We don't have any national organization.
Speaker 1:We're not very organized at all.
Speaker 3:But I believe God has used this school. We wish that we could have done more and we hope, in the days to come, that we can.
Speaker 2:I think when we want God to provide, he's provided all these years for BBTF, I think sometimes we think, well, he didn't provide good enough, but he provided the way he needs to provide for. So when I was a kid, we lived in I think my parents called a shotgun house. I pulled one up. I saw one that looked just like it. I don't know if it's the same one.
Speaker 3:It probably is we called the long house.
Speaker 2:So we didn't have AC, we didn't have air conditioning, we had fans that we turned on. My sister's chore was to take the bucket out to the outhouse to dump it. That was her job from the house, so we were provided for. But sometimes we think, well, that's not very glamorous, but God met our needs. It was always my brothers. They always had a good time, because if she was carrying it out to the outhouse they would scare and then that would make a mess. But so I think sometimes we think he provides it, just sometimes isn't the way we would like it to be necessarily. But it was interesting to me when sharing that this idea really started out of a need. How do we fix that need? And George Anderson said let me find out a solution. And then he got other men, other families together to solve that need. And 50 years from there, was what? When you came, was there just three or four along with the Anderson.
Speaker 3:Yes, there was three families plus the Anderson's, the first class, and then some others came along and some of us went onto the field. So that's the way it's gone.
Speaker 2:And in the last 50 years, how many countries would you say have been affected?
Speaker 3:Oh my, I listed all the countries I could think of in our last publication and there was probably, I'm thinking 56 countries. Now, not all the missionaries are still there, but at least we've had a presence in all these countries. Some countries had several missionaries go to, like Papua New Guinea and China, and others fewer, but there is a need out there.
Speaker 2:And that's a big impact. Over the last 50 years, from George Anderson having wanting to fix this problem along with three other families and saying how do we make this? That small idea grew into something that went into all these countries and continues to grow Each year. You have students come Now. Are they coming from the mission field or are they preparing to go into the mission?
Speaker 3:field. Most of them are new students, the new missionaries. We get missionaries that are already sent out. They're planning to go to a certain country many times and they'll come here, and others, especially single students, they will come and they don't know where they're going for sure. They're willing and they're just looking for the Lord's will, and we find that not all of them, unfortunately, make it to the mission field. But many of them do, and young ladies and men usually men, young single men end up being married when they go to the mission field. Now, there are some exceptions, but in our world today most of the missionaries that I know of, the men have wives. But we're willing to train anyone that meets the doctrinal standards and the qualifications. We're not real fussy about who we are. We want to qualify rather than disqualify.
Speaker 2:And this is a nine-month program.
Speaker 3:Yes, the folks come here in August. We begin like the third week in August approximately, like a regular school year, and then we have a graduation in May. So each year we have to get a new group, not like a college where you have freshmen and then the freshmen come back and you could have a little bigger school every year.
Speaker 3:And another thing I would mention about our school is both the husband and the wife take the same classes. We want mama to be just as prepared to learn languages and cultures as dad is. We want even though she's got children, perhaps that she has to educate and she has a home, but she's a missionary too, and I like to tell people that half of the population is female, and so who's going to reach them except other lady missionaries? And so mothers can be missionaries, and we want them to be able to learn the language just like her husband does.
Speaker 2:And so when they come and they go into their mission field, wherever that country may be, they've learned how to. If it's an unwritten language, how to translate the Bible into that language.
Speaker 3:Yes, it has to begin with language learning. So you've got this language, all these sounds. They're going to be different than our English sounds, but the phonetics teaches them to recognize exactly what the sound is, how it's being made, and the missionary has probably learned to make that sound in the classroom. There's a symbol for every sound and he's able to identify the sound and then gradually learn the language and learn it with a good pronunciation, because he knows what that native speaker is doing to make the sounds. He understands the mechanics of speech, we might say. And the good news is that everybody's made the same. We may look different on the outside, but we all have the same speech mechanism. And if that man can make that sound, I can make it too.
Speaker 1:That's the theory.
