June 2003

The BfA Update is intended as an encouragement for all those laboring in the distribution of Recovery Version New Testaments throughout America. We hope that, for everyone’s mutual encouragement, you all will send us reports of your experiences.

From the office:

• After six months in the works, Bibles for America launched its newly designed corporate Web site this month at www.biblesforamerica.org. The comprehensive site features sections about the organization, including its history and current programs; the Recovery Version, with an interactive sample page; and news and ongoing events, such as the motor home tours across America.

We hope volunteers across the country will be encouraged by our regular news updates, and will pray that the Web site will draw many seekers to receive the Recovery Version and come to the full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

• A Bible recipient in Olympia, Washington is a producer and hostess of a cable access television show called “Living Solutions”. After receiving a Recovery Version last year through a Bibles for America visit to Wal-Mart in her area, she invited us to join her show to present our mission and introduce the Recovery Version. Two volunteers from Washington and a staff member from Irvine appeared on the one-hour live broadcast on May 15.

From our volunteers:
On April 25, two Bibles for America volunteers drove one of Bibles for America’s motor homes from Raleigh to Fayetteville, North Carolina to distribute Recovery Version New Testaments. They gave us the following report:

We had hoped to visit two military bases in the city, but we had not obtained the proper access. As volunteers gathered to pray, one of the volunteers called the owner of an AM radio station and the manager of a nearby Wal-Mart. The radio station owner said we could come immediately, and the Wal-Mart manager said we could come the next day. At the radio station, the owner allowed us to park the motor home in their lot and invited us inside to broadcast the event and announce our gift of free Bibles. What happened next was nothing less than miraculous.

The radio station owner, manager, three employees, a pastor, a bishop, and Bibles for America volunteers from Raleigh and Fayetteville gathered to distribute Recovery Versions. During the four to five o’clock radio show, the host, who is a pastor of a Baptist denomination, focused on Bibles for America’s mission to distribute Bibles. The next radio show, called “Let’s Talk Church” and hosted by a bishop who leads a congregation of more than 4,000 people, centered on the distribution activities taking place in the radio station’s parking lot. A Bibles for America volunteer was a guest for both programs. Although it was raining, people surrounded us outside to request Bibles from four until eight-thirty in the evening. There were so many people and cars that some had to park in adjacent lots and walk to the distribution tent. At the end of the day, we had distributed 301 New Testaments and over 500 gift offer brochures. We helped lead many people to receive the Lord for the first time.

A report of recent activities in Missouri:

June 4—Interview on a morning talk show on a Christian radio station in Branson (KLFC). We shared with the hosts about our cross-country motor home trips and announced our visit to Wal-Mart later in the day to distribute free Recovery Version New Testaments. During the show, twelve people called in to request Bibles, many of them businessmen who listen to the program regularly. After the program, we mentioned that we wanted to go to Fort Leonard Wood to distribute Bibles. The hosts suggested that we contact a retired military chaplain and gave us the name and contact information for this man.

Later, we went to Wal-Mart and distributed 330 Bibles. Many people we met said they had heard the radio broadcast earlier in the day announcing our gift offer.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in the lobby of the IMAX Entertainment Complex. The manager of the complex approached our table and asked us to meet his wife who had heard us on the radio and wanted to receive five Bibles for their family. We had planned to leave tomorrow unless the Lord opened up a distribution location for us, so she asked for permission for us to set up inside the mall tomorrow.

June 5— Though there were many vendors inside the IMAX Entertainment Complex, we were placed in a prime location in the center of the mall. From ten o’clock until noon, we distributed 81 Bibles.

Later we contacted a former chaplain of Fort Leonard Wood who is now a Baptist pastor. He ate breakfast with us the next day, and then, because we did not have identification tags on the motor home, he drove all of us onto the base in his church van. We gave 40 Bibles to the military personnel and told them they could order more Bibles through Bibles for America’s Web site.

From Bible recipients:
“I am thoroughly enjoying the New Testament Recovery Version. I just enjoy reading and cross referencing this book. It has helped me understand and see clearly what the Scriptures are saying. I just love it. I was wondering if you have the Old Testament as well. If so, how can I get a copy?” —Raleigh, North Carolina

For your prayer:
Please pray for the Lord to continue to open venues for the distribution of Recovery Version New Testaments. We trust in his divine arrangement.

May God continue to bless America with the Recovery Version!!

Previous Issues:
April-May 2003, March 2003, February 2003

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