Photo by Derek Redd Members of Lava Avenue Baptist Church and Metropolitan Baptist Church spent Tuesday putting together booklets of the Gospel of John and Book of Romans, translated into German, to be sent overseas.

WHEELING — At a church in Elm Grove, local congregants came together Tuesday to help spread the gospel across the globe – and do so in a different language.

At Lava Ave. Baptist Church, members of that church, members of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Wheeling and other community members came together to put together 10,000 booklets of the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans translated into German that will be sent overseas as part of the Baptist Church of Milford’s Bearing Precious Seed’s Seedline ministry.

Ryan Dealy, a Seedline missionary, said that, for over the years, Bearing Precious Seed has sent booklets and Bibles across the globe in 70 different languages, including Spanish, French, Swahili and others.

In 2025, those publications reached countries like the Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, England, Brazil and Italy.

“One thing you don’t necessarily think about as just a normal church-goer is that not everybody has the same access that we have to a Bible in our language,” Dealy said. “I can go to any bookstore or go to Amazon and get a Bible, but not everybody in Africa or other places around the world have those same opportunities.”

At Lava Ave. Baptist on Tuesday, local volunteers put covers on the pages of John and Romans. Those booklets were then stapled together and trimmed, and then packed for shipping.

This is the second year that Lava Ave. Baptist has participated in the ministry, said the church’s Pastor Shaun Borne. Around a dozen people were at the church early in the afternoon, but he expected many more to join in the evening. Last year, there were more than 40 who participated.

An event like this can energize congregants to participate actively in the church’s ministry, Borne said. It’s also something that can bridge generations. Everyone from grandparents to grandchildren can participate.

And, Borne added, it allows those living in West Virginia to influence and extend their reach in teaching others about the Gospel across oceans.

“It’s really a wonderful opportunity to be part of something eternal,” Borne said. “It’s a nice thing to be able to give people food and clothing and blankets, and we do things like that. But here, we get to do something that can actually have an eternal impact.

“And that’s what really gets us excited,” he added, “that someone might read the Bible that has never read the Bible. To play a part in that in someone’s life is awesome.”