Speaker 3:Now, it doesn't mean it's easy, but it can be done but recognizing the difference. So you're going to have to learn the language. Then you've got to give the language an alphabet. Well, we don't just give them ABC, like we have in English. We take the sounds that they have. This is a course we call phonemics. There's phonetics and then phonemics, and based on the sounds that we find in the language, we develop an alphabet. Now, there's sounds that may be different to us, but to the people that are the same sound like we might have three or four different types of tea. Well, to us it's just a tea, so we can just use one symbol. But in this other language those different types of teas may require two different symbols because they change the meaning of a word Anyhow. That it's an interesting study. It can get pretty deep, but basically we're giving them an alphabet that matches their speech so that when they go to read it they can learn to read, probably easier than we can, because our English is so inconsistent with our symbols and our sounds. And so you've got to develop the alphabet.
Speaker 3:Then you have to know how to write those words. We call that morphology, how the words are made, how we change words. For instance, in English I might say the word success. If I add a successful, I add that suffix. That changes it a little bit, doesn't it? And then I could say successfully, and that L-Y that we put there makes it an adverb, I believe. Then we could put something on the front of it like unsuccessfully, and so that's the way we make our words.
Speaker 3:Well, we know how that other language makes its words, so we know where to put the word breaks, what is a word and what is a part of a word, and so we can write the language in a way that they understand. And then we can go from there to Bible translation. Now, another thing that we teach that is very, very important, it's vital is culture, anthropology, we might say. We've got to know the culture of the people, because the words reflect their thinking and their way of life, and so you've got to learn culture and language. You're like two sides of the same coin, and so we teach a lot about that.
Speaker 2:So if it's a spoken language but there's no written language, so then once the language is written, do you have to teach then those natives of that area to then read?
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, we teach a course here called Literacy, so we teach the students how to understand the situation of the people. How will they learn best? And we'll teach how to have a literacy campaign, how to organize people, and you don't just hand them a Bible and say, here, read this. We don't do that with our children, and so we have to produce literature that's simple and easy for them to understand in their language, and then they start learning that and hopefully they will get an interest in reading their language. We can give them stories that they already know. We can write them, and then, as they read them, they they think hey, this is this is our story, this is our history, this is our. It may be just a fairy tale or something.
Speaker 2:But in order to get those stories, you have to learn what the culture is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they have to communicate with.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we could translate something that would be helpful to them about health or farming, something that would benefit them but yet would would also give them something to read. See, the people in these languages oftentimes feel inferior. They think, well, our language is not important, you know, it's not like English or Spanish or Portuguese. Our language, you know it's, well, it is important, it's their language, but it's not a major language in the world, but it's their language, and so we have to motivate them to love their language and to and to we give it. We want to respect their language, we want to respect them and their culture.
Speaker 3:Usually, this type of person and their group has been persecuted or been humiliated by the highs, you know, the major society. They've been looked down on, and so they may not have a real high opinion of themselves and their language and their culture. But we want to respect that and we want them to be able to, to read the Bible eventually in their language, because that's what's going to speak to their heart. And you know, we might learn another language and we can read a Bible in another language, and I do, but I can tell you it's not the same. It's, I mean, you just your own language is, it just speaks to you you know just.
Speaker 2:And so when the missionaries go out into the mission field, do they? Are they already aware of the culture and the language, or is it kind of like they're dropped off and then, oh, this is. I got to figure all this out.
Speaker 3:Well, it depends on who's been there before them, and sometimes they can learn from other missionaries. They might learn from books to a certain extent, but basically it's they're on their own. You know, there is that, that culture shock. You know, maybe that and the language barrier and all.
Speaker 2:So there are many missionaries from that come from BBTI that might wear one from BBTI BBTI. They say they're in Peru and then another missionary from BBTI comes and kind of takes over for them and they leave. Does that happen very often, or is it to carry on the work, because this sounds I mean honestly it sounds like a lot of work? It sounds like not not going to do this in months. Yeah it's years.
Speaker 3:Well there may be. There may be a BBTI graduate in a place, in another missionary will come and work with him perhaps. But and this would be good, but where there's too few of us, and so we don't always want to have a lot of missionaries in one place, they're not necessarily needed.
Speaker 3:I mean, they they're needed, but they're needed somewhere else more we might say so the the BBTI graduate may go work with another missionary who's not a BBTI graduate and then from there, you know, work out in a newer area. It is helpful when someone goes before you and can kind of help you when you get there. But there's been some that just have to go. Somebody has to be a pioneer.
