Scripture Distribution in Leeds

On the weekend of the 19 - 21 September one hundred and eleven Gideons met in Leeds to distribute Bibles and New Testaments to hospitals, hotels and firestations in Leeds and the surrounding areas. The task seemed daunting but we took Romans 8 v 31 as our encouragement: “If God is for us who can be against us?”. God provided for us in some remarkable ways, far too many to record here, but I shall just give an account of my own experiences and impressions of the weekend.

On the Saturday morning small teams set off in a fleet of cars, each car driven by a local Gideon who knew the area, which was just as well since the Leeds one-way system is worse than Loughborough and Leicester combined! The team of four which I joined was allocated to Leeds General Infirmary along with 6 other teams. Our objective was to check and replace the New Testaments in the bedside lockers in as many wards as possible during the morning. Our team covered 5 wards during that time and were encouraged by the responses that we received, especially some of the conversations with patients many of whom were so grateful to see us and one who asked for his own copy. We also gave personal copies to as many staff as were willing to receive them.

For the afternoon our team were given a list of small hotels and guest houses in Leeds city, which proved a challenge in navigation and patience. At some places the receptionists were not interested or were not willing to do anything without reference to the manager, who was usually “not back until Tuesday”! But we had encouragement as well. One highlight was an incident at the end of a tiring afternoon of travelling. We had been rejected at the previous Guest House which was owned by an Asian, and had moved down the road to our last call; another Asian proprietor. This one was delighted to see us and was very apologetic that several Bibles had been taken from his house and some others were defaced. We assured him that this was why we were there and promptly replaced all the Bibles that he needed.

In conversation he asked how we had fared at the previous Guest House owned by a friend of his, and when he heard our story got out his mobile phone and had a long, [unintelligible] conversation with this friend. The outcome was that we returned and replaced all the Bibles needed at that Guest House as well. We ended the afternoon having placed 79 out of the 80 Bibles that we started with!

Over the weekend more than 5,300 scriptures were distributed. Thank you to those who were praying for us at that time as I know many were, and the prayers did not go unanswered.

David Taylor

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