Larry Agnew is the Volunteer Coordinator at Desiring God.

“Bless the Lord for the volunteers!” was the cry of Deborah and Barak following the victory God gave Israel over Jabin, the king of Canaan.

That the leaders took the lead in Israel,
that the people offered themselves willingly (volunteered),
bless the Lord! (Judges 5:2)

At Desiring God, we are grateful to join with them in their thanksgiving. From our beginnings, God has blessed us with great volunteers who “offer themselves willingly.” We love the volunteer ministry not merely because it enables us to sustain our pay-whatever-you-can-afford policy, but because it is a reflection of God, the most radically generous person in the universe.

Our volunteers give themselves willingly because they love God and want to join in spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

Currently, Desiring God has a team of 40 volunteers who collectively contribute an average of over 400 hours per month. The ages of our volunteers range from pre-teen to over 65, and we structure teams to reflect our love for inter-generational ministry.

Our volunteers represent a broad range of skills, interests and experience that they bring to the organization. They assist in the production and distribution of over 100,000 resources a year. Two of our departments, International Outreach and our Inmate Ministry, actually operate primarily through volunteers.

They stuff envelopes and shrink-wrap They build bookshelves. They pray for the requests that we receive from around the world. They provide administrative and managerial assistance. Some are even involved in database development and computer program design.

Volunteer man-hours for 2007 totaled 4,658 hours, representing an increase of over 300% since the volunteer department was established 2004.

All this and much more is reason to praise God with Deborah and Barak for people who offer themselves willingly.

I first traveled to Romania as a short-term missionary in 1987. The cruel Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was still exerting control over the public and private lives of the Romanian citizens. Christians who refused to deny their love for Christ, “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God,” suffered much. In those days, communication between Romanian believers and western missionaries was greatly hampered by the secret police.

However, on Christmas Day, 1989, all that changed when the regime was overthrown.

Before that, it might have taken months for me to successfully pass on information to a pastor. Now, with a simple click of a computer key, it is accomplished in seconds. The internet is one of the most powerful ways we are able to spread a passion for God’s supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples (in this case, Romanian people) through Jesus Christ.

Nearly two years have passed since the last time we posted a Romanian translation of a Piper sermon. We are pleased to announce that we just received two new Romanian sermon translations, thanks to our translation team in Bucharest.

We give honor, praise and glory to God!