My grip into the drawer

One of the greatest success stories of the last 100 years

It’s almost a routine for me. No sooner do I enter a hotel room than I pull open the drawer of the nightstand. I often find what I am looking for. When I spot the blue book, I know that the hotel management has opened the doors to their premises to the world’s No. 1 bestseller. And I already feel almost at home.

Two billion of these Gideon Bibles have been distributed worldwide as of 2016. In 2019, the then President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, received the 25 millionth Bible passed on in Germany. At Hospital Diospi Suyana, too, our patients can take such a copy home with them if they wish.

Our hospital pastor Marco Acuña lived as a drug addict on the streets of the city of Abancay. He was always looking for thin paper to roll his joints. Then one day he discovered a book with a good 1,000 pages on a shelf – the perfect solution for countless marijuana cigarettes. He tore out the last few pages and started smoking. Finally, he flipped open the front of the book and skimmed the first lines: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth!” Marco has told me his story many times. “I sat in the meadows outside the city for weeks. This book spoke to me and changed me completely!” – Wow!

In Germany, hardly anyone will know who is behind the idea of the Gideon Bible. Here are a few lines from Wikipedia.

…In 1898, businessman John H. Nicholson was looking for a hotel room in the town of Boscobel, Wiskonsin while on a business trip. In one hotel, due to overcrowding, he was offered to share a double room with another guest. Nicholson agreed. From their first conversation with his bedmate, Samuel Hill, they both discovered they were Christians. Looking back on this meeting, they later wrote that already that evening the idea was born to found an association of Christian businessmen…

The Gideon Federation has existed since 1899 and is now active in 190 countries. Two billion bibles given away is no small thing. Around the globe, people have found hope, comfort and life energy in these pages. And above all: Orientation. If it is true that there is a God who wants to help us because he loves us. Then everyone should hear about it. This is another reason why Diospi Suyana is so active. /KDJ

(2017 in Europe) Marco Acuña shows the same Bible that completely turned his life around many years ago. He became free from drug addiction through them.
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