As a young boy Jan Joensen started drinking alcohol. As a teenager, addiction to drugs almost cost him his life, several times. In 1995 his life was miraculously transformed as he became a Christian and was set free from addiction. Since then he has been serving the Lord. Jan is married and has two children. In 2010, he and his wife started Revival Ministry. Initially working in India planting a church and setting up a ministry to orphans, the focus changed in 2014.
Following an encounter with a refugee mother and daughter, who Jan had the privilege of leading to the Lord, and seeing a real transformation in their lives, Jan said ”the Lord changed my heart” and the ministry changed to be a a church movement working mainly with refugees.
Revival Ministry found it difficult to get the whole Bible in the languages of the people they were ministering to. At a conference Jan met a representative from Biblica. A relationship developed as Jan became aware of the work of Biblica, and in 2019 a plan started to take shape and recently Revival Ministry obtained 2,800 Arabic Bibles and 5,800 Farsi Bibles.
In France the Revival Ministry refugee church is based in several cities. From these cities the Arabic and Farsi Bibles are shared around France, and other parts of Europe.
Jan said “So far about 600 Arabic and 700 Farsi Bibles have been distributed, and we will have two-thirds given out within 3 months, with the rest given out within 6-7 months. The process may seem long, but as well as issues of distance, we have additional issues of getting the Bibles into particular ghettos. We are thankful that in France the team is recognised by the French government and therefore allowed to travel all over France to the groups. In other countries we have more issues.”
As part of the distribution, each leader gets their own Bible and a few to use for teaching and for leaders of discipleship groups. Jan shared “When the leaders received the whole Bible it was like children who received a great gift. The joy and happiness can’t be described by words. Already there are hundreds of refugees in Bible study groups made possible because Biblica had mercy for the refugee church. Because of how God is using our partnership with Biblica, we can see growth in the number of refugees coming to God.”
At Biblica we give thanks to God for the work among those who are suffering through persecution and in fear of deportation. We are humbled as we hear of people coming to faith as they live in these circumstances and how they then share the gospel with others.
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