Three Days In El Paso: Fifty-Three Lives Changed

Located in West Texas, just across the border from Mexico, El Paso is a town with a rich history.

And in March, members of The Gideons International came from states as far away as Virginia and North Carolina to share God’s Word with the people of El Paso during a three-day Scripture distribution event.

It was bright, sunny El Paso weather with wind, blowing sand and dust. “Just smile in the blowing sand and you’ll get a free teeth cleaning,” jokingly remarked one of the local team members.

The goal? Distribute over 61,000 Bibles and New Testaments and return home knowing that at least 50 people came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior during the event. And the distributions were to take place over just a three-day period.

The planning for this event had begun a year earlier. Prayers had gone up across several different states for the Lord to bless the planning and other activities related to the event.

Sharing God’s Word In The Sun City

On Monday morning of the event, vehicles were loaded with boxes of Scriptures and the teams set out across El Paso and surrounding areas, ready to share God’s Word. Would there be open doors? And would there be open hearts?

Between distributions, one of the team members met a man named Fernie who was waiting for his clothes to dry at a laundromat. He presented God’s plan of salvation to Fernie, who prayed to receive Christ. The team member then referred the new Christian to a local church where he could grow in his newfound faith.

It was the end of the day and the team members—hot, tired and covered with remains of a West Texas dust storm—had stopped for some rest and refreshment. Sensing a tug of the Holy Spirit, one of the team members approached a man coming down the street and shared the Gospel with him. The man, whose name was Jonathan, responded with a broken and repentant heart as he received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.

Scriptures Placed In Hands Of Thousands

The teams were able to distribute more than 15,000 copies of God’s Word on campuses at the local colleges and universities. More than 9,000 copies were distributed to local schools. Hospitals, nursing homes, and medical facilities received nearly 13,000 Scriptures. Police, firefighters, border patrols and military personnel were also recipients of God’s Word. And more than 11,500 Scriptures were placed in the area hotels and motels.

At the end of the event, it was obvious that the prayers and the planning had paid off. When it was all said and done, 61,775 Scriptures had been distributed. And the number of souls saved in the three-day period as a result of hearing the Gospel presented by one of our members and praying to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior? 53. We trust that in the weeks, months and even years to come, many more souls will be won as a result of encounters with Jesus through the Bibles and New Testaments placed in these distributions.

And as always happens with these Scripture distribution events, the members who served together day in and day out grew closer together in the true Christian spirit of love.

“Fellowship is the glue that binds us together when doing the work of this ministry. God never meant for us to serve in a vacuum,” said one of the team members.

We praise God for the doors opened and the Bibles and New Testaments distributed during this blitz. We thank all of our members who worked tirelessly to help make this event successful. And we thank the churches and other supporters whose prayers and giving helped make it possible to share God’s Word with tens of thousands in El Paso.