“Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” II Corinthians 10:17

“…all that we have accomplished you have done for us.” Isaiah 26:12

After all, it is His story – His Word.

“…for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.” Psalm
138:2

This background is to celebrate our loving and gracious Lord and His eternal Word. It’s about Him – His Word – His work – His love – His saving grace.

The Story Behind the Story

By the grace of God, these last 25 years we have reached nearly 66 million copies of God’s Word distributed through The Most Important Story family of materials.  They have reached 160 countries during this time.  Our vision in 2020 and beyond is to distribute the next 100 million copies – truly!  Won’t you join with us in sharing God’s Word to share His love and bring hope and faith to children and families the world over.

As you read the history of The Most Important Story, we ask you to join with us in thanking God for the astounding miracles of transformed lives through His Word.  May this account also encourage you to also share the Gospel in your daily lives.

Background

The first printing of The Most Important Story in Vietnam – 1995

As David had grown up in Vietnam as a missionary kid and there as a 10-year-old first began distributing Gospels of John with his missionary Dad, it was there that he first wanted to provide The Most Important Story to the children of Vietnam.

The Most Important Story was first printed in Vietnam in December 1995 under communism.  The situation was extremely difficult. The pastor overseeing the printing had only recently been released from prison, so it had to be printed secretly by the underground church.

Further complicating the situation was acquiring the paper to use in the printing.  All they could obtain was paper close to newspaper quality.  As well, it was not possible at that time to print in full color as designed.  The book was rather unattractive as it had to be done with only black ink.  The cover was a faded duotone with the chosen colors in blue, green, and yellow.

The quality was honestly not good, but they results were spectacular.  The initial printing was 6,500 copies and they had to be shared with no more than two or three children at a time because of the risk of arrest.  A huge endeavor.  Upon completion of the distribution and upon carefully compiling the results, an astounding 1,634 children had individually put their faith in Jesus Christ.  This in communist Vietnam.  Nothing like this had happened in the 20 years of communist rule.  (Vietnam fell under communism in April 1975.

David truly thought that if this printing and distribution was the extent of the use of The Most Important Story, it would have been worth it all – 1,634 children who had come to faith in Jesus Christ.  However, Almighty God had something very much more in store for this Gospel book.

The story in Vietnam continues to be written and we thank God that today it is possible to print openly in full color.

Incredibly, the carefully tabulated results now show that over that last 25 years, 75% of non-believing children who receive The Most Important Story (MIS) in Vietnam have individually accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.  During Christmas and New Year’s evangelistic parties in 2018 and into 2019, 25,000 copies of the MIS were provided for children’s’ evangelistic parties throughout the country.  At the close of the distribution and upon tallying the numbers, they found that 20,123 children and 370 adults had individually put their faith in Christ.  This is incredible but remember, it is God’s mighty, life-changing Word!

What began as a secret printing used by the underground church has led to over 400 churches being established.  Today, these are all self-supporting churches.  The underground church that first printed the MIS grew from 30 or so cell groups to become the fastest growing denomination in Vietnam with over 1,000 churches from the south, all the way to the border of China.  The founder and leader told us early on as the Lord exponentially grew this movement that “The Most Important Story has become the flagship ministry of the entire denomination.”

All told, a miracle of God.

This is only the first chapter of The Most Important Story.  Read on…

Operation Mobilization – worldwide evangelistic ministry through floating libraries on ships

• George Verwer – Founder and President of OM obtained a copy of the MIS in 1996 and raised funds to place 200,000 copies on their ships
• For the last 25 years the MIS has been carried on the OM ships and are considered essential materials
• Countless thousands have received the Gospel as a result
• Watch a great story that OM filmed about MIS!

Samaritan’s Purse – Operation Christmas Child – Shoebox Program

• After seeing the widespread distribution of the MIS in Cuba in 1997, we were contacted and thrilled to begin providing the MIS for the worldwide shoebox program of Samaritan’s Purse
• For the next 15 years, we had the honor of providing the MIS retitled as The Greatest Gift of All for their shoebox ministry
• Ultimately some 80 nations and 40 million children received this Gospel
• Along the way, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also utilized the MIS in this form

Luis Palau Evangelistic Association

• As Hong Kong was approaching the turn-over to China in 1997, Luis and team organized the last broad evangelistic crusade in Hong Kong
• We were led of God and through generous support, we were able to provide 100,000 copies of the MIS at this strategic hour
• Not only were 20,000 copies utilized for the children’s crusade, but the remaining 80,000 copies were distributed throughout Hong Kong by the churches and evangelistic organizations