Speaker 2:Someone has to go there first, and so are there other programs now, other schools that teach what BBTI is teaching, or is it still pretty much?
Speaker 3:one of the very few. I think it is very rare. I don't know of any other school quite like BBTI. There is a school in Ohio that has been functioning now for two or three years. It is. They teach many of the same things that we teach and they may teach some of them in more detail because they're a three year Program. It's like a graduate school. So they're they're a little more. How would I say? Well, you have to have a bachelor's degree to go there in the first place. We get some here that probably haven't even made it through high school, but some of them are great missionaries. They probably graduated or homeschoolers. Never quite seemed they finished sometimes. But we prefer, you know, they go to Bible College, learn the Bible. Well, but some people already in their experience in their home church, they've. They don't necessarily go to Bible College and if they meet other requirements that we have, we will accept them.
Speaker 2:And you have a hefty fee to come here, right A? Hefty what A hefty fee, a price. Oh yeah, it's very. Yeah, well, it's free, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, it is. It's the students don't pay any tuition and the reason we can offer that is because we who work here don't receive any salary. We pay our housing fee. The students will pay a housing fee and it helps to cover the utilities and upkeep a little bit on the houses. But there's, it's very minimum and, excuse me, there's a missionary can come here when you first get started, when he has very little support and he can, he can survive and and study.
Speaker 2:You could visit the churches on weekends and we have a lot of them and he can raise his support and and support for those that may not know, is the church would support them and say we're going to give you so much money on a regular basis, Right?
Speaker 3:right, yeah, as independent Baptist. That's the way we usually do it A missionary will go to a church and present his plans for a certain field, and the church will hopefully vote to help him. It may be fifty dollars a month, and now some churches are getting real generous, maybe a hundred even more.
Speaker 2:I'd like to find some. So how long have you been director of? We have?
Speaker 3:been here now we we came off the field of Mexico in 1999. And then I became the director in about 2005, I believe. So we have been here 24 years Working and teaching.
Speaker 2:So, as you mentioned, the fee is free. The students pay some housing fee when they come. And and partly because that is being being able to be done, because the staff doesn't take a salary. So some may be thinking well, why do it and how do you survive?
Speaker 3:Well, for instance, I have support from when I was a missionary in Mexico and most all of our churches continue to support us, so that helps me and my wife, or we don't have to receive any salary from the school, and we also have churches and there are a few individuals, even BBTI graduates some will send a monthly offering and the churches that support us. We don't have a big network, but the Lord provides. And when we need to buy a new water heater or we're working on a building, we'll have a little bit. And besides what the students pay for the and we all pay for housing, then we get by pretty good. You know, lord always provides.
Speaker 3:And, for instance, we're looking at moving another house onto the property. I think it's a triple-wide mobile home or I'm not sure what a triple-wide, I know what a double-wide, but somebody's going to give it to us. We just have to pay to move it. So hopefully we'll have enough money saved up where we can pay the mover and then fix the house up as we're needed and we have in the afternoon what we call work detail.
Speaker 2:I remember work detail. I remember my dad, yes.
Speaker 3:Dad probably told you about that. Well, the men all work together, even the single girls or married ladies without children. They'll work a couple of hours in the afternoon, but the men will learn many building skills electrical or drywall so that you go and live in a thatched hut, you can put drywall on the wall, wouldn't that be?
Speaker 3:nice. But you know, it's interesting, when we built this building we had a group of students and we did all the work on the inside drywall and everything. One man came from. He's an American, but he'd been working in China. He spoke Chinese real well and he went back to China. Well, he learned how to do the drywall thing. And there, when they have a church service, of course we're talking about a communist country where they don't exactly care for Christianity, so they have to be quiet. So they moved into a place, just a house. It was a house church and they had to build a maybe a fake wall to for sound, and so he knew how to do that and I thought that was kind of, and he learned it here, yeah, he learned it here, bbti.
Speaker 3:But just working together is what we call good missionary training. We don't always get along on the mission field, but we need to learn how to do that. Why is that? Because we're people, I don't know. That's a good answer.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 3:I can tell you one reason. It's because the devil doesn't want us there and there can be conflicts. We see that in the Bible in Acts, chapter 15, between the apostle Paul and Barnabas. They were the best of friends, they'd worked together and then they had a problem and separated. And it's kind of an embarrassing passage of scripture. You think how could these wonderful Christian people have a problem like that? But see, we need to learn to work together. Sometimes, working with guys, we have different opinions and there's clashes. But hey, these things can work out.
