Photos – Livingston Christian School students bringing their books to the trailer.

It was such fun to meet and share with each of the classes as they came by the Road Trip trailer to drop off their donated books and Bibles.

LCS students did a great job of bringing in their books and Bibles for the Road Trip stop.

Every student in the school participated with a book or Bible.

This is how the boxes and bins fill up; one book at a time. No one has to give it all. No one has to ship it all. It happens when lots of folks get involved and do their part. A little bit times a lot of people equals a huge blessing for the Philippines. Thanks to everyone that helped with this road trip project.

What a blessing to have so many involved in the program. It was really special to have so many children helping with the cause to help other children in the Philippines.

From the youngest child to the eldest adult, everyone can be part of the CRI mission of putting Bibles into the hands of anyone anywhere that needs the Word but can not get it.

A few photos from the road

In case you did not make a road trip pit stop and have never seen the trailer, here is a view of what it looks like.

The CRI Road Trip trailer at Durand First Baptist Church

Livingston Christian School students bringing their books to the trailer

The bins fill up as LCS students drop off their books

Road Trip Results

The Road Trip results are in and God’s people have done it again!  All of you great folks around mid-Michigan and Northern Ohio did a great job in helping the first ever Road Trip to be a memorable and successful event.  On this Road Trip we traveled a total of 769 miles and made 11 pit stops over an 8 day period.  We made many new friends and renewed many that had already existed.  We collected $1,024.00 to help ship all of the books that were donated and a few more in addition.  It rained almost ever day of the trip and yet never while the trailer was set up to receive books.  It was always chilly but never to cold.  God thought of everything and it all worked together for His glory.  The Bibles and books are being processed as I write.  Many are already boxed and ready to depart CRI for their long  journey to the Philippines.  There will be great rejoicing coming when those Bibles and books get to their final stop and are distributed to those with such desperate need.  I can hardly wait to share the testimonies, stories and photos as they come in from all over the Philippines.  Keep checking back for the final chapter on this Road Trip story.  Much is yet to come!

Done but not Finished!

The CRI Road Trip is officially done.  The last site has been visited, the trailer is unloaded, and the processing of materials has begun.  Praise God for a wonderful week of fun and great ministry.  But just because the Road Trip is done that does not mean things are finished.  Please keep checking back for the continuing story.  The blog has much more you will want to be in on so watch for follow up reports.  We still need to get those materials organized and packed for shipping.  When  they are ready you will want to know that they are on their way so you can be praying for them as they go.  I will let you know when they arrive and keep you posted as to how they are distributed.  We will also be adding a few photos taken along the way on the Road Trip.  And best of all, when the pictures, reports and testimonies come in from the Philippines we will add those to this site as well.  Wouldn’t it be awesome to see the photos of happy Pastors, teachers, youth and other individuals from the Philippines with their big smiles and new Bibles and books?  And wouldn’t it be even more exciting if you looked close at the titles and saw the book you gave!?  It would be a special finish for sure to see the actual recipient of your special volume.  And beyond all of that we will be reporting on the next road trip, where it is going, when it will leave, what cities and locations are on the agenda, and much more.  We are a long way from finished.  Come back and visit often so you know first hand what God is doing and where it is happening.

The Monclova Finish Line

Today was the day.  The finish line for this Road Trip.  The trailer came to a halt in Monclova, Ohio this morning for its final pit stop for this road trip.  It was a crisp clear day and travel was good.  The time at the church brought in a good number of Bibles, books and bucks to add to our shipment going to the Philippines.  Some of the materials from earlier in the week are already processed and packed for shipment.  The material collected over the past few days will be handled on Monday and added to the growing stacks.  I think many of you are aware, but in case someone is not, we are going to be shipping much more than just the materials gathered on this road trip.  All of that will of course be on its way too, but we are shipping an entire 20 foot container for use in the Philippines.  The need there is always great, but following the two major storms which devastated thousands and destroyed much of what some churches had the need is greatly magnified right now.  So it is not to late to join the cause.  You can still send your Bibles, books and bucks to CRI to help make this container happen.  It will take a lot more books to come up with about 30,000 pounds of material to fill the container.  And it will take a lot more bucks to ship it to the Philippines.  If you would like to do something to help it is not to late and it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks to the Monclova Road Baptist Church for your participation today.  Thanks to all of the hosting groups and those that brought their Bibles, books and bucks to help with this project.  I am happy to welcome all the new friends that we met this week.  It has been a truly blessed week.  God is so good and His people really did a great job this week.

The United Home School Group – Brighton

The Road Trip returned to Brighton on Friday afternoon to visit with the United Home School Group.  They have quite a group indeed.  I have been associated with other home school cooperatives, but I have never seen one this large.  Kids were everywhere doing all kinds of classes and activities and there were lots of volunteer parents involved.  It is quite the operation.  We set up in the midst of all the flurry and talked with folks and collected books.  It looks like there may be some additional collecting going on after the fact with deliveries coming into the Fowlerville home office.  Very cool!  We also talked about some visits for volunteer work and tours.  That’s what we want to see.  The road trip should not be the end of the involvement but just one of the many steps that we take together to champion God’s work around the world.  One great part of this week has been working with so many folks that have  already joined the team.  The other part that is just as exciting is all of the new folks that are now becoming involved as well.  It is a big  job to get the Bible into the hands of everyone that needs it.  The larger the CRI family becomes the greater the output of Bibles and books will be.  It is awesome to watch God working!

