‘Hope for Iowa': Iowa Churches to Distribute Bibles to Every Home in City

[Angel4Truth]

‘Hope for Iowa': Iowa Churches to Distribute Bibles to Every Home in City

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Nearly twenty Iowa churches will work together this weekend to distribute Bibles to every home in their city—an effort that they say may be the first of its kind.

First Baptist Church (FBC) of Marshalltown has announced that it, along with 17 other churches, will place 12,000 Bibles in 12,000 homes on Saturday, April 11.

Following a series of violent crimes in the city, Gerald Robison, pastor of First Baptist Church, suggested the idea during a pastors’ meeting earlier this year. He envisioned his congregation carrying out the mission, but other pastors immediately expressed interest and were eager to get involved.

“What made the other churches want to join so quickly is that our prayer time had recently focused on what appeared to be a dark cloud of gloom hovering over our community,” Robison said in a press release on Wednesday.

“There had been a murder, an attempted murder, arson and a shooting death in our area,” he explained further. “With all the bad news around us, the pastors had been praying over the town and we saw this project as a way of delivering hope.”

The project was soon named “Hope 4 You—Hope 4 Iowa.”

The pastors continue to meet together about the effort, mapping out the city and planning a strategy for the distribution. And while the project required raising $18,000 to purchase the thousands of Bibles, Robison said that anonymous donors came forward to cover the exact amount needed to carry out the mission.

In addition to distributing 10,000 English New Testaments, 1,500 Spanish Bibles and 100 Burmese Bibles will be freely given as well to ensure that everyone has a copy of the word of God in their language. 500 large print English Bibles were also ordered for those who may be visually challenged.

The congregations plan to distribute the Bibles this Saturday during a three-hour time frame, with hundreds of Christians volunteering to go door-to-door with the gifted copies.

“We agree on the important things—-and the most important is that we all agree Jesus is the source of real hope. And we want to share that with others who may need it the most,” Robison said of the diverse churches taking part in the effort. “And so, the local congregations, all willing, eager, faithful and ready to share, have worked hard to make ‘Hope 4 You—Hope 4 Iowa’ a reality.”

“It is the prayer of the pastors and members of the 17 participating local churches and the hundreds of volunteers that together, as believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they will bring the message of hope found in Jesus Christ to every household in Marshalltown,” he said.

Wonderful news! Wouldn't it be wonderful if all churches did this?

 

[gcthomas]

What would all those householders want another Bible for? And those few houses without a bible are probably not going to want one pushed on them.

 

[Granite]

How about building some homes for the homeless?

 

[gcthomas]

How about building some homes for the homeless?

Now that would be the Christian thing to do. :up: Spending millions on buying a plot of land to preserve a cross seems crass now.

What poor person wants another Bible when they are struggling to fees and house their families?

 

[Angel4Truth]

How about building some homes for the homeless?

You mean like this one that was being built in a blighted area to help seniors by a baptist church?

n the hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a community center and apartment complex that local leaders expected to serve as a catalyst for the rebuilding of a long blighted East Baltimore neighborhood went up in flames.

The $16 million Mary Harvin Transformation Center was being built in a part of town where half the properties are vacant buildings or barren lots, where unemployment rates reach 25% and poverty and despair is rampant.

"Disheartened and bewildered" was how the Rev. Donte Hickman, pastor of East Baltimore's Southern Baptist Church, described feeling Tuesday as he surveyed the still-smoldering ruins of the centerpiece of a community rebuilding effort led by his church and a coalition of other congregations.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/us/baltimore-community-center-fire/

 

[gcthomas]

You mean like this one that was being built in a blighted area to help seniors by a baptist church?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/us/baltimore-community-center-fire/

Yup - they could have built some houses with the money spent keeping a cross up posting bibles. Priorities, though ... :idunno:

 

[Daniel1769]

There are a lot of churches that do soul winning. Door to door preaching the gospel. Usually Baptist churches. My church doesn't really do this. I've tried to get a group organized but it isn't happening. It's very disappointing.