Speaker 2:So do you see those clashes during work? Detail sometimes.
Speaker 3:Sometimes yeah.
Speaker 2:And they have to kind of work it out and it's a good learning time.
Speaker 3:I think so. Yeah. I think so. Not anything major, not any big deal, but just life is like that People and working they learn how to handle some of those things and those conflicts. We're Christians, but we don't always act like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, how is you know? You have four daughters.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And have any of them gone into the mission field?
Speaker 3:Well, we have one daughter who, she and her husband, went to Canada and they were planning to start a church. He is my son-in-law is a pastor of a church there in Canada. It's not exactly a mission church, but it's an established church. Then we have a daughter and her husband and they have five children in Peru, south America. And we have another daughter who's in Kansas City. Her husband is a pastor, and another our youngest daughter, is in Oklahoma City. Her husband is a song music director at his church. So they're all in the Lord's work. You know, two of them are in foreign countries.
Speaker 2:So you may not say them as often, but no, not too often, but and what was the plan when you came back from Mexico and Columbia to BBTAT to be more involved in the training of missionaries?
Speaker 3:Yes, brother Turner, who was a director. He was here pretty much by himself, he and his wife. His first wife had passed away and then he remarried and he was basically teaching all the classes by himself and it's a lot of work I mean, you get done with one class and then you start another and he really needed help. So they had been asking us to come help them and we really didn't want to leave Mexico. We were comfortable there and you know we're thinking too well, you know, what are our churches going to say if we leave the foreign field and come back here? And fortunately most all of them understood. But it's not like we wanted to leave the foreign field, but we saw that this needed to be done and honestly we felt like the future of BBTI might be in jeopardy unless somebody stepped in and helped Brother Turner. And so from there the Lord has given us other good people to work with us and so it's that's kind of the way it goes.
Speaker 2:And do you have many people that come visit BBTI, as in, to find out what you're doing and maybe to be able to start something like that? You know a school or something. Do you have many people that come visit to say what are you doing? So we're kind of like George Anderson did all those years ago and well, that hasn't happened, that I know of too much.
Speaker 3:So we have a good friend who started a ministry in India and there's a Bible college there, been well established, and he works with some of the students, the graduate students. They've already been through the college and he'll hand pick a few of them each year and they will train them in linguistics and Bible translation. Now it's not an official BBTI India, but most of the workers that have helped this brother, the teachers, are BBTI graduates, and so in a way we have kind of reproduced ourselves in India. In fact, there's a couple here right now. They came for a visit They'll be here tomorrow for the picnic and the girl was single and then she married a good brother from India, from north eastern India, the Manipur area, and together they're doing Bible translation.
Speaker 3:So he graduated from the college and then the linguistic school program and now he's translating in his own language. His language didn't have a good translation of the Bible at all and they're almost finished with the New Testament and so but we need to have this type of training in the Philippines, in Africa, maybe South America, maybe I don't know Korea or somewhere. We need to be training missionaries, not just American missionaries, and so that's something that we think about.
Speaker 2:You mentioned that I think of missionaries as all being from America, but they're missionaries from all other countries also.
Speaker 3:Actually, I'm told that the Philippines and South Korea are sending out more missionaries than the United States of America is. These relatively small countries are doing more than we are. That's a shame, really.
Speaker 2:Have you seen a decline in missionaries over the years? I believe so, and what would you say was the reason for that?
Speaker 3:Well, they're just not being produced by the churches, they're not being raised up in the churches, and that's where the missionaries have to come from. And so, unfortunately, I just think our I hate to speak bad about our churches, but there's since COVID it's really there's been a struggle for a lot of churches and it just seems to be a complacency that is sort of set in on the whole country. I don't know, there are pockets of maybe of revival and missionary activity, but most churches it's just kind of on the back burner. It seems like to me it's people are busy, people are, they have their lives and they just don't have this burden, maybe for people they don't even know, never seen on the other side of the world. There needs to be a compassion for those people because Jesus died for them, and so it's something that I don't know how to stir it up, I try.
