The Gideons International



SAMPLE PRESENTATION SCRIPT

“Fine. I’m going home!

That’s what a woman told her boyfriend in the Central African Republic. It all started because he was going on a business trip and had a very important decision to make: Should he take his wife or his girlfriend? The wife? The girlfriend? He decided to take the girlfriend.

At the hotel, she unpacked while he sat down. He noticed a blue book sitting on a table, and he picked it up. It was a New Testament placed by The Gideons.

Now I don’t know what verses he read, but in a matter of minutes, he was convicted of his sin.

So when the girlfriend announced that everything was put away, he looked at her and said “We can’t be here like this. This is wrong!” So she said, “Fine. I’m going home!” packed up, called a taxi and left. But the man had to stay for his meetings. Every spare moment he had, he read that New Testament. When he went home, he took the New Testament with him.

As soon as he got home, he ran to find the pastor of a nearby Christian church and asked, “Can you tell me about the man named Jesus that I’ve been reading about in this book?” Today, this man and his family are Christians, and he is also a Gideon.

The Gideons International is an association of born-again Christian business

and professional men. Since 1899 our purpose has been sharing the gospel with the world. Today, we are organized in over 190 countries, and publish Scriptures

in more than 80 languages.

We place Bibles in designated traffic lanes of life—places like hotels, motels, hospitals, and convalescent homes. We also distribute New Testaments to students in schools and colleges . . . to prisoners . . . and to police, fire and medical personnel, as well as men and women in the armed forces.

As members of local churches, Gideons visit congregations to let you know how God is using the seeds that we are sowing. We are an extension of the local church and work in partnership with believers like you around the world.

By God’s grace, we placed and distributed over 77 million Scriptures last year, and since 1908, we have placed more than 1.5 billion Scriptures around the world. You might also be interested to know that we’ve distributed hundreds of thousands of Testaments to military personnel in the Middle East, including Iraq.

The promise of Isaiah 55:11 is fulfilled, and God’s Word does not return void, as men, women, boys and girls come to Christ through reading a Scripture placed by a Gideon.

I’d like to share a few more testimonies with you, starting with an officer in the Romanian army.

He was about to be baptized. But before the ceremony could proceed, he asked, “Do you remember me?”

He went on to confess that 15 years earlier he had stopped that same congregation from baptizing people in a nearby lake. Worse, he had everyone there arrested and put in jail.

Later, while still in the army, he received a New Testament from The Gideons. After reading it, he gave his life to Christ.

“I caused each of you to be arrested,” he said. “However, today I am a new creation in Christ. Today, I am a Christian. Please forgive me for what I did.”

He was then baptized. Later that same day, he also became a Gideon.

God’s timing is always perfect, and His hand is on every copy—even just a single page—of His Word.

In El Salvador, Gideons were offering New Testaments to children at a school with afternoon and morning sessions. The morning distribution went well, but when they came back that afternoon, they found some of the Scriptures they had passed out earlier had been ripped up. The Gideons picked up all the pages they could find and prepared for the afternoon distribution.

When the last distribution was over and they were on their way home, they stopped at a store on the edge of town. Sitting on the doorstep was a young man. He was crying. As they approached the young man, he looked up and asked, “Can you tell me about the man I’ve been reading about? This man Jesus?” In his hand was a single page torn from a Gideon New Testament.

A couple of Gideons stayed with the young man. The others went inside where they met an older man. He was also crying. “That is my son out there,” he said. “I’ve never seen him cry before. You’ve got to tell me about this man named Jesus.” That day, both father and son received Christ as their Savior.

We all agree how important it is for people to have the Word of God. It’s such a simple idea—giving a New Testament to someone or putting a Bible in a hotel room. Yet it’s an incredibly effective way to share the love of God.

Like the night Elliott Osowitt planned to kill himself. It was Christmas Eve, and his wife had just locked him out of the house. But who could blame her? He had not been a good father or husband.

For years he had traveled the world, pursued his own success and indulged in all kinds of immoral activities. He was away from home even as his wife struggled to raise two of their grandchildren and cope with breast cancer at the same time.

So there was Elliott in a hotel room, on Christmas Eve, with a gun. But on the TV was an open Gideon Bible. This irritated Elliott. He knocked it onto the floor and tried to kick it under the bed. But it wouldn’t go. The bed frame was solid right down to the floor. And the Bible was still open. As Elliott picked it up, he read John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.”

Elliott spent three days in that hotel room reading the Bible. On Sunday, he attended church with his wife and gave his life to Christ. But that’s not the end of the testimony. Elliott Osowitt was called by God into ministry and is now a pastor in North Carolina.

Millions of people have never heard the good news. Many will never be able

to own a personal copy of the Scriptures unless one is given to them.

Consider the testimony of a prisoner in Belarus. He received a Gideon New Testament and valued it so much that he copied a chapter to send with every letter he mailed to his wife. This continued until at last his wife had a complete handwritten copy of her own. Both of them came to trust Jesus Christ and are now members of a local church.

It’s so easy for us to obtain Bibles that it’s hard to understand how precious

a copy of God’s Word is to so many around the world. In some countries, such as Thailand, the children bow their heads and extend both hands as they accept their copies. In other countries, Gideon New Testaments may be the only books children in school have to study.

That was the case in Ghana where a group of Gideons distributed more than 300 thousand Scriptures, many to schoolchildren, in just two weeks.

After one of the distributions, a teacher told The Gideons “They will read and understand this Bible because I am their reading teacher. This will be our textbook . . . The New Testament will be the first book they can call their own. I know God must have sent you today. When are you coming back?”

There are more than 500 schools yet to be visited in that one city in Ghana. We estimate that there are at least 600 thousand additional school children there waiting for New Testaments.

So when will we go back? Where will we go next? Even though we’re placing or distributing more than two Scriptures every second, the need is even greater. You may be wondering how you can help.

Our number one need is for prayer. Please pray for a steady flow of funds to purchase Scriptures and for open doors to the countries and communities that need them most.

And, if God has placed it on your heart, I would ask you to consider a financial gift. Every Scripture we distribute—and every salvation testimony—is the result

of the generosity of somebody just like you.

At the close of the service, you will have the opportunity to help purchase Scriptures to be placed by Gideons in this area . . . and around the world.

The New Testaments we distribute in more than 165 countries outside the United States cost an average of just one dollar and 30 cents. One hundred and thirty dollars will purchase a box of 100 and send it anyplace in the world.

Gideon hotel bibles cost just $5 each and have the potential to reach more than twenty-three hundred people over the course of about six years in a hotel room.

For your convenience, you can make a check payable to “The Gideons” or

use the credit card form that is available in your bulletin insert. Remember, every dollar you contribute will be used to purchase, produce and ship Scriptures.

You can also help purchase Scriptures throughout the year by using the Gideon Expressions cards. The cards are free (hold up one card), and you may use them to recognize an important event, to let someone know you’re thinking of them, or to place Scriptures in memory of a loved one. Look for the display in your lobby. You’ll find more details on the Gideon Expressions in your Gideon bulletin insert.

Pastor, thank you for the opportunity to share about the worldwide ministry of The Gideons International. Congregation, thank you for your attention. It’s been a privilege to participate in your worship service today. God bless you.

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