(Photo: Christian Resources International)African children receive Christian books from Christian Resources International
(Photo: Christian Resources International)Christians in third world countries receive Bibles and Christian books from Christian Resources International.
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How many excess Bibles do you have in your home? That is the question posed by one Christian literature donation ministry after it discovered that the average American Christian owns nine Bibles while the average third world pastor has none.
In response, Christian Resources International launched project “Operation Bare Your Bookshelf” to help American Christians send their excess Bibles and Christian books overseas.
Less than a month into the project, CRI reports unexpectedly strong response from American Christians.
“It is incredible,” exclaimed CRI executive director Fred Palmerton during an interview Monday. “Nearly the whole staff worked all day yesterday to catch up just on the backload of shipping the packages to the respondent.”
Palmerton said the staff sent over 250 mailing materials on Sunday to donors who will fill the bag with Christian resources for their counterparts in other countries. The CRI director reported that the ministry receives about 25 requests a day from American Christians wanting to send Bibles and Christian literatures to Christians living in third world countries. Although Palmerton cannot provide the exact number of donors generated by the new project, he confirmed that there has been a major boost in donations.
Many Americans often wonder how a pastor or a church can survive without a Bible. To explain, Palmerton related a story about an African man whom he received a letter from about six years ago. The man became a Christian and later a preacher through reading a small devotional booklet, “Our Daily Bread,” published by RBC Ministries (Resources for Biblical Communications) in Grand Rapids, Mich. He came to know Christ through the booklet he found and began to preach and convert people using that one small booklet.
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Palmerton remarked that Christians in third world countries are “hungry” for the Word and often resort to “creative” means to preach.
The CRI head admits to owning 30 Bibles two years ago for the use for his wife and himself – a collection accumulated through left-behind Bibles from his children and gifts. Now, Palmerton says he has three versions of the Bible and his wife has two Bibles.
CRI was founded in the late 1950’s by born-again Christian Logan Papworth in Howell, Mich., under the name of Christian Salvage Mission. What began in a small bedroom on a junkyard property as one man’s promise to serve God expanded into a facility in Fowlerville, Mich., which ships Bibles and Christian literatures to over 160 countries.
For more information on “Operation Bare Your Bookshelf” visit: cribooks.homestead.com