Speaker 3:I need to stir myself up, but it just Jesus said the harvest is plenious, but the labors are few, and that's the way it's always been. But it seems worse today. Maybe tomorrow it'll improve, I hope.
Speaker 2:As we just collectively keep praying for it.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:But it also puts responsibility on the churches.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly To build those future missionaries.
Speaker 3:I think and I might get in trouble because sometimes I think preachers will sometimes say, well, god needs to call more missionaries. Okay, so it all depends on God, but we've got to produce material for God to use. In other words, yes, god has to calm, god has to deal with them individually, but they need to be there to begin with. We need to reach them, we need to teach them, we need to disciple them, we need to expose them to missions. Just like your parents took you to Mexico when you were a kid, you got exposed to another culture. And we need to teach people about mission. We need to make it a big deal Instead of just something. Oh, that's just for those few special called people. We need to. I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 2:There has to be a challenge to the churches that they are building so that when they are called they're ready, they are looking for that call, they're looking for that opportunity. They're being exposed that because sometimes we don't know what we don't know. And if we're not exposed to those things, we don't know that maybe we have a calling for that because we've never knew that existed. And if we're exposed to that, the church exposes us to that. If it's the kids, adults, wherever it is, and the missions is a heart of the church. I think sometimes we do get, I agree, complacent and our mission is just within our community.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah, that's what we can see. That's what we can feel that need. We need to get concerned about what we can't see. We know it's there. I'm thinking like the recruiters for the military will visit the high school. Why does he do that? He wants to challenge those young people to consider the military, whether it's the Air Force or the Army or Marines or whatever. They need to be exposed to it. They need to be challenged. They need to have a vision for what needs to be done. In the same way with missions, we need to challenge young people. That's what I don't see a lot of. I don't hear it like I think I should, from the pulpit, from the Sunday school teacher, from the parents. That's where it really has to begin. We need to be reading missionary stories to our children. We need to teach them about Judson and Kerry and Goforth and all these famous missionaries.
Speaker 2:Just from us speaking today and sharing that all those 50-plus countries that missionaries have gone to from BBTI, all those different languages didn't have any written word, or now having been able to translate the Bible into that. When we share those stories, we share what's possible, because I think sometimes we don't know what's possible. Well, let somebody else do that. That sounds good, but let somebody else I'm too busy, I have this, I have that. I think that is we have to show whether it's a church, our children it starts within our home our spouses, what's possible. I hope today from us visiting, that we share what's possible and what kind of impact.
Speaker 2:Four families, 50 years ago, has had on the world.
Speaker 3:I personally believe that every Christian needs to be involved in missions in some way, if nothing more. That's not a small thing. We need to pray for the missionaries we know of and we need to pray for more. Jesus said pray ye, therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labors into his harvest. So there's prayer, there's giving. It's expensive to send missionaries and to keep them on the field, just to get there and move a few possessions. That's a big deal. There's the finances. We need to give and we need to go. Some of us maybe can go farther than others, but everybody could go to the nursing home and be a blessing to somebody. Everybody could go to their neighbor. This is a mission field too. It requires everybody involved.
Speaker 2:I think you're right. We often times we think of the mission field of all those foreign countries. I had a conversation with my dad not too long ago and we were talking about things and I was going through some challenging times and he said maybe where you're at is your mission field. When you look at it differently, of how can you help those around you and go out and help them, that becomes your mission field. Maybe it starts there and then God calls you for something bigger.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:It starts small, and how can I make a difference here? And you learn some of those things, and then he prepares us for those bigger things.
Speaker 3:I believe that's the way it works.
Speaker 2:I just want to share a quick story with you. My dad I don't remember his name, but it was here at BBTI and he had mentioned and you might know him he had copied the Bible. I don't remember what his name was, but he had told my dad how it would be life changing to copy the Bible, write it down, copy it. My dad, that was probably 40 years ago, so my dad was a lot younger then. Of course he didn't have time for that. This past year, my dad, for every day of the year, for 365 days, he went into his office and spent a couple hours each day copying the Bible. Then he said it changed the way he looked at the Bible. He learned it and understood it in a way that all those years of preaching, of being a missionary, he never understood it.
