the Gideons International, founded by John Nicholson and Sam Hill, stributed an astounding 1.5 billion Bibles since 1908, when
the group began placing Scripture in hotel rooms reports the
Associated Press (AP).
“I think there’s an untold
number of people that have had their lives changed as a result of
reading the Gideon Bible or New Testament,” said Steve Smith,
director of communications and development for the Gideons to the AP.
“We’ve been blessed to learn the details of many of those and are
confident there are still many more we have not yet learned about.”
Last year alone the interdenominational ministry gave out
nearly 77 million Gideon Scriptures, translated into 85 languages in
187 countries around the world. “What it’s done is actually
changed our culture,” Leith Anderson, president of the National
Association of Evangelicals said to the AP. “People expect there to
be a Bible in a hotel room. There’s hardly anything that’s
parallel to it.”
