International (MNN) — Many homes have extra Bibles and Christian books they’d like to pass along. Mission Cry helps those gifts cross oceans and borders to reach new readers.
That global Bible and Christian literature distribution work began 70 years ago when a junk dealer found a Bible in a garbage can. Jason Woolford of Mission Cry says, “He saved it. Once he got a box of these Bibles, he sent that first box to India.”
Since then, the ministry has sent Bibles and Christian books to 181 countries, an estimated $500 million in materials. Woolford says the impact is personal: “When people open the Word of God and read it, they’re having hope!”
Reading Bible (Photo courtesy of Chris Liu via Unsplash)
The ministry collects Bibles and Christian books from donors, store shelves, garage sales, and bookstores.
“When those Bibles and Christian books come in, they go through a seven-sort process,” Woolford explains. “They get packaged, boxed, palletized, shrink-wrapped.” Then they’re loaded into sea containers and sent to distribution points around the world, where people receive the Word of God free of charge.
Those private donations also bring supporters into the global Gospel movement. Woolford calls it “having the ability to become a missionary without ever leaving their home and sending the word that doesn’t return void.”
More importantly, people desperate for hope are getting access to its source. Woolford says, “People that are being martyred for their faith, people that are being beaten, losing their jobs, their churches lit on fire, and in most cases, this happening to them for a God they’re serving, but they can’t even read about because they can’t afford a Bible, and we’re changing that.”
The ministry also collects testimonies of how Scripture in the home changes families and communities, helping people become better mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, and better citizens who understand how to handle money and honor those in authority.
Pray for Mission Cry to find more books and for the Holy Spirit’s guidance on where to send them. You can also sponsor a container, a portion of a container, or support the ministry.
Header photo: Aerial view of a cargo ship (photo courtesy of Venti Views via Unsplash).
