When a Bible in the closet is good...

The post below generated some very good questions:  They are as follows:

In Filipino culture, would you value something that a stranger gave you or that was passed out to many people at a large gathering?  Do you have any thoughts about free distribution to strangers?   Even if a friend gave it to you, would you value it as much if it didn’t cost her anything?  In America, we would especially value a gift if we know it cost something.  For example, if your friend told you that she hadn’t paid anything for the gift she was giving to you:  “Here, I want to give you a purse that someone left in the church building.  Nobody claimed it, so I decided to give it to you!”  Or, “Here, please take this Bible tract.  Some people in Australia paid for it.”  Would this give you the same feelings? 

And so here's my two-pence:

Based on my personal observations with my tribe, reasons for not buying Scriptures depend on what group of people we take into consideration. Unchurched people do not buy because they are just not interested or they are but they do not have the means to pay.  Still, I would say that some do read it if you give it to them for free.  An example would be the high school students I have known who were given Bibles as a gift during their graduation.  I have seen how some of them started attending Youth Bible Studies, and Bible camps and VBS afterwards. 

Churched people who do not buy Scriptures are usually because they have no money, or they prefer and are used to using their English or Filipino versions, or because they are waiting for the vernacular Bible to be completed (OT and NT in one book—not 1 Book of NT and another one of that only contains Genesis and portions of Exodus and/or Psalms).  But they appreciate and will not reject subsidized or free Bibles.  (And usually, at the dedication, most of the churched people get their Bibles). I remember during the dedication of our Revised NT, we did not give away the Bibles. Only the translators got theirs for free (or paid for by the consultant.) Right during the dedication, we were already selling the Bibles. There were some comments comparing the First Edition dedication of the NT and the second one.  Some commented as to why we sold the revised edition when a large number of the first edition was distributed freely during the dedication.  

I believe that one factor that influenced the above comments is the fact that in my tribe, books and reading are second or third priority. The priority is food on the table and matriculation money for their children. Therefore, anything that they could get free is much appreciated. This brings us to your question about an unclaimed bag left on a pew. I asked some ladies and they all said the same thing: That they would appreciate the fact that the person who found the bag thought to give it to them, and not to someone else. And then they would of course use it because that is one more kilo of rice in the pantry; that is, now they do not need to buy themselves a bag; they can use the money to buy food or use it on some other pressing need. I cannot speak for the whole Filipino culture, but to be sure, this is the culture among impoverished people, at least my people.                                                                                                                                                    

Over the years, people come to my office wanting to buy 20 Bibles and 10 Hymnbooks for a newly started outreach, but when I tell them the price and they learn that their money is not enough to pay for 10 Bibles, they go home very disappointed. I wish I could just give the Bibles away. I am 101% sure these kinds of people would appreciate and value and read a Bible paid for by some people in Australia. 

Regarding tracks, my experience with my tribe is that people are not very receptive to it. They associate tracks-for-sale with the religious cult that knocks on doors advertising religious literature. These people would go from house to house distributing their tracks or booklets. They would talk about it a little, giving you the impression that it is free. When the unsuspecting reader finished browsing, they would say, “Oh, by the way, that booklet costs 10 pesos to help in the printing!” So in my village, people usually close their doors or pretend that no one is in the house when people distributing tracks come to the door.  The same is true when people go to the marketplaces or buses to present the Gospel and distribute tracks or the little 3x1.5-inch New Testament Bibles (for free). After the Gospel presentation, they would distribute envelopes, or pass around an offering bag. I heard listeners/passengers in the past laughing skeptically saying, “I thought he said salvation is free! But why is he selling it?”

I think that the problem with the above is the method of approach. People feel forced to listen or receive and no one likes being forced. My suggested approach would be to bring the tracks to a community gathering (tribal weddings, funerals—being careful that this is appropriate in the culture) and announce that there are free tracks or Bibles available, and that anyone interested may come get one. Then, people won’t feel like we are forcing something down their throats when we go house to house giving away free literature that they do not want to read, but will be forced to accept and pretend to appreciate just because they do not want to embarrass the giver. 

During Christmas time, we distribute used clothing or grocery items to some of the poorest members of our community and we include Scriptures or Christmas Story tracks with these gifts. I have heard testimonies of some women who began coming to Bible Study meetings to listen to the Gospel, after reading the Bible that was given to them for free as a gift at Christmas time. Some invited church workers into their homes to thank them for the Bible that came with the used clothing and grocery items, and to ask the church workers to start a weekly cell group meeting in their homes.

During evangelistic concerts, we bring Bibles to sell. We tell the audience that there are Bibles available for sale. We emphasize that we would really appreciate them paying for it because we need the money to print other biblical literature, but that if they do not have any money yet would really like to have a copy, to put their name on a list.  Later on, we would give them a Bible for free (usually someone would subsidize it.) Other times, when some Bibles are already paid for by someone,—we bring the books to a social gathering and tell the people to avail a copy for themselves if they want to.

At the end of the day, people may value whatever they bought or were given and yet still keep it in the closet. It is only when a perceived need or a hunger grips them that they would begin to use or read their Bible.  In 1981, the Kalanguya NT was dedicated and many Bibles were given to the village people, and it is safe to assume that a large number of those Bibles were put somewhere and forgotten until July 16, 1990.  That was when the 7.7Ms earthquake hit Luzon. Many of the Kalanguya tribe of Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya lost a family member.  Those left behind who reside in villages with churches trooped to church to try to find answers or comfort or both concerning their loss. People in villages with no churches started dusting off their Bibles and reading them.  After a few weeks, many villages sent messengers to our churches asking that we send someone to them to explain what they have been reading in their Bibles that our churches gave to them years ago.  The church has seen one of its largest growth in number that year. Yes, it was all because of a tragedy but if those people did not have the Bible in their closet at the time, I am pretty sure many of them would have looked for pigs and chickens to sacrifice to Amyegyeg (Earthquake god), or ask advice from our dead ancestors with the tribal animistic rituals, (which as a matter of fact, some of my relatives have done.)

The above events made me not believe that Scripture distribution should be limited based on the premise that an expressed interest should first come from the people. (Often times, people are not aware that the Bible is already available in their language.)  However, I cannot continue to believe in the assumption that people will not value or read a Bible that they got for free with everybody else in the community. People only dislike it when they think that they were forced to have it or listen to it, or that they were deceived into paying for something that they were told was free. 

I would rather have the Scriptures in the closet of an individual where, yes, it could gather dust for months or years, but then in a moment of hunger, the owner can readily look for it and dust it off when the hunger takes a hold of him, rather than him looking for a place to buy it first. The moment of hunger may dissipate in the process of searching for a Bible to buy, and then that would be an opportunity lost.

 

mY Synapses...