Sarah* was born in Victoria to parents addicted to heroin. Her father disappeared before she was born and to this day, she has never met him. Her mother, who suffered from schizophrenia, attempted to quit heroin ‘cold turkey’ during pregnancy. At birth, she spent her first week convulsing and was left with permanent hearing loss. […]

I didn’t grow up religious, and after school, I drifted into a lifestyle of drugs. It all caught up with me in my late twenties, leading to a short stint in jail on remand. Thankfully, I was released with a probation sentence and had to stay clean. Around that time, I came into possession of […]

While I was attending university in Sydney, my supervisor was cleaning out his office. He threw two copies of Gideon-placed New Testaments into the bin. I had never seen a Bible before. After he left, I took the two Testaments home with me. I didn’t read them at the time because I was busy with […]

On a dark and lonely night during the mid-1980’s, I found myself sitting on the edge of a bed in a nondescript motel contemplating the unimaginable after the failure of yet another relationship. Heavily depressed and in utter despair, I noticed a small Bible on the bedside table. Having been brought up in the faith, […]

I am a Pastor in Western Australia. A member of our church and I were one of the groups participating in the R U OK Day at a High School where there was a Gideons team present. Unfortunately, we were involved with food on the day and were not located anywhere near the stall holders […]

It was 1982 when I received my first Gideon-placed Bible. I was only 10 years old at the time and I was briefly attending a girls club at a local church. I didn’t know much about God; perhaps there was a God somewhere distant up above, but I wasn’t sure. I’d heard about Jesus, mostly […]

Three years ago, I gave my then 11-year-old grandson a Youth Testament as he was just starting out in secondary school. I knew that his new school, a government institution in our area, had previously declined to allow Gideon presentations, and so with this in mind I ensured he had access to the Word of […]

Although it was the beginning of my life, my parents were halfway through theirs. As such, they already had a troubled walk with God. Therefore, we never went to church. Aside from my grandparents, my only exposure to God was through religious education in primary school. It was the highlight of my day, but for […]

I wasn’t raised in a “Christian household” and went to a public school. Bullied and interested in science, I found myself quickly to be quite the angsty atheist. I was an atheist for as long as I can remember. When in Year 7 (2017), the Gideons came to our school, I unwittingly took a New […]

Peter Maher Pastor of The Range Church in Montville, Queensland I grew up in a very dysfunctional family, and at the age of 10, I started using drugs and alcohol to escape from my life. By the age of 19, I was injecting myself with speed and heroin and was desperate. Someone gave me a […]