Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 8, 1994 TAG: 9402080096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But if you visit a tiny church in one of almost 4,000 Third World communities, the name might pop up.
It could be on a book or magazine, a videotape or audio tape. There will be a sticker asking you to return the item to the church library you borrowed it from. And the fine print at the bottom of the sticker will bear the name of the item's donor - "Hands for Christ, 5720 Williamson Road N.W., Suite 111, Roanoke, VA 24012."
Starting up Christian libraries around the world is the latest focus of Hands for Christ - a 26-year-old ministry founded by retired builder R.W. "Bob" Bowers and his wife, Joan.
Last month, 150 churches in former Soviet states got 84-volume libraries, and another 350 will receive them this month.
And while that massive project - called "Mission Possible" - has taken a lot of energy, it hasn't diminished efforts to supply literature and tapes to other countries. Since Jan. 1, the ministry has started 70 other libraries in India, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi - and two U.S. prisons.
The purpose of founding libraries is two-fold, Bowers said Monday.
"In Russia [and some other countries], we don't know how long the door will be open to evangelism. They may be able to order missionaries out one day, but the books will stay there."
The other factor is that a lending library can touch thousands of lives by being available to a whole community, Bowers said, rather to an individual.
Though the ministry's name may not be familiar in Western Virginia, you've probably been exposed to its message.
Anybody who's lived around here any time at all has seen the ministry's bumper stickers - "JESUS IS LORD OVER ROANOKE" - and is pretty likely to have picked up or been handed one of its tracts - "My Commitment as a Christian" or "Jesus Loves You," for instance.
You may have noticed the apartment building on 10th Street Northwest that says "Christ is the Answer" on the side, or the sign for the Bowers Office Building on Williamson Road that says "Jesus is Lord."
All are symbols of a ministry that began when Bob Bowers decided his highly successful construction business needed to move from "just building houses to building the kingdom of God."
Today, crammed into every corner of the former offices of Creative Construction are boxes and stacks of tracts, bumper stickers, books, videotapes, audio tapes and magazines.
There are machines capable of copying 11 audio tapes or videotapes at a time, a silkscreen-type printing machine, a machine to fold the more than 70 different tracts printed in the office.
The ministry requires five full-time employees - plus the volunteer services of the Bowers and a cadre of others who stuff, stamp and seal envelopes, put stickers on books, and pack boxes.
Last year, Bowers said, the ministry distributed 1,576,000 tracts, 201,556 bumper stickers, 23,124 audio cassettes, 3,180 video cassettes, and 581 "libraries."
The "libraries" total "will grow exponentially this year because of the Russian-language books being distributed now," said Kevin Spencer, who coordinates that project.
The libraries consist of anywhere from 50 to 85 books, a sampling of periodicals and a selection of tapes.
Up to now, the libraries have all been in English - a language Bowers said is spoken so widely that it can be used in churches around the world.
For the latest project to the former Soviet states, however, 68 titles are being printed in Russian. Most of those are being produced at a Moscow publishing house, though a few are printed in the Netherlands.
Printing costs in Moscow are substantially lower than in the United States - as little as 25 cents a book - and distribution costs are reduced as well.
Books printed in Russian include titles by Billy Graham, Josh McDowell, the Salvation Army, Derek Prince and David Wilkerson.
There are children's books, Bible commentaries, biographies, rebuttals to the theory of evolution and books on the Pentecostal gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The range of titles is intended to be inclusive of a variety of Christian experiences, Spencer said, but intentionally omits books that denigrate others or claim an exclusively "correct" Christianity.
"We consider ourselves evangelical, Bible-believing Christians," Bowers said, whose ministry is interdenominational.
The Hands for Christ "Statement of Faith" includes belief in the inerrancy of Scripture, the Trinity, the deity and resurrection of Christ, and the "spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ."
The Bowers attend a Southern Baptist church, but the staff members belong to different denominations - from Episcopalian to Assembly of God - and Hands for Christ receives support from members of numerous denominations.
The ministry - which has always provided all its material without charge - is funded primarily by earnings on the Bowers' investments. In recent months, however, it has begun to suggest donations for those who request bulk supplies of tracts or bumper stickers.
An order form for tract cards, which are requested by people from across the country, suggest a contribution of 2 cents per tract, though the order form makes clear no donation is required.
The recommended donation is about twice what the tracts cost to produce - money that will be used to help fund tracts for those who can't afford to pay and to offset costs for the library ministry, Spencer said.
by CNB