Jack I. Tompkins

Chairman & CEO

ARTA Equity Advisors, LLC

"Through A Defining Moment, my wife and I can participate financially and personally. It's much more than writing a check - it's a personal involvement in this ministry that is touching the people with some of the world's greatest needs."

The Projects of A Defining Moment

A wide assortment of key ministry projects has been selected for completion in this first phase of A Defining Moment.  Please click on the links to the left to view more project information.

Chinese Bible Translation
With as many as 70 million Christians living in China, no translation of the Bible has found broad acceptance within the Chinese Christian community.

An analysis of existing Chinese Bible translations found that only 47% of the words have been accurately translated. Consequently, many are confused about what the Bible says and distrust the accuracy of God's word.

The goal of this project is to enable Chinese scholars to create an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand contemporary Chinese Mandarin Bible that also is theologically accurate.

The contemporary Chinese Standard Bible New Testament, which was published last May in partnership with Asia Bible Society, has been met with great enthusiasm by Chinese throughout the world. A dedication ceremony with prominent Christian leaders in Hong Kong was held Sept. 11. Rev. James Hudson Taylor III, whose great grandfather was well-known China missionary Hudson Taylor, led a prayer of blessing for the new translation.

Plans call for the final draft of the entire Old Testament to be completed by the end of 2011.

Discipleship in Kenya
Of the more than 3,000 churches of the Kenyan Baptist Convention, only about 100 have a discipleship process implemented in their churches. At its core, biblical discipleship leads us to invest ourselves in others, just like Jesus did with His disciples.

The three-year project is designed to facilitate training and teaching in a biblical process of making disciples through local churches. Goals include training 800 teachers, 100 writers, 3,000 teachers and leaders in Ongoing Open Bible Study; training 6,000 church members in Progressive Spiritual Transformational Discipleship; and increasing the resources and capabilities of Christ-followers to be more effective "kingdom-builders."

In addition to serving as a necessary foundation for kingdom growth, a biblical process of making disciples will equip church members to withstand the Islamic threat to Kenyan churches. Although Kenya currently enjoys religious freedom, the Islamic threat is real. To be prepared, the churches must grow strong in the Lord through ongoing discipleship.

True Love Waits International
Worldwide, AIDS kills one person every 10 seconds, with the most concentrated and high-risk area being the continent of Africa. In 2003, an estimated 25 million people, or 66.1 percent of the world's HIV cases, lived in sub-Saharan Africa-led by Swaziland with an astounding 38.8 percent of its population infected.

In 1987, Uganda had the highest rate of AIDS among African nations. In 1992, the prevalence rate (the rate of people living with HIV/AIDS) was 18.3%, with some areas of the country above 30%. In 1993, the first steps were taken to implement the True Love Waits program. According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, there was a "steady decline in prevalence rates from the mid-1990s to 2000 to around 6%" of the country's 25 million people.

Using God's plan for sexual behavior, the True Love Waits International team has goals of targeting six sub-Saharan African countries per year for a total of 30 countries in five years; reducing AIDS by 15 % in each country over the next five years; training at least five national teams in each country to deliver the True Love Waits message; and obtaining serious commitments from 25% of the youth population in each targeted country.

The six African countries in which True Love Waits initiated its first phase of new work: South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Financial Investment Needed to Complete These Projects: