London Scripture Blitz - September 2011

London Scripture Blitz Report

Nearly 200 members participated in the London Scripture Blitz (LSB) from 21 to 25 September 2011. The initial vision of the LSB Steering Group was that we had felt that we needed an army of 300 like Gideon. What we had forgotten was that Gideon had his army reduced down to 300: in a similar manner God gave us a reduced number, but used all of the nearly 200 strong army of God's people in remarkable ways.

Overall we believe that we have distributed nearly 60,000 Scriptures so far, with those going into store being available for follow-up and Zones 5 and 6 mini-Scripture Blitzes in 2012, with the latter having a particular focus on new hotels opening before the Olympics. It may take a little while before we have a more accurate figure for the Scriptures distributed as we need to do a stock check of the remaining Scriptures when we move significant numbers of Scriptures from one store to another.

A number of places were followed up in the week or so after the LSB, including several hotels, a police station, a hospital and some student accommodation.

The largest placement to follow up was a remarkable opportunity that was undoubtedly an example of God doing immeasurably more than we asked or imagined (Eph 3 v20). Around lunch-time on Saturday, the Control Room took a call from a team out on foot saying that they required 12,000 Hotel Bibles (yes, that does say twelve thousand!!!!). They were in the vicinity of a place where they had been sent and spotted a student letting agency. They met someone coming out, got into conversation, went in to talk more and established that this organisation was responsible for letting accommodation for students. The organisation said they had 12,000 rooms and would take one Bible for each room. We managed to transport 4,260 Bibles to them that afternoon, and a further 5,050 were placed in the following week. The remaining 2,720 Bibles were placed shortly afterwards. The Managing Director of this organisation is a Christian, and the father and brother of the letting agent are both pastors. It was the father who mentioned that he thought they should have Bibles in all their rooms. The idea had never been talked about until he brought it up on the Saturday morning, following prayers at the LSB on the Friday evening for the remaining stock to be used. What an Almighty God we serve.

On a more sombre note, there was a serious house fire in Neasden on Friday night in which a mother and five children lost their lives. Four fire stations in the vicinity "happened" to be on the list for visiting on Saturday. When the team went there, they were given such a positive and appreciative welcome. Undoubtedly God's timing.

After the Church Leaders' Lunch, one team went to the reception of the hotel where the lunch was held to establish any need for Hotel Bibles. After they had been there, they came back into the room where the lunch had been held with broad smiles on their faces. It transpired the hotel had identified a need for over 1,600 Hotel Bibles. We managed to deliver 800 that day, with the rest on the following day.

There are other examples of the Lord's timing in the LSB, which makes it so humbling for the army of nearly 200 to have been part of this.

Those I spoke to were very positive about the Church Leaders' Lunch, with the various contributions blending well together to give a positive message of what God is doing through the ministry of the Gideons. Both Bill Thomas, our main speaker, and Mark Anderton, our testimony speaker, were excellent. As always, the Lord used Bill so powerfully to share with passion, love, excitement and humility and we were all blessed by what he said. We were given one Church Assignment at the lunch for the final day of the LSB.

Finally, Jonathan Longstaff, who was managing the Satellite Station at Woodford Green, went into the street outside when things were quiet to engage in personal witnessing. Following some dialogue with some young men, he eventually ended up in one-to-one conversation with one of them. Using the verses at the back of a PWT, he led him to Christ. Hallelujah!

Please thank God for every opportunity during the LSB, ranging from the opening of doors to allow significant numbers of Scriptures to be placed in one place to speaking to individuals and leaving them with a PWT.

Please pray that God will use the seed that has been sown, both the Scriptures that have been placed and presented and the words that have been spoken, in a way that will lead to many entering the kingdom of God.

Iain Gray for the LSB Steering Group