Cuba 

• Although a communist nation and in spite of organizations still smuggling Bibles into Cuba, the Lord opened wide the door to reach the entire nation with the MIS
• Under Fidel Castro, this island nation had countless restrictions for the churches, regarding outreach and the provision of the Word of God
• However, we obtained government permission to import containers of the MIS beginning in early 1997
• A requirement that we welcomed was that we had to distribute the MIS to all 76 denominations of Cuba proportionate to their size
• It just so happened that our two leading partner denominations were also the two of the largest and fastest growing, so they received the lion’s share of the MIS – the Assemblies of God and the Eastern Baptist Convention
• The MIS soon became instrumental in evangelistic outreach nationwide, not just to children but to adults including those in prisons, medical institutions and senior’s homes
• Fidel Castro’s own sister, Augustina, a wonderful believer learned of the MIS and was able to obtain 800 copies
• Although evangelism was outlawed and certainly, door to door evangelism was prohibited, in 1997, Augustina along with a lady from her Bible study went door to door to 800 homes in Havana sharing the MIS
• When the Pope visited Cuba in 1998, Augustina was with her brother Fidel on the platform when Fidel was overheard saying to the Pope as he pointed to Augustina, “There is my sister, the missionary in the family”.
• Remarkably, that same year, we were invited to Revolution Plaza where the headquarter building of the National Library of Cuba stands to meet with its Director to discuss providing the MIS for all government libraries in the country
• Never in history had an evangelistic book been permitted to be placed in any library and subsequent to this historic meeting, we were able to place the MIS in every single library in Cuba. We also were invited to place Bibles in every library which we were honored to provide.
• Then, in 1999, Fidel Castro permitted the absolutely unprecedented Evangelical Celebrations. Ultimately, 22 celebrations were permitted from one end of the country to the other.  We were asked to provide an unprecedented number of the MIS for the celebrations – 500,000 copies.  Again, Fidel himself gave permission and 500,000 copies went to every church in Cuba.
• By 2007, a total of 1.7 million copies of the MIS had been provided for the 11 million people of Cuba

Egypt – Cairo International Book Fair

• The Cairo International Book Fair is the largest and oldest book fair in the Arab world, held every year
• Up to 2 million visitors a year representing every one of the 25 Arabic speaking nations attend with hundreds of publishers and millions of books on display
• Incredibly, twice, at the close of the Book Fair, the MIS in Arabic was the best-selling book and taken back to the countries and homes of those who normally would have great difficulty to obtain a Christian evangelistic book

Belarus – Chernobyl kids

• Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, reports from Soviet and Western scientists indicated that Belarus received about 60% of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union
• Ten of thousands of children were greatly affected with many being hospitalized in clinics in Minsk
• We went to a number of the clinics and visited with the children and the dedicated staff, sharing the love of Jesus Christ and giving the children toys and each child received a copy of the MIS in Russian.

Burma (Myanmar)

• The MIS was first introduced to this nation in 1998 and provided in Burmese
• Never before had such a book every been provided in this nation and soon requests were coming in from the multiple ethnic groups
• In short order, dedicated Burmese and their counterparts translated the MIS into 15 languages, and they were met with great fanfare
• One of the most remarkable stories came from among the Wa people and the most notorious man, a headhunter who had killed many men, came to faith in Christ
• Shortly thereafter, he was provided with 250 copies of the MIS in the Wa language and he shared them with his entire village who all came to faith in Christ

Costa Rica

• This nation puts a very high priority on its education system and primary education is compulsory for children ages 6 to 13
• We were thrilled when we were requested to allow the MIS in Spanish to not only be provided for school children but to be used in classes throughout the country

The Rest of the Story

In country after country, from Mexico to Haiti to Romania and India and countless other countries, The Most Important Story has been used to share the Gospel.  See Testimonies to learn of more hightlights.

Although the focus has been to reach children, adults gravitate to the dynamic and very succinct Gospel presentation.  The invitation to pray to accept Christ as the close of the book has been instrumental in bringing countless numbers of individuals into the Kingdom of God.

Whether it is local church outreach, evangelistic endeavors, shoebox type provisions or missions’ trips, The Most Important Story has proven to be one of the most effective Gospel presentations ever.

We invite you to use these materials today in your personal evangelism and in your ministry.

God bless you!