Christian Resources International has been sending Christian books and Bibles around the world for years and sees the fruits of their labor. "We receive daily letters from people in other countries saying 'thank you' for sending a Bible to them because they would never have an opportunity to read it for themselves," says CRI's Connie McCallum.

Since anyone from around the world in need of Bibles, devotionals, theological books, and Christian literature can request materials from CRI, CRI receives letters from all over. McCallum says one letter recently arrived from a man living in a country north of Ethiopia.

"He sent us a 'thank you' yesterday, telling us how much [the CRI gift] impacted his life and how it has changed his family because he received that."

Stories of change are heard time and time again. In fact, the CRI Web site has a whole list of thank you notes posted from various people who have seen lives change as a result of getting a Bible for the first time, or from a pastor receiving his first theological text.

CRI sends many books through their Bare Your Bookshelf program, in which donors can send books directly to believers in need across the globe. But CRI also sends large shipments of books through their Great Crate program. The next Great Crate is headed to the Philippines, where CRI is still helping churches and believers replace lost materials from the destruction of 2009's Typhoon Ketsana.

The more books and Bibles CRI sends out, the more opportunities there will be for Christians worldwide to grow in their faith and spread the Gospel. Just one Bible for a pastor can impact a whole congregation.

"If you really want to be blessed and you are looking to get rid of an extra Bible that you have laying around your house, Bare Your Bookshelf is a great way to do that," says McCallum. "It's always good to give, and when you're giving the gift of life, it's just such a blessing."

So instead of selling those old books this summer, participate in Bare Your Bookshelf. If you have any summer Christian conferences to attend, consider putting out a book donation box and sending the books directly to CRI with a bit of shipping money for the Great Crate. Click here to contact CRI and change lives with the Truth of the Lord.

If you answered "yes" to both of the preceding questions, you can help Christian Resources International (CRI) with their Bare Your Bookshelf initiative.

Fred Palmerton of CRI said the initiative started because of a huge need.

"We receive hundreds of letters every month from people overseas who can write and communicate to us in English, and they're seeking a Bible or other Christian books," he said.

CRI soon realized they could never fill this great need alone. "So we designed Bare Your Bookshelf, which is a great program. We partner with champions all over America who want to be part of the ministry and do mission work right from their own home," Palmerton said.

Bare Your Bookshelf started three years ago and has been going strong since.

For interested participants, Palmerton said CRI sends "a packet out to them along with the original letter of request from some soul in a developing country who wants a Bible. We send all of the shipping labels, all of the materials to the interested champion who has excess Bibles and other resources."

Then, that person simply fills the request with books from his or her own bookshelf or from a local Christian bookstore. Shipping costs just $12.95.

Once the books reach their destination, CRI will send the packager the recipient's name to pray for them.

Palmerton said this allows people access to a Bible who might never have seen one otherwise.

Also, though all of the literature is in English, the program is able to reach many people across the world.

"There are few corners of the world now that [do] not use English to some degree," Palmerton said. Requests come from nationals across Africa, as well as India, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippine Islands.

To learn more about Bare Your Bookshelf and to get involved today, click here.

For example, the Southern Baptist Convention recently
announced that due to a shortage in the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, 69
long-term foreign missionaries and 350 short-term missionaries would remain
home this year.  

Yet, there is another phenomenon revealing itself amidst the
recession gloom. Church and ministry
leaders have noticed a unique factor that may distinguish what they see coming
in from other non-faith based giving. According to a recent study, those who support
faith-based causes tend to cut spending on personal conveniences and
entertainment first before cutting into kingdom-building causes.

Fred Palmerton with Christian Resources
International says they've been experiencing that growth. According to their mission, CRI is a "community
of Christians from all the nations of the earth, sharing what we have with one
another and working together to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to communities
everywhere" — and that motivates people.

Palmerton says, "The good news is that people are
sending their books. The bad news is that people are sending their books.
They're getting into the really good stuff that we need so desperately. What we
have difficulty doing is providing the finance to get them
overseas." 

People may not be able to give as much financially, but they
are digging deeper and sending more valuable theological study helps to CRI. Many of the resources are packed into a Great
Crate or other shipping container and sent overseas to support a pastor or help
fill the shelves in a Christian library. 
For many of the recipients, they could never hope to purchase the
materials given to them by CRI and its supporters.