Docusen’s Cafe – Day 7

Docusen’s Cafe in downtown Fowlerville was our road trip pit stop for Friday morning.  The Cafe hosts men’s Bible study groups on both Thursday and Friday mornings.  These groups took on the opportunity to host the trailer.  Lots of sponsored Bibles and books were already on site when we arrived.  The Thursday group had their books in place from their meeting the day before.  The Friday group met and had their study while the road trip business of collecting books and meeting friends new and old went on around them.  By the time a really fine morning had ended and we were packing up we had a nice load of books.  The books all mingled together so I am not sure that we can announce a clear winner between the two study groups as to which brought in the most.  I guess the real winners are the folks in the Philippines that will ultimately receive these books.

What a Dork!!

The goofiest thing I have pulled so far on the road trip was at Cook’s Christian Supply in Mt. Pleasant.  I got to the store and began setting up and going through the routine of a pit stop.  I spoke repeatedly to the young woman at the store about the arrangements I had made with April the store owner.  I told her what April had said.  I told her about April’s relationship to CRI.  I gave her lots of comments about April.  The young woman finally had to introduce herself as “APRIL”.  It had been a year since I had seen her and she changed her hair quite a bit.  She looked great!  In fact, she looked so much younger I thought they had hired a college student from the community to work at the store.  When I found out who she was I felt like a major DORK!  I had been talking to her about herself for several minutes as if she were not there.  I guess it is always good to have something to humble you a bit.  Sorry, April.  But the new hair is great!

Cook’s Christian Supply – Mt. Pleasant

Thursday afternoon found the road trip trailer in Mt. Pleasant at Cook’s Christian Supply.  They are not only a road trip pit stop but they are great friends of the ministry that act as a drop off point for materials for CRI.  Lots of people in the area bring their used Bibles and books and other materials to the store and they get it all to CRI.  This is a wonderful ministry opportunity for others as well.  If there are people, businesses, or churches in other cities that would think of doing this same thing it would be a blessing.  If you could collect materials and periodically bring them to CRI give us a call to set it up.  It would be an awesome way to champion the cause of getting the Word of God into the hands of people that need it.

 

We received some great materials at the Mt. Pleasant stop.  Family Life Radio was kind enough to help us promote our stop there.  A lady heard the interview on the radio and came in to see us.  She, like way too many other people, had never heard of CRI. She stopped with three Bibles, which was great all by itself, but after we talked about the ministry and our special project for awhile she thought maybe she could do more.  She left and came back a few hours later with two big bags of wonderful books and sponsored them all for the Philippines.  She had never heard us talk about “baring your bookshelf” but the Lord prompted her to do it all on her own.

Links in a chain

Leaves, Snowflakes, and Fingerprints

 Funny how your thoughts chain link together.  One thought leads to another which leads to another and suddenly you are in a far different place than you were in when you started.  That happened as I drove to Roscommon this morning.  I started out just driving and as I got further north and the fall colors became more and more beautiful I began to think how magnificent God really is.  He could have created trees in such a way that in the fall the leaves just died and dropped off in preparation for their winter slumber.  Instead, He took the care to design each tree with its own unique wardrobe for the season.  Some turn red, some orange, some yellow and some have mixed hews that blend into colors you can scarcely name.  Imagine the billions of leaves involved in the fall transition and every one is absolutely unique, individually and carefully crafted by the hand of an infinitely creative God.  What could have been the depressing death and drop of leaves gone brown is instead a vibrant breathtaking proclamation of God’s glory.

 

Well, those thoughts linked into thinking about snowflakes.  The connection being the fact that God has chosen to take the time to hand craft each flake that falls into a unique work of art that is different from every other snowflake that has ever fallen.  What does that do to your mind?  Sit down and try to come up with 20 patterns for snowflakes that don’t end up simply repeating themselves.  Could you do 20?  How about 50?  Could you do 1000, or 100,000 or trillions!!?  Next time you’re shoveling the three feet off the driveway take the time to be inspired by the fact that the frozen unappreciated burden on the end of your shovel is in reality millions of works of art lovingly crafted just for you.

 

The next link in the thought chain, fingerprints.  Although many things about us make us unique, the one thing that is often used to determine one individual from another is our fingerprints.  I talk to people around CRI about fingerprints a lot.  I like to tell them about the books that go overseas and all the good they do and the way they change lives and eternity.  Once they are thinking of all that the books will do I remind them whose fingerprints are on the books.  The fingerprints of the one that donated it are still with that book when it reaches the hands of the recipient overseas.  The fingerprints of the volunteers that sorted the books and those that packed them are there too.  On the other end are the fingerprints of the one that unloads the books and distributes them to those that have long prayed and waited for that blessing to arrive. Finally, the fingerprints of the one that receives it and joyfully claims it as his own.  All these mingle together on one common volume.  In some spiritual way they unite all of those many lives in a way that we will not understand until we reach Heaven.  Won’t it be something to get to Heaven and trace the path of a Bible or book through those many hands and learn how many were touched, encouraged, or saved as a result of its journey from one hand to the next?

 

I started out just looking at leaves and ended up thinking about the incredible web of connection between us all as part of God’s Kingdom and God’s family.  How marvelous is a God that can bind us all together through so many various ways and so many seemingly unconnected and unrelated events and circumstances in life.

 

Be encouraged.  Your passing your books on to people you do not know in a place of which you are unaware is no less a glory to God than the brilliance of a leaf, the uniqueness of a snowflake, or the individuality of a fingerprint.  They are all part of a complex plan that is far beyond our ability to understand or appreciate on this side of Heaven.  How wonderful to know that I don’t have to because someone infinitely more qualified for the job is in control.