By Admin
January 03, 2024
Hobart is a beautiful city. With its water views, the grandeur of Mount Wellington and surrounding pasturelands, it really is spectacular. It is the capital city of Tasmania with a population of 250,000 and many need to come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. There are many good churches that work towards this goal with active outreach in the city’s streets.
However, Hobart is also home of the MONA Museum and Dark MoFo Festival which celebrates dark and pagan themes. As such, we wondered if people would be open to us sharing Jesus and the Word of God.
While the members of the Gideon Hobart Camp (local group) have been working hard to meet the needs of the city, there has never been a Scripture Blitz there, like other capital cities, and we felt it was time to address this. And what better time than just before the National Convention happening in the state?
We put together an organising team and a command centre at a local church for what we prayerfully called the ‘Hope for Hobart Blitz’. Then came the dates and, thanks to a Hobart Camp member, the list of potential areas for Scripture distribution which was all to be achieved in two-three days, just prior to Convention. Once our planning was complete, a call went out for locals and the wider membership who were coming to the convention, to join this Hope for Hobart Blitz to get the Word of God into this community.
Finally, the pallets of Scripture were ordered. We also had the God-given opportunity to connect with a fantastic app developer who, at no cost to The Gideons, developed an app to guide us to our locations with what we needed and allowed us to record the outcome – thanks so much to Daniel for this. Also of note was the minivan offered by one of the Devonport churches to transport members and Scriptures.
On Monday morning bright and early, Gideons and Auxiliary met at the church and enjoyed a coffee from the café. A briefing was held, prayers were offered, and three Gideon teams and three Auxiliary teams were formed for the day’s work. Scriptures were then loaded into cars, and we were away, not knowing what sort of welcome we would receive, but trusting in the Lord that He would go before us. Our focus for Monday was on accommodation and medical waiting rooms.
“A total of 21 Gideon and 10 Auxiliary members, under God’s guidance, helped make the Hope for Hobart Blitz a success…”
To our delight and praise to God, most people were open to having Bibles in their facilities and to receive their own copy of a Testament. My team’s first hotel was a good example. John said, “I wondered when you guys would be back,” and happily received new Bibles. While finishing up, I noticed one of the cleaners looking interested and offered her a Personal Workers Testament which she gladly accepted. Of course, some were “fine” and didn’t need Bibles, and, “We don’t have any religious material in our hotel”, but most responded politely. Some great conversations were had as they were genuinely interested in knowing what the Bible was about and what a relationship with God through Jesus would look like. At the end of a busy day, some members got together for food and fellowship, and some went further and witnessed in the city into the evening.
Tuesday saw another busy day with teams finalising the accommodation and then focusing on aged care facilities, while the Auxiliary did the same for medical placements. Two combined teams of Gideons and Auxiliary visited hospitals. We were blessed to be given the green light to place Scriptures in the Royal Hobart Hospital, thanks to the hospital chaplain. Some challenges were found, and emphasis was placed on developing ongoing relationships through gentle negotiations to enable trust and possible future placement opportunities.
Wednesday was an important day of finishing the Blitz. Many team members had to leave for Devonport for National Cabinet meetings, convention responsibilities or other calls. So, for the remaining teams, their work in finishing the placements and completing the work, including visiting some key churches, was invaluable.
A total of 21 Gideon and 10 Auxiliary members, under God’s guidance, helped make the Hope for Hobart Blitz a success, and I am truly grateful for everyone’s commitment and offering for this most important event.
One significant takeaway was that a number of hotel managers, when refusing to have Scriptures available in the rooms of their hotel, noted that “No-one ever asks for a Bible”. This is perhaps not surprising as there are so many good Bible apps, including the Gideons Bible App. However, we need to encourage our Christian friends to actively ask for a Bible when checking in (and of course do it ourselves). Hotels by and large are businesses, and if even a minority of their guests ask for a Bible, many may begin to be open to having them as a service to their guests.
Final stats:
- A little over 1,000km travelled between 298 locations;
- 2,013 Bibles placed that were recorded on the app;
- 149 Medical Testaments received;
- 100 Personal Workers Testaments received;
- 6 Bibles collected.
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” – Psalm 145:3 (ESV)
