People in a major U-S city to receive the Gospel

USA (MNN) — Next week the film “The Passion of the Christ” will be released on DVD and video. This weekend the International Bible Society is doing something that could change lives in a major city in the United States.

Mike Richards is with the International Bible Society in Houston, Texas. “This Sunday, the 29th, every residential subscriber to the Houston Chronicle will be receiving, with their newspaper, a copy of the ‘Passion of the Christ’ Gospel of Luke that we produced in conjunction with the film.” That represents 430,500 subscribers and 1.2 million people.

Richards says believes many will turn to Christ as a result of this distribution. His family is an example of what God’s simple word can do, because 55 years ago his grandfather came to Christ as a result of someone giving him a New Testament. Richards says, “I see myself, as that gentleman put God’s word in the hands of my grandfather, now two or three generations later, I now have the opportunity to be that same person, to (put) God’s word into the hands of 430,500 families.”

Their prayer for this project is simple. “Our prayer really is that the Lord would prepare the hearts of the people all over the city of Houston,” says Richards. He says he saw ‘The Passion of the Christ’ as a tiller of the soil, but now it’s time for the seed. “Jesus said that His word is seed. So, we’re going to be planting seeds all over the city of Houston in the ground that’s already been turned over. And, we’re just praying that God would watch over His word and it would be a fruitful harvest for the city of Houston.”

If you’d like more information about this outreach, go to their web site, http://www.houstontexasguide.com.