Ministry asks Americans to send their extra Bibles to Christians overseas who have none
Contact: Erika Castle, 719-598-5869
FOWLERVILLE, Mich., Dec. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- This Christmas, Christian Resources International (CRI), a ministry that sends Bibles to needy Christians overseas, is calling on American Christians to "re-gift" new and used Bibles from under their Christmas trees or from their bookshelves and send them overseas.
"Baptisms in Africa outnumber those in Europe, North and South America combined," notes CRI Executive Director Fred Palmerton, "and those choosing to become Christian in Asia do so at a rate five times greater than Africa. Yet, the average pastor in those nations doesn't own a Bible."
Research by Christian Booksellers Association and Zondervan Publishers indicates that the average American Christian family owns nine Bibles and is actively in the market for more.
Palmerton challenges, "If American Christians keep their family Bible and 're-gift' their infrequently unused Bibles overseas, millions more people will be able to read the Christmas Story themselves this year."
Entire villages in third world countries regularly worship without a Bible in hand, they instead rely on scripture written on scraps of paper or memorized passages. "Christians in the United States should memorize a scripture for a weekly devotional time and try and conduct one worship service this Christmas the way that many of our brothers and sisters around the world regularly do," Palmerton suggests "Without any Bibles."
According to CRI, it costs about $1 to send a Bible overseas. To meet the requests for Bibles that CRI receives every day, CRI is encouraging individuals, groups and churches to sign up for Operation Bare Your Bookshelf (www.bareyourbookshelf.com), a project that makes it easy for American Christians to send their Bibles and other Christian books overseas and send in $1 to cover the shipping costs for each book provided.
Christian Resources International is a 50-year old volunteer-driven ministry that enables Christians to send their used Christian books and Bibles to more than 160 countries worldwide.
If you would like to donate your Bibles and Christian books, visit www.bareyourbookshelf.com to register or receive more information.