Palmerton says you can help, and it costs roughly a dollar a
day. "[For] as little as $30 a
month through our Postage and Handling Club, we can get those materials out the
door. It is a means by which people can sponsor these books to go overseas
on a regular basis." Click here for details.

"The need is far greater than we can imagine," says CRI'S Executive Director, Fred Palmerton. "We developed 'Bare Your Bookshelf' for the average American Christian to help meet that need. They can be a part of answering prayer right from their living room."

"Bare Your Bookshelf" is a CRI project designed to make it easy for American believers to send much-needed resources overseas. Anyone who fills out a form on CRI's website will receive all the necessary mailing materials. Donors will also receive the recipient's name and address.

"If you have Bibles drawing dust on your shelf at home," Palmerton says, "you can send them to a pastor or new Christian."

Only CRI's return address is contained on mailing materials to protect donors from personal contact by anyone overseas.

Palmerton uses the example of a pastor in Africa to explain how desperate this worldwide situation is. CRI received a letter from this pastor desperately asking for God's Word; in his flock of 35, no one had their own Bible.

"He has the only Bible among the 35, and he was asking if someone out there could help send one more Bible so he could share the other Bible with the whole village."

Foundational materials to help a pastor study and teach God's Word are resources that overseas pastors need the most. If you'd like to learn more about "Bare Your Bookshelf" and how to help CRI touch the lives of Christian communities worldwide, click here.

The ministry takes used Bibles
and other Christian materials and sends them to others around the world who
can't afford their own. 

According to CRI, more than 122,000 people become
Christians every day, and most of those people are in Africa, Asia, and South
America. They're attending churches
where even the pastors have no Bibles.

Across the U.S., research indicates that the average American Christian
owns nine Bibles and is actively in the market for more. That means that resources are stagnating on
many bookshelves–resources which could be given new life in the developing church.

CRI encourages
believers to send resources to them which are no longer being used, and CRI in turn will send them
overseas to churches that do not have access to Bibles and Christian literature.

Back to the story of the church
in Ilocos Sur. Filipino
church leaders report many of their congregation members were thrilled to have
a copy of God's Word for their very own. Many had never owned their own copy and were unable to put it down.

CRI shares one story of an
elementary school teacher who read late into the night the first evening she
had her Bible. She had school the next day, and her mother warned her
that she wouldn't be able to get up in time if she didn't get to sleep. She
said that she set her alarm very early in order to read more of the Scriptures before
leaving for school.

The Filipino believers' thirst for the Gospel is
seen in their unmistakable smiles at the distribution.

To find out more about donating Bibles, Christian reference books and Bible study materials, click here.  

The project came about after CRI found research showing the average American Christian owns nine Bibles, is actively in the market for more, but rarely use the ones they have.  

The troubling aspect of this research is that CRI gets more than 400 letters a month from pastors and Christian workers in developing countries whose churches own no Bibles or Christian books. "Our goal is to be able to answer all of the requests that we receive from Christians overseas or new Christians," explains Palmerton. "It's such an overwhelming task that I'm not sure that we will ever completely reach that goal."

It didn't take long for an idea to form. The question was how to get the unused Bibles and resources off the North American Christian's bookshelf and into the hands of the church leaders and believers overseas who needed them. Palmerton's idea was to liaison the two and let the problem solve itself. 

Shipping rate increases last year threatened the program. However, "the postal service now has a large envelope that can be sent for $11.00. It will hold one Bible and several tracts, or small periodicals. That's what we're using. It's working very well, and people are excited about it."

Because the mailing materials bear CRI's return address, donors won't be personally contacted by anyone overseas. But Palmerton says CRI will personally pass on to volunteers the thank you letters generated by the packages they send.

Click here if you can respond to the need.

CRI is tapping a huge source in the United States, because the average American owns nine Bibles–most of which are not being used. The ministry gets more than 400 letters a month from pastors and Christian workers in developing countries whose churches own no Bibles or Christian books.

