This past Saturday I was asked to share a personal testimony at a gathering of Kentucky Gideons. Connie and I joined a group of about 150 Gideons and their wives at a restaurant near Simpsonville for a great time of reporting on their work and enjoying fellowship together.
For those who are not familiar with the Gideons, the organization started in 1899 to encourage believers in their service to Christ. In 1908 they began distributing free Bibles — you may have seen a Gideon Bible in a hotel where you stayed — and today they give away over 70 million Bibles annually in more than 200 countries. Only heaven will reveal the full impact of their prolific delivery of God’s word.
Shortly after becoming a Christian in 1989, I joined the Gideons, Northwest Indianapolis Camp. The men who made up that gathering of Gideons were used by God to help shape my life in Jesus. While I was not addressing that same group, I did want to thank Gideons in general for their investment in me.
Here are five ways those Gideons blessed my life:
1. They invited me to serve. The church where I was a member, Northside Baptist Church in Indianapolis, had several members who were Gideons and invited them each year to give a presentation about their work. I attended that gathering and heard Rob Englin describe the work of the Gideons and the qualifications for being part of their work. Realizing I met the qualifications, I applied to become a Gideon and they invited me to serve Jesus alongside them. I was untrained but willing, and they welcomed me into their ministry.
2. They modeled corporate prayer. Those Gideons met at least one Saturday per month to report on their work and to pray together. As a young Christian, I remember seeing 20 or so men kneeling around a hotel conference table and praying earnestly for the gospel to be advanced all over the world through Bible distribution. We often prayed for up to an hour. It was one of my earliest experiences with corporate prayer, but it reminded me that the work of God is accomplished on our knees before it is carried out in real time.
3. They empowered me to minister. My first Gideon assignment was to distribute pocket-sized New Testaments at a downtown Indianapolis military induction center. I arrived around 5 a.m. to hand out New Testaments to men and women who were going through processing to begin their military service. I was nervous the first time, but after that it was clear my only responsibility was to place a copy of God’s word into the hand of someone who was glad to receive it. Though untrained and inexperienced, I was able to hand out Bibles.
4. They pointed me to Scripture. At one of the Saturday morning prayer gatherings, one of the older Gideons, Roland Ferveda, asked me, “Todd have you met Caleb?” I didn’t know my Bible very well at the time and thought Caleb must be one of the Gideons I had not yet met. I found out that Caleb was a Bible character with whom I needed to become acquainted. Those Gideons were men who loved God’s word and they encouraged me to do the same.
5. They released me to God’s call. It was Bill West, a leader in that Gideon camp, who pulled me aside for a private conversation about what he discerned could be God’s work in my life. Shortly afterward I surrendered to God’s call to vocational Christian ministry, which meant I no longer met the qualifications to serve as a Gideon. Those men prayed for me and released me to God’s next assignment.
Gideons do their work, day in and day out, apart from controversy and outside the limelight. God has used them and continues to use them to get His word to people who may not have easy access to it. God continues to provide open doors and resources for them to place Bibles all over the world. I am thankful for their ministry and thankful for their impact in my life. Thank you, Gideons.
Dr. Todd Gray 