Recycling Bibles
by Steve Watters on 09/22/2009 at 11:52 AM
Do you have any Bibles you could share? Next week, the Bible Foundation is kicking off their October Bible Drive (that they've held annually since 1992).
According to their press release, "People around the world are begging for Bibles. Even damaged and parts of old Bibles have use and value."
When I first saw the notice, I wondered what language barriers the Bible Foundation might run into trying to recycle English Bibles. I was encouraged to read that English is used widely enough around the world that the foundation has been able to send Bibles to over 75 countries. Within those countries, the Bibles "go to hospitals, nursing homes, inner city churches & ministries, rescue missions, ship ministries, prisons & jails, homeless shelters, street ministries, ethnic neighborhoods, migrant camps, individual ministries, remote villages around the world, homes, schools, bus stations, railway stations, small churches, halls and open air meetings, and refugee camps."
We have Bibles to spare at our house. If you do as well and want to contribute one or more to this great cause, then visit http://www.bibledrive.org for more information, including a list of collection centers.
1. *all*natural* said the following at 1:14 PM on Sep 22:
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Even if the Bibles are falling apart, missing books? When my Bible starts to crumble and I get a new one, I never ever feel right throwing away the crumbly one.I mean, it's the Word of God! lol.
2. obewan said the following at 1:40 PM on Sep 22:
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I probably have 10 Bibles at home. They are all different translations, but I really only need the one I read the most. Now there are plenty of free resources online to read almost any translation - even side by side. Whenever I do Bible research, I just use Google since that seems to be faster then reaching to my bookshelf.
The problem is I would have to package them and ship them out since it looks like the nearest collection point is in a neighboring state like Georgia.
Maybe I could get our church to start a drive. I wonder who successful it would be though. I go to one of those mega churches where few people even carry a Bible to church since all the scriptures are shown on giant overheads. I carry my Bible every week, but rarely even open it during the service. I am ashamed to say it is mostly for show. I do use it in Sunday school though, so that is a good thing.
3. DG said the following at 4:30 PM on Sep 22:
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I am going to donate two new bibles that have been in my house for a number of years. I am so glad that this Bible Drive and Recycling program exists. Now, I know that these bibles are going to be put into the hands of those who truly need them.
4. JuliestD said the following at 5:41 PM on Sep 22:
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What about a Bible with my name embossed on the front? Do you think they'd want that?
Cause even though I loved my grandma, the Precious Moments pastel pink KJV Bible just isn't something I ever used or need, but I have always felt bad on several levels just throwing it out.
5. 'Guerite ~ BoldLion said the following at 6:44 PM on Sep 22:
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Thank you for sharing this information!
I do pray that they will be hungry to eat His Word as Jer. 15:16.
I know I do have a lot and see if my church family can do the same thing too.
I haven't click on the website for more information yet but will.
Hungry to eat His Word,
'Guerite ~ BoldLion
6. Loris said the following at 8:00 AM on Sep 23:
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I only need two-my childhood NIV with the pictures, and my NKJV I used in middle school. For some reason, people thought that the best gift for a missionary kid was either a Bible or a blank journal, so I have several I can spare. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. There's a collection site on my way to church. :)
7. Frazer said the following at 8:02 AM on Sep 23:
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I love this idea! It's great that old dust collecting bibles don't have to go to waste!
I wonder if there are any drop off locations near me in Ontario Canada? I might contact them and see if I can try to run this from my church and maybe ship them to the right place......off to the website!
8. f-jen said the following at 5:33 PM on Sep 23:
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After a quick skim of the links given, I don't see any criteria as to what they'll accept. Are there any?
(There's a reason I ask this - feeling a little once-bitten-twice-shy. Sometime back the large church I used to attend was having a collection for Katrina-relief efforts, stuff to take down there. I have a number of bibles, mostly very nice ones, which I've purchased at various times because I want them. (Various translations-- various study-notes--easy-to-read vs easy-to-carry-around, etc.) Since our church was working with a church in the Katrina-affected area, I thought that, logically, bibles would be wanted by church members whose lost possessions would have included lost bibles.
So, thinking that my fellow Christians had more need of them than I, I donated most of my bibles.
However, after I had done so - before all the donations had been trucked south, but far too late to gracefully retrieve my donations - I was told that bibles were Not wanted as donations. Since they might be the Wrong Version. The person who told me this, even implied that some bibles had been removed for that reason.)
And so, here's what I wonder. It's occasionally fairly easy to get ahold of a fair number of pretty-basic copies of the bible, pretty cheaply. (Or, more occasionally, much nicer ones at a still-reasonable cost.) But, there's no criteria listed.
Would they prefer ten ultra-cheap, newsprint-quality paperback bibles, or one better-quality bible? If they bibles are too cheap, will they still be wanted? Or alternatively, if they're the wrong version, or express the wrong opinion-interpretation in the notes, will they get discarded?
9. Trisha said the following at 8:50 PM on Sep 23:
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I heard it said if your Bible is not falling apart you might soon be.
10. GeneD said the following at 11:36 AM on Sep 28:
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The Royal Ambassadors chapter for our church collected bibles for this organization and we ended up getting 65 or so. The program was called "Bible and a Buck", and we requested that everyone who donated a bible stick a dollar bill inside of it. That more than covered the shipping cost of the books. You just have to ship them using the Book Rate. I tried to get them to let me use the Library Rate as noted on the Bible Foundation's website http://www.bf.org/bfmbible.htm but they had to have proof that I was sending them to a Library, which I did not have. The Book Rate is almost as cheap as the Library Rate, however. Make sure you put BOOK RATE on the outside of the package if shipping them.