Speaker 2:And I'm blessed because of that, gentleman. All those years ago my dad was blessed to even further understand the Bible in a different way. And I'm blessed because I get some of those copies that he writes of the different books that I think would be applicable in my life and help me to see those words and see in my dad's handwriting. It's just a blessing, so it's an impact that all those years ago is having an effect on my dad now, later in life he just turned 80, having an effect in my life. Those are things that I'll give to my kids. That will have an effect in their life. So I know, probably for BB Tathers, so many stories like that. That really is mission work. It's mission work within my family.
Speaker 3:Well, I know who it was. I think it was Brother Don Frazier that challenged your dad to do that. I'm sure it was. And I'm thinking there was a lady at Eastside Baptist Church a few years ago, tina Clark. She's with the Lord now, but she copied the King James Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, whatever it is, and every word left-handed, even On yellow, that tab, legal pad, like she copied every bit of it. That's how they used to do it. The Wycliffe Bible was before Gutenberg invented the printing press. A handwritten copy would cost like the wages of a man for one year. I mean, it was expensive but it had to be done by hand.
Speaker 3:There's copies of that Bible today that have existed all those years, but it was all done by hand. That would give you an appreciation for our Bible heritage.
Speaker 2:So it's quite a blessing. So if people want to contribute, donate, help in any way, is there a website that they can go to for BBTI?
Speaker 3:Well, we don't have any online giving. We just haven't got into that. You know a lot of churches and groups do that, but I've never felt comfortable about that. If someone wanted to write a check and put an envelope and send it to box 1450, bowie, texas, we would be glad for it. The Lord takes care of us and we don't do a lot of asking On our radio program. We've been on the radio for 16, 17 years.
Speaker 2:In how many countries?
Speaker 3:Well, it's heard, or even on the radio or internet. We know of at least 236 different countries and territories. The least one radio network has told us that. But we never ask for anything and the Lord provides our needs and it's amazing how people are generous and they have helped us. I just really like it that way better, because if I was a slick fundraiser I could say, man, look what I've done. But all I can say is look what God has done. We need God's people to pray for us, that's for sure. Look at our website and all of that. Find out more about it. One thing that I always encourage our radio listeners to do is tell others about BBTI. When a missionary comes to your church, tell him about our school. If he doesn't know that we're here, doesn't know what we have. That will help him. It doesn't do him any good. I don't know how many times missionaries have told us. I wish I would have known about BBTI before I went to the field. It would have helped them.
Speaker 2:It makes their job a lot more challenging. I always ask my guest at the end, and I'm really interested to hear yours at the end of life. You just have maybe a few days left of life and you look back over your life. What would you say, looking at it? Say that was successful, this was a successful life.
Speaker 3:Well, just honoring God and being a help to other people, telling others about Christ. When a person accepts Christ, he's saved eternally. If I can be used to give him that message, I think that's success. If I can do it in another language, in another culture, whereas there's few maybe to do that, I think that's success. I've got a little note on my desk at home and I don't even know who said it, but the man said I do not fear failure as much as I feel success in something that's not God's will. We can be successful in this life but not be in God's will. Getting the gospel around the world is God's will. Being involved in that I can feel satisfied that I've done something. I will always wish I've done more and never satisfied that I've done what I could have or should have. But I'm not sorry. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I could. I wish I could.
Speaker 2:I think, when we always feel like, well, I want to do more, I always think we feel that way.
Speaker 2:But thank you, Rhett, for joining me today. Thank you for sharing the story of BBTI, of all those that they've reached, of all those yet to be reached. Students can come here, of course, for your charge. They can learn how to translate those unwritten languages into the Bible and make a difference. I want to thank you for all you've done through the years. Thank you for what you did for our family. I remember it as a kid. It was one of my best times as a kid. It was a pleasure to me. Again. Coming out here is just a treat for me to see all the memories to come back. Congratulations on 50 years, Thank you.
Speaker 2:I want to point out again it was just an idea in a small classroom because of a broken foot that really began to change the world. It didn't change. It changed one person at a time, just like the missionaries that come in. They learned one at a time. Right, and we interact with one person at a time. If we can make a difference with one, they might make a difference with one and that compounds. Exactly.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate your time, rex, and thank you for joining me today.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, for I've enjoyed this time it's been a blessing.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you. Thank you, avicii, you for stopping by. As I tell my wife Kim every night before I go to bed, it's Balm in the Night, double A out.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to arondeglarcom or find him on social media as Aaron Deglar on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Mind Body Project podcast.