Gideons report results of distributing Bibles

Members of the Gideons Bible distribution group, local pastors and spouses gathered March 1 for the annual Birmingham Metro-Area Pastors Appreciation Banquet. John Ward, a circuit judge from Fort Smith, Ark., was guest speaker for the occasion, which drew about 450 participants.
   
The Gideons thanked pastors for allowing them to give reports in their churches and to take up offerings for the purchase of Bibles.
   
Ward, who serves as international Gideons chaplain, told members of the Bible distribution organization and their guests how his life was changed after he was given a New Testament by a Gideon member.
   
Although Ward said he was a successful attorney at the time, his life seemed empty. That is why he went to a neighbor for help early one morning.
   
The neighbor, a Gideon, gave Ward a New Testament to read. He began reading it but lost interest because of the genealogy at the start of Matthew.
   
He said that same morning a client asked him about the New Testament on his desk. When Ward told her about his disenchantment, she gave him another Gideon Testament in which she had marked some important verses.
   
Ward thought about the interesting development: “I have had two Bibles given to me within three hours.” After reading in the Bible, he became convinced he should give his life to Christ. Previously a workaholic, Ward started going home earlier each day and became more involved with his family.
   
A few weeks later Ward noticed a light in his son’s room late one night. As he entered the room, his son put something away. Ward asked his son  what he had been doing. The boy pulled out a Bible he had bought for himself, explaining: “I said, ‘If God could change a man like you, I could stand some of that myself.’”
   
Ward also described some of his experiences in other countries.
   
On one trip he met with 13 young men and 12 young women in a remote Bolivian town. They were hoping to start a local Gideons organization. They asked for 25,000 Bibles, thinking they would distribute them in a year.
   
However, in only eight months they were out of Bibles, so they asked for 25,000 more. They also sent a message: “We are having a revival here!”
   
He also told of a  shoeshine boy in Latin America who slept in the doorway of Ward’s hotel to make sure Ward didn’t leave town without helping him accept Christ.
   
Ward said a man he met in Indonesia travels 18 hours by boat three times a year to load up Bibles and carry them to his area.
   
Herschel Gibson, chaplain and longest serving member of the Birmingham Camp of Gideons, said the group was “very enthused” by the number of people who turned out for the annual gathering.