Tom Gilmer: June 2016 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends of Zion:

Thank you for praying for Linda and me and our ministries, and thanks for each offering given with prayer, which we received.

If you speak Portuguese and use an iPhone or iPad you will be thrilled with a new App in the Apple App store. Search for

ACF – Bíblia de Estudo Fiel (note blank spaces) . It was developed by Brother Mário Sérgio, a Brazilian “Timothy” who is an announcer on BBN Radio in Portuguese. The App is blue with white letters that say “Bíblia ACF” inside a design of the Bible. Add-ons are available in audio, the reading of the Old Testament and New Testament narrated by Pastor Paulo Castelan. Mário Sérgio is also developing other Apps (for ANDROID and other platforms) for the Portuguese Study Bibles for which we provide the Bible text. One of them is entitled A BIBLIA SAGRADA – Evangelismo – Apresentando O MESSIAS (THE HOLY BIBLE – Evangelism – Presenting THE MESSIAH), with Rom Ribeiro’s evangelism notes as well as mine, including Messianic Prophecies and their fulfillment. Many of the objections to salvation from the “Classic Soul Winner’s New Testament with Helps” by Anchor Bible Concepts, plus other objections that I added, are all listed in an index of over 200 subjects with page numbers where they can be found in the notes. Four tracts, used by permission (“God’s Simple Plan of Salvation” by Ford Porter, “Someday You Will Stand Before God” by Jim Lyons, “Your Ticket to Heaven” by Sumner Wemp, and “Good News – Bad News” by BBN Radio), which the Lord has used in the salvation of hundreds of thousands of souls, are interspersed at different points, with space for one who is accepting Christ as Savior to sign his name. Almost 300,000 copies of the first and second editions of THE BIBLE FOR EVANGELISM have gone out. Hopefully in a few months the amplified third edition will be in churches and bookstores.

Our Bible text is the ACF (Almeida-Corrigida-Fiel), which means Almeida – Corrected – Faithful. In other words, it is the best Bible available in Portuguese, originally translated by a Hebrew Christian, João Ferreira de Almeida, during the Reformation Age, from the best, most reliable copies available of the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. The Portuguese Bible was the seventeenth of the Reformation Age Bible translations, such as Reina-Valera in Spanish, King James Version in English, Luther in German, etc., The Portuguese language has suffered many orthographic changes since Almeida translated the Bible. Unfortunately, many errors were incorporated, intentionally by some, and unintentionally through typographical mistakes over the years. Trinitarian Bible Society (TBS) of London, England, was one of the first Bible Societies to publish the Almeida text. After others began publishing it, TBS dedicated its resources to prepare other foreign language Bibles. When we arrived in Brazil and saw a problem, we united with strong Brazilian pastors and missionaries, who appointed me to contact TBS. I did so as a representative of Bearing Precious Seed, appointed by Dr. Don Frasier, the founder of the BPS movement. TBS agreed to print an edition as soon as the Brazilian group did the necessary corrections. The group did an unbelievably good job, without computers or fax machines.

TBS printed the first edition of almost 100,000 copies. Bearing Precious Seed groups, like BPS of Milford, Ohio; BMLF of Shelbyville, TN; Victory of Milton, FL; BEAMS, and others., have printed tens of thousands of copies of the text revised by the Brazilian group. Sociedade Bíblica Trinitariana do Brasil (SBTB), of which Harold Ralph is Executive Secretary and I am one of the founders and President, has put out over 3,000,000 (three million) copies of the entire Bible. Gideons, Intl. have put out tens of millions of the NT with Psalms and Proverbs, over seven million per year to every Portuguese-speaking country in the world.

You who support us planted seed which is multiplying. To God be the glory.

Yours for the Messiah,
Tom and Linda Gilmer

PRAISE:

Professions of faith: 18 Gentiles.
Progress on the Guacuri church project. See enclosed prayer letter of Harold Ralph.
Excellent APP of Portuguese Bible text and audio with search now available for iPhone and iTablet. See story above.

PRAYER: