Bessemer pastor starts book ministry for soldiers

A church’s unique project to connect deployed soldiers with their children back home was accomplished because it was, according to one of the project’s organizers, “a God thing.” 
   
Gina Jones, a member of Southcrest Baptist Church, Bessemer, said the plan to produce books on DVD for soldiers’ children came about soon after her church’s pastor arrived in Iraq in early June for his tour of duty as an Army chaplain. Pastor Scott Bush saw how the men and women around him missed their children, and he realized many children don’t see their parents for great lengths of time. Bush started thinking about how parents and children could be connected across the miles, Jones said.
   
Bush soon had the idea to have soldiers read a book to their children, record it on DVD, then send the DVD home along with the book. He told his battalion commander there was someone in the United States who could organize and have great success with the project.  That person was Jones, who works as the librarian at Kingwood Christian School in Alabaster. Jones organized a book sale — held at Southcrest Baptist Aug. 5–7 — and invited various churches to participate.  Books were donated by the churches, and Scholastic books donated books at half price for resale. Individuals were invited to attend the sale and purchase books to be sent to the soldiers with the buyer’s name imprinted inside the book. 
   
“We had little nameplates put inside the books with their name and church on them,” Jones said. “I loved doing this because it shows the soldiers and the children who receive the books that these were donated by people from different churches and different denominations. It gives a great example of Christian love.” 
   
A total of 314 books were purchased and have been shipped to Iraq. “Some people came in and bought books, others just donated money,” Jones said. “One person came in and said ‘I want to donate 50 books.’ And we had people from Baptist, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, Methodist churches. It was amazing.” The support for the sale was just one way Jones said she saw evidence of God’s hand at work in the project. Another was the way the shipment of the books came about. With more than 300 books to ship, Jones had no idea how to get the books to Bush in a reasonable time and at a feasible cost. The answer came when a former member of Southcrest walked into the church the Sunday of the book sale. 
   
“David Wheeler had been called up and is working in security at the Atlanta airport. He walked into church that morning and I joked with him about getting us a good deal on shipping the books,” Jones said. “He said it was no big deal and that if it was being shipped to Iraq, he’d get them there for free. We were able to send six cases of books to Scott. It was just an awesome thing. The way it worked out just showed me that it was a huge God thing.”
   
When told about the progress, Bush reacted with excitement, saying the children and their parents would be especially touched by the efforts of Christians in Alabama. “I’m thrilled to hear about the book fair,” said Bush, who is near the end of his tour. “Your work is going to mean the world to boys and girls in New Jersey and Minnesota and New York and Missouri and California, many who haven’t seen their mom and dad for over a year.” 
   
In the shipment, Southcrest sent a special package to Bush. They recorded his son, Andrew, reading a book and his daughter, Shelby, singing. “We sent this so Scott could have a special message from his kids [and] to show the soldiers how it will work,” Jones said.
   
Jones said she and other church members ultimately want this project to be about planting seeds in the lives of unsaved soldiers. Most of the soldiers in Bush’s battalion are unchurched and from New York and New Jersey, and Jones prays that the project will show them that Christians back home care about them. She also said the project reminded her of the sacrifice soldiers are giving in serving their country. “When a mom is over there, it must be so hard,” Jones said. “If a child doesn’t even remember a parent’s voice, that’s hard to imagine.” She hopes to expand the project in the future and send even more books to soldiers. To do so, Jones plans on asking Christian bookstores and other churches in the area to work with her. As Veteran’s Day and the holidays approach, she also encourages other churches and Baptist organizations to organize similar projects. It’s a wonderful way to reach out to soldiers during these times that they might feel especially lonely and separated from their families, she said.
   
“God sent us just the right amount of books. He sent us someone to ship them,” Jones said. “God was definitely at work in this.”