Campaign Lets U.S. Believers Share Bibles With Developing Countries' Christians
by Allie Martin
December 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The executive director of a Michigan-based ministry is challenging Christians in the United States to try conducting one worship service without a Bible so they can better understand what believers in other nations must endure. He hopes this exercise will encourage many Christians to share an essential resource they may be taking for granted. For the past half century, Christian Resources International (CRI) has sent Bibles and Christian books to needy believers overseas. Now the ministry has launched an initiative called "Operation Bare Your Bookshelf." The project allows Christians in the U.S. to find out the resource needs of believers in other nations and send books and Bibles from their personal libraries to meet those needs.
As CRI executive director Fred Palmerton notes, many Christians around the world currently do not even own or have access to a Bible. Most believers in the U.S. and other affluent nations are fortunate, he says, to have had the luxury of a Bible as they were growing up.
"But can you imagine being a new Christian," Palmerton asks, and "you're all fired up and [thinking], 'This guy can save my soul? Well, who is He? What do I know about Him?' -- and you don't even have a Bible? That's the part that we have a burden for."
Christians in other countries can benefit from books and Bibles sent by believers in the U.S., many of whom may have taken their easy access to the scriptures for granted. "Our mission is to equip ordinary Christians in the U.S. to do missions," he explains, "and they can do it this way, inexpensively."
Also, Palmerton points out, sharing the gift of God's Word and other Christian literature with others through "Operation Bare Your Bookshelf" is "heartwarming" and is something in which Christians can participate along with their entire family. "If they have children," he adds, "the kids love it, and they're able to get involved."
Research by the Christian Booksellers Association and Zondervan Publishers has found that the average American Christian owns nine Bibles and is in the market for more. Meanwhile, CRI notes, reports indicate that the pastor of a typical developing church has access to only one copy of the Bible, often shared with other pastors.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
