This has been a year of firsts for me.  This has been my first year of Beach Mission and also my first ever Bible “blitz” with Gideons International.  A Bible “blitz” is an opportunity to place scriptures in one of our major cities over the course of a week-end.  Bibles are placed in hotels, hospitals, police stations, care homes and other “avenues of life” through which people travel.  Bibles are placed across the city by Gideons who travel from all around the country to help out.  Some of the local Gideon branches are small in number in the inner cities and a blitz enables scriptures to be placed in one concerted effort.

I travelled to the “city of culture” with a fellow Gideon from the Darlington branch, Fred Rudkin.  Fred is a true “scouse” who moved from Liverpool in 1986 when his job relocated to Barnard Castle with Glaxo.  After dinner, we met with the other members of our team.  Our driver was Ken Neilson, none other than the National President of Gideons in the UK.  Fred and I knew we had to be on our best behaviour!  I acted as navigator and Fred added his local knowledge and translation where necessary!  The other member of the team was Peter Clark from Hereford who was to keep a record of each of the scriptures placed as we travelled.  That evening we planned our visits and prayed.

On the Saturday morning, we headed for the city to collect the Bibles. Ken encouraged us to pray at every opportunity – a reminder that the work of placing the scriptures is a spiritual one.  On one occasion we visited an ambulance station and after presenting the scriptures, the paramedic who used to work at Glaxo recognised Fred from almost 30 years ago!  It was a great weekend placing copies of God’s Word.  At the last count, Gideons distributed over 13,000 scriptures, although Testaments were still being placed.

Both Fred and I have personal connections with the same church in Liverpool.  He sang as a choirboy with St Cleopas Church in the Dingle and went to St Cleopas primary school.  Amazingly, my friend Dave Gavin is now the vicar of St Cleopas Church!  We both visited St Cleopas on Sunday morning on our Church assignment, where Fred again bumped into loads of people he knew from years ago!!  We praise God for these divine appointments and for the placing of His Word.             

Stephen Fry