Many of us have a favorite Bible — dog-eared, marked up and littered with notes — that’s our go-to for the gospel, while a dozen others sit elsewhere in the house gathering dust.
Meanwhile, Christians all over the world pray daily to get their hands on any copy of Scripture, new or well used.
Love Packages works to address that issue, placing donated Bibles and gospel-based literature into the hands of pastors and other Christians throughout the world.
Shipping tons
With warehouse and distribution locations in Illinois and Alabama, Love Packages has shipped Christian literature to 154 nations since it began in 1975.
Love Packages shipped 60 boxes that first year. Now the organization ships more than 1,700 tons annually. In 2020, Love Packages hopes to send at least 2,020 tons to the far reaches of the globe.
“The average income of the people we ship to is just $300–400 per year,” said Jason Jenkins, manager of the Alabama branch of Love Packages. “You can find Bibles overseas and in third-world countries, but the price would be twice the U.S. dollar price, so buying Bibles is out of the question.”
Many U.S. Christians are unaware of how dire the need is for Bibles in undeveloped countries.
“Most people don’t realize that there are pastors overseas who don’t have a Bible, or they share it with their congregation,” Jenkins said.
Love Packages was founded in Butler, Illinois, by Steve Schmidt, who was concerned about the appalling waste of Christian literature in the U.S., while Christians in poor countries go without. A similar effort was ongoing in Decatur at Edwin Hodges Ministry, which was also sending excess Christian literature to the global missions field.
In 2016, when Hodges was ailing and in his 80s, he asked Love Packages to take over his operation. Jenkins and his family moved to Decatur, where he manages the new branch.
“We have a large warehouse where we receive all kinds of Christian literature from all over the United States, including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, you name it,” Jenkins said. “At any given moment, literature can be coming in on a church van, a tractor-trailer and the postal service.
“We unload those onto a pallet or carts,” he said. “We open and sort through every box we get. This is very important. We want to take out anything bad and make sure we only send materials that are biblically sound overseas.”
“Typically, we receive six to eight tons per week,” Jenkins said, adding that less has been received during the pandemic. Volunteer help also has dwindled in recent months, and the three-person staff struggles to keep shipments moving.
“We need volunteers desperately,” Jenkins said, noting local warehouse volunteers can wear masks and have “plenty of social distancing” while they help sort and repackage incoming materials and repack and load shipping containers.
There are other opportunities to volunteer at the facility too, doing everything from stuffing envelopes to maintenance, Jenkins added.
Churches are encouraged to take Love Packages on as a missions project, collecting Bibles and other materials to be delivered directly to the warehouse or working through volunteer-run collection points.
Go to lovepackages.org to learn more.
What to send/what not to send
Needed materials:
- Bibles — New or used, any translation, New Testaments or other portions, individual gospel booklets, regardless of being marked up or old
- Reference material — Secular dictionaries, Bible dictionaries, concordances, commentaries, etc.
- Books — All Christian books — adult or children, nonfiction
- Magazines and daily devotionals — Any devotionals or magazines from a Christian publisher, except lifestyle magazines that cover subjects not relevant to third-world countries (retirement, travel, gardening, senior citizen issues, etc.)
- Sunday School materials — Adult quarterlies and all teacher manuals in any quantity, from all publishers; children’s quarterlies with teacher guides and student manuals
- CDs, DVDs, BluRay — Music, movies, teaching from well-known speakers (Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll, etc.)
- Tracts — All gospel tracts
- Puppets, nativity sets, etc. — Bible games, biblical puzzles, anything that helps teach the gospel, especially to children
Do not send:
- Cult material
- VHS/tapes/records/8-tracks
- Hymn books and sheet music (music generally doesn’t translate to the recipients’ culture)
- “Guideposts”
- Handiwork or busy papers from Sunday school materials
- Secular books other than dictionaries
- Secular magazines
- Missions magazines (the materials are going into the missions field)
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