I am a product of public education. When I was in elementary school, my small school in northeast Mississippi started each day with prayer. At some point during those years, the school-sanctioned prayers were abandoned.
In my high school years, a group of friends and I saw a need for Jesus in our hallways. We knew that because of laws and policies school officials could not address that need, so we decided we would do what we could. Every morning before class we met together for a 5- to 10-minute devotional.
It wasn’t fancy, and it certainly wasn’t seminary-level stuff. But it was a group of teenagers who wanted to learn about Jesus and encourage one another to live out the gospel. We were still learning how to deeply study Scripture ourselves, so most of our devotionals came from what we learned during church or something we had read. The group started small, with less than a dozen coming. Eventually we had to move into the library to accommodate everyone.
Those were great times.
Then I learned that several people were coming to our morning devotional because it was the only access they had to the Bible each day. Many did not have a copy of Scripture in their homes. For some, it was because their parents wanted nothing to do with God. For others, it was because they could barely afford to keep the lights on, and buying a Bible was nowhere on their shopping list.
Considering how many students in my small high school were deprived of the gift of God’s Word, I cannot fathom how many homes across America are without it.
Tim Todd, founder of Revival Fires International, has been putting the Word of God in people’s hands for over 20 years. In the beginning of his ministry, Todd traveled the country handing out New Testaments to anybody who wanted one –under one condition: The recipient had to promise to give the Bible to someone who did not own one.
Now, two decades later, Todd is continuing to fulfill the mission God gave him through the Truth for Youth Bible Project. Since its inception, RFI has delivered over 2.5 million Bibles to elementary, middle, and high school students. Because students are handing the Bibles to other students, it is not violating any local, state, or federal law.
The Truth for Youth Bible uses the God’s Word Translation, a “natural equivalent translation” that is designed to be reliable and approachable. The Bible also contains over 100 pages of short comics dealing with subjects such as sexual purity, evolution, sexting, pluralism, suicide, porn, and others.
American Family Association, Engage’s parent ministry, has partnered with Todd every August for the last 15 years for Truth for Youth Bible Week.
We are in the midst of Truth for Youth Bible Week now, and you can get involved. Here are two ways.
If you are a student age 13 to 18 years old and know someone without a Bible, click here to order a free copy that you can give to that person. If you want to purchase several additional copies to hand out, they are available for $3 each. The price lowers if you buy in bulk.
If you want to support the ministry so it may continue making Bibles available to students across America, you can click here or call 800-733-4734.
Todd and his ministry have one driving purpose, to see a revival sweep across America.
They seek to see every person set free by the truth of Scripture, drawing encouragement from John 8:32, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