 

[Angel4Truth]

There are a lot of churches that do soul winning. Door to door preaching the gospel. Usually Baptist churches. My church doesn't really do this. I've tried to get a group organized but it isn't happening. It's very disappointing.

I will pray for your ministry.

 

[Daniel1769]

I will pray for your ministry.

Thanks Angel

 

[Delmar]

Yup - they could have built some houses with the money spent keeping a cross up posting bibles. Priorities, though ... :idunno:

I am wondering if you criticize all charitable giving does not fit your idea of "humanitarian aide"?

 

[Granite]

I am wondering if you criticize all charitable giving does not fit your idea of "humanitarian aide"?

Feeding someone's actually helping them. Handing them a book accomplishes next to nothing.

 

[gcthomas]

I am wondering if you criticize all charitable giving does not fit your idea of "humanitarian aide"?

You think evangelism counts as charity work now? :idunno:

 

[Delmar]

You think evangelism counts as charity work now? :idunno:

Feeding someone's actually helping them. Handing them a book accomplishes next to nothing.

Do you criticize giving to a museum or to NPR?

 

[Tambora]

What would all those householders want another Bible for?

Comes in real handy when another person wants to read at the same time you are reading. Don't all have to crowd around the same book.

And those few houses without a bible are probably not going to want one pushed on them.

Yes, yes. There will be some that will not want the gift, and some will probably go on and on about better things that could have been done.


By the way, what gift did you get for your birthday?
Did you complain that you could have been given something bigger and better?

 

[gcthomas]

Comes in real handy when another person wants to read at the same time you are reading. Don't all have to crowd around the same book.

Yes, yes. There will be some that will not want the gift, and some will probably go on and on about better things that could have been done.

I am just intrigued than when the pastor looked at the troubles of the area he didn't think that he would get the whole congregation out to help the poor and distressed, thereby showing the love they have, but thought a book would be good to help evangelise.

Many of the poor and dispossessed can not read to the level necessary to understand the Bible.

By the way, what gift did you get for your birthday?
Did you complain that you could have been given something bigger and better?

I had a bar of chocolate, as I recall. I don't approve of high value gifts, and I encourage people with too much money to support a local charity. My wife's church runs a homeless charity, and I recommend that. They don't evangelise, they just demonstrate compassion as they support those who need a helping hand.

 

[Tambora]

I had a bar of chocolate

Sweet!

I hope you said "Thank you", and didn't complain that the time and money spent on providing you a chocolate bar could have been better spent.

 

[Granite]

Do you criticize giving to a museum or to NPR?

Two completely different issues. And how can a guy like you support donations to non-creationist museums or NPR with a straight face?

 

[gcthomas]

Sweet!

I hope you said "Thank you", and didn't complain that the time and money spent on providing you a chocolate bar could have been better spent.

If they had bought me a bible and implied that I was poor and disempowered and criminal because I hadn't accepted the Word, then I would have told them they should have saved their money and spent it on the soup kitchens and homeless shelters for the needy.

Did you expect me to be a grabbing materialist who wouldn't know a good deed if I saw one? Shame on you.

 

[Delmar]

If they had bought me a bible and implied that I was poor and disempowered and criminal because I hadn't accepted the Word, then I would have told them they should have saved their money and spent it on the soup kitchens and homeless shelters for the needy.

Did you expect me to be a grabbing materialist who wouldn't know a good deed if I saw one? Shame on you.

I am pretty sure that what you infered is the problem.

 

[Delmar]

Two completely different issues.

Not at all. Since the case could be made that there are more important charities to give to.

And how can a guy like you support donations to non-creationist museums or NPR with a straight face?

You must have a pretty low opinion of me if you believe I would have a problem with you suporting an art museum or a radio station that promotes your views.