About International School of the Bible
This is to summarize what God is doing through International School of The Bible (ISOB) around the world. All the Glory goes to God as we watch what He is doing! Carol Chkoreff and Larry Chkoreff never intended to start a ministry like ISOB. We were teaching 8th grade Sunday School at Mt Paran Central and North since 1983. At the same time we were overcomin
g very challenging circumstances in our lives. I ended up writing about our overcoming through God's direction and path for these 8th graders. I am not especially qualified in education as a writer. Therefore, any fruit from anything that we have written is totally to the glory of God and from His grace and anointing. My writing style is not professional; it is rather conversational, geared towards the simple. Beginnings. As we were ministering at Mount Paran Safehouse (downtown Atlanta) in 1994-1996, we were asked to develop discipleship lessons for the homeless people. As we did that, the Lord spoke an unexpected promise to us through Psalms 68:11. "The Lord gave the word, great was the host (army) of those that published it." We had no idea what that meant. But now we do. Writers write, printers print, but publishers distribute. The great host of publishers that we see publishing our books, freely of course, "blows our minds!" These "publishers" are mostly simple pastors in Third World and persecuted nations. Psalm 68: 12 says, "Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil." Carol and I have tarried at home, but we have seen the "spoil." The Mount Paran Central missionary to Ghana, Kingspride Hammond, who also worked at Safehouse while we were there, spoke a prophetic word to me. He said that our discipleship school for the homeless would someday be called International School of The Bible. I laughed, sort of like Old Testament Sarah did! In 1998 Benjamin Tomah, then a refugee in Ivory Coast, got a hold of our Grow or Die lessons. This is before we even had a book. He said that he preferred them for discipleship over ever other resource he could find. I was shocked, and thought that perhaps that was a one-time event. Benjamin will tell you that this discipleship process has led to more than 12 church plants between Ivory Coast and Liberia. Another brother in Haiti got a hold of the same lessons. We assembled them into our first book and took it to Haiti personally in 1999 (two trips). From 1998 to 2005 we had written around 7 books, and they were being used in 8 churches in 8 nations. Then increase became exponential. From 2005 to 2011 we have developed 17 books that are being distributed in more than 48 nations, in thousands of churches. God has utilized these inner healing and discipleship books to revolutionize tens of thousands of lives. The result has included thousands of salvations, hundreds of new churches planted, and many lives transformed by the Word of God by these simple but profound books. We really do not even try to count or keep track any longer, the reports come in too fast! We receive testimonies almost daily of changed lives, new churches and new locations. We have a small collection of testimonies at our web site, www.isob-bible.org. From 1998 to 2013 we distributed approximately 540,000 books, mostly freely in over 48 nations. Financial investment. ISOB has invested substantial sums into this ministry and process. In that number there are no executive salaries and only 4% of the expenses did not go directly to the field. Our focus to date has been Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Other key areas has been Cuba and South America. People from all religions have taken a hold of one our books and have experienced a life changing experience with Jesus. For some it was the first time, for others it has been a welcome soul healing after many dry years. The process. The Lord causes a person's life to be changed through the books. Then that person takes several of our books to his church. Lives are changed there. Those people take it to the next village, where dozens of lives are changed. ISOB learning centers are set up. People from these centers spread this process to the next town, then to the next nation. We have only visited 8 of these 48 nations, and only a few of the thousands of ISOB learning centers. The Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 put forth this principle. Beginning in verse 17 it records that the elders from Ephesus were attempting to get Paul to come see them. He was under instructions from the Lord to go to Jerusalem as soon as possible. He said,
Acts 20:25,32 “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.”
“So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
That is the principle of our ministry. The written word was more effective for Paul at that time then the actual appearing of his face. There are tens of thousands of disciples being made, hundreds of churches being planted through God's word in our books. Most of these people will never see our face, or even the face of the ISOB leader in that nation. Leaders have developed in these nations. These leaders then print books and open new locations and plant new churches.