In fact, their research indicates that the pastor of a typical developing church has access to one copy of the Bible, often shared with other pastors, and perhaps one or two theological books. Many have less than that; CRI regularly receives requests for help from pastors who do not have even a New Testament to use in their pastoral work.

So far, WBGL has collected over 27,000 Bibles. Various community businesses and churches have gotten involved throughout the greater Chicagoland area. Many of them are wrapping up their campaigns at the end of this month.

However, the collection drive isn't limited to Illinois. CRI Executive Director Fred Palmerton says getting involved is easy. "When someone goes to the Web site, they just enter their name, address and denomination." 

With that information, CRI, which provides Christian resources in English to 180 countries, prepares free mailing materials to send back to them, including information on a specific pastor or Christian worker overseas.

Click here if you want to participate.

Pastor
Reuben and Rita Rai just received their package which included materials for their
children's classes as well as for adults those were just beginning to go to church.
Pastor Reuben expressed
his thanks over the resources that would disciple these people.

It's the
most opportune time for their work. In
his "thank you note," Pastor Reuben said, "We [sic] were in need of You know that Nepal was hostile and restricted
nation for many years but God shook the foundation of Nepal, and it has now
become a secular state. God really has open a big door in Nepal so that we go
and bring many souls to the Kingdom of God."

CRI takes used materials and sends them to church
leaders around the world who request them. The materials Pastor Reuben received will help his church make the best
use of the newly-open door for evangelistic work in Nepal. 

He closed his thoughts with the
following encouragement, "We [sic] will
pray for you and for Christian Resources International that your ministry will
touch someone somewhere as you spread the Word and help. Your investment
won't go in vain; surely God shall reward you for this."

Click here to find out what you can do to help.

The project makes it easy for
American Christians to send their extra Bibles and other Christian books
overseas.

One linguist and translator partner in Costa Rica
requested some books for both himself and his pastor. 

With CRI's Spanish on-site inventory, the team was able to
send the pastor some much-needed resources. The translator, Luis Diego, was grateful for a Hebrew-English New
Testament and a book explaining the role of Creation in salvation and
redemption. In his thank-you note, he wrote, "In a
nutshell, if the whole story of creation and the fall as told in Genesis were
not true, then the whole life/ministry/death/resurrection of Christ would be
meaningless, since He came to look for and save what was lost. If no
creation/fall ever existed, then sin is an invention of some over the past
centuries, and Christ died in vain, since he died for something that did not
exist in fact."

Pastors and church leaders in the underdeveloped world may
not be able to afford their own resources, and they can make a big difference
in their understanding of the Gospel, doctrines and theology. That's where CRI comes in.

CRI will send prospective
participants all the mailing materials needed to send Bibles and Christian
books to a specific pastor, Christian worker, church member, or seeker
overseas.

They'll also include the actual
request letter, so participants can get to know and pray for the recipient by
name.

Because the mailing materials bear
CRI's return address, donors need not worry about being personally contacted by
anyone overseas. But CRI will personally pass on thank-you letters generated by
the packages they send. 

They're looking for: Bibles,
concordances and commentaries, Christian reference books, Systematic and
practical theology books, and Bible Study materials.

Click here if you want to get involved.

The conflict between the continent's faith roots and it's
current pull toward humanism and atheism has broadened to a rift.  As people respond to the rift by seeking
distraction, it has grown into a void that's left the door wide open for Islam.

The challenge of the field has many believers responding to
the call.  But once they get to Europe, they are faced with isolation, discouragement and
social discrimination.  Sometimes that's
compounded by lack of resources.

Christian Resources International's Fred Palmerton says
that's why they're looking at a fall campaign for 'Operation: Bare Your
Bookshelf' to help. "Islam is really taking Europe
by storm and we want to combat that. What we're going to be seeking are the
names and addresses of missionaries who are currently serving in Europe who are in need of receiving free Bibles and
Christian books in English."

Participants send their excess Bibles, commentaries and
other help books to CRI, who will then distribute them.  Palmerton says this is a clarion call.
"Islam is just the rage in Europe.  We have to do something in Europe.
Christianity is disappearing rapidly there, and I think 'Bare Your Bookshelf'
is going to lend itself nicely to that."

Click here if you want to help.