Bibles for Our Troops

by Dr. James V. Kennard, Military Director, BIMI

Recently the BIMI Military Ministry went into a joint effort with Bearing Precious Seed out of Milford, Ohio, to print and send Bibles to our troops around the world, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Bearing Precious Seed put out an appeal for donations and were overwhelmed with the amount that came in because of people having a real burden to reach our military with the gospel.  They printed 10,000 Bibles, initially to be distributed especially to troops at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Fort Benning, Georgia, but had enough Bibles to distribute in other areas as well.  We have been able to distribute about 3,000 Bibles thus far to the troops in Fort Benning, Georgia.

As my wife and I were traveling from a meeting in Kentucky, we had the opportunity to attend the Bible distribution ceremony at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  What an impressive ceremony it was!  Some of our missionaries, along with my wife and I, were there to present these Bibles to the troops. We were met by one of the brigade executive officers plus the first sergeant and many of their troops.  We presented 2,000 Bibles at that time.  Bob Ford from Bearing Precious Seed was also able to be there along with our missionaries presenting these Bibles.  We had the executive officer sit down as we all gathered around him and had special prayer for him, his troops that will be leaving to go to Iraq, and for the troops that are already in Iraq.

These Bibles are printed with a military camouflage cover. The Bible is just the right size to fit into the side pocket of a military man’s combat uniform.  Many of these Bibles will be going right into combat. This is not just a New Testament; this is a full King James Bibles that is being presented to these troops.

My heart was really stirred there at Fort Campbell and we are excited about getting Bibles ready to send into many parts of the world where our military are serving.  The printers are presently working on trying to get 20,000 Bibles to Okinawa and Mainland, Japan.  We are also expecting an order to come in from Europe for Bibles needed for our troops.  In all of these areas many of these men are being deployed into the combat zone so do pray with us in this outreach to get Bibles into the hands of every soldier we possibly can.

Bearing Precious Seed is printing the Bibles and it is our responsibility to ship them.  Therefore, we must raise the funds for the shipping separately from the funds for printing. The container for Okinawa cost $3,500 and we estimate when the order comes in for Europe it will cost about the same.  Do pray with us that we can raise all of this money.  If there are any who would like to contribute to shipping these Bibles, please send your donation to Baptist International Missions, Inc., PO Box 9215, Chattanooga, TN 37412 and designate to Military Bibles Account #642.  Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated.