Jim Figgis - The Bible Shop

Jim Figgis,
The Bible Shop,
168 King Street,
Castle Douglas,
Kirkcudbrightshire
DG7 1DA
SCOTLAND

E.Mail. figgis.bibles@talktalkbusiness.net

Tel. 01556 504416

Christian Resource Ministries.
Charity Commission No. SCO 30806
The Society for the Protection of African Children.
Charity Commission No. SCO 34174

U.K. Ministry Profile

One Sunday as I sat and watched Songs of Praise on T.V., I suddenly felt the urge to join in the singing of a praise song I had never heard before, which was sung by a black choir in a big auditorium somewhere in England.

I had been brought up to read my Bible, but the habit left me about the age of 22, and I lost all interest in it. My church attendance fell away, and I went after the pleasures of the world around me, and the temptations which met me at every turn. What had been a delight became burdensome, and things that had been unattractive before, came to fill my thoughts and occupy my days. Old friendships disappeared, and new ones replaced them. The power which I claimed to have to resist evil was no longer there.

A quarter of a century passed, and here I was watching the T.V. alone. Fetching my old Bible off the shelf, where it had lain, I turned at once to a familiar verse:

I Cor. 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Immediately, I felt a new sensation within, as if someone had entered the room where I was sitting, and was talking to me, although I heard no voice.

That was the beginning, in 1984, of a new stage of my life, and I have been an avid Bible reader ever since. I started going to church, where I met people who had an interest in reading Christian books. This led in 1991 to opening my first bookshop called The Bible Shop, and I learned about the Christian book trade from the bottom up.

My chief aim now is to glorify God and his son Jesus by distributing Christian literature and by preaching the gospel to the lost. Just as the preaching of the cross seems foolish to them that are perishing, so does the opening of Christian bookshops seem like a total waste. In July last year I spent a week in a Christian bookshop in a French speaking part of Belgium. In that country with its hugely secular culture, the sale of Christian books is like waters in the desert. So should it be in every country.

The most popular Bible here, as it has been for nearly 400 years is the King James Version. No doubt there are many who now prefer the newer ones, but when you look at them, and compare what they contain, there is much left out that we need today in our Bible study in churches and at home. It is the individuals who are preferring the KJV, and the churches and schools who are introducing the new versions. As I feel strongly about this, I have sold off the stock of newer versions at a big discount, with a message to each purchaser of their failings. The Lord has blessed this business through many years, and I believe that if I honour him, he will continue to honour me.

Overseas Ministry Profile

About ten years ago, it must have been in 1997, I first began to correspond with Morris Dimba, who started Christian Resource Ministries in Blantyre, Malawi (former Nyasaland). I visited him in 1999, with an invitation to stay at their house, so that I could see at first hand the work he was doing.

The welcome he gave me was overwhelming. About 30 pastors, some with wives, and the Dimba family, came to the airport to meet me. I shook hands with everyone, and was carried back by car to the Dimba home. Everything came up to my expectations. I was the first European some of them had ever seen.

Since 1999 I have made 11 more visits. In Malawi I have mainly been asked to give pastors’ seminars on the Bible, together with gospel preaching to whole villages. My interpreter has been Morris or his son Enock. Back home, I have been fundraising for the mission, and for the orphanage which was founded by them in 2000. This now has about 200 orphans, aged from 4-18, with about 30 staff. A school block, a dining hall, and dormitories have been added. The whole site is quite an impressive building complex, with adjacent farmland cultivated to supply their food.

In course of time I met church leaders from other African countries, and was led, after having a dream, to found a second charity. I had already applied for Christian Resource Ministries to have charity status, so it was not hard to do the same again. I called the second one “The Society for the Protection of African Children.” The opening meeting was addressed by Dr. Cecil Stewart OBE and Peter Duncan MP.

In 2003 I made my first visit to Kenya, after meeting a Kenyan church leader, and we travelled together to a remote refugee camp. I was also invited to preach at two of his churches, and on a later visit I travelled with him to Mombasa where he has an orphanage. Other contacts took me also to India in 2004, and through them to a new contact in Durban, South Africa, and in due course I preached in both places. I have been privileged to travel into Mozambique on several occasions from Malawi, as the two countries are adjacent, and I have seen 20 new Christians being baptized one after another in the Zambezi River. 

I have now been resting from my travels to Africa for a year or more, and am waiting to see whether further doors will be opened. It is my main aim to preach the gospel, wherever and whenever the opportunities arise.