Newspaper outreach seeing results in Canada

It's been nearly four months, but responses continue coming in to the International Bible Society's CityReachers outreach in Canada, reports MNN.

IBS's Bob Jackson helped organize that Brampton, Ontario project. He describes how the outreach works. "We create a custom New Testament for a metro area and then through the cooperative effort of the Christian community and with the local major newspaper, we place that custom New Testament in the outside pouch of the delivery bag."

That then goes out to all subscribers. Jackson says, "There were 118,00 homes that received a custom Brampton New Testament, the NIV, and we received overwhelming positive response. Of course in every distribution we've had so far there have been some negatives."

According to Jackson, it's been a 10 to 1 positive response ratio. "This is a city that's extremely diverse in its ethnicity."

Jackson says this effort was only able to happen because of the local church. "50 churches in the area actually participated. They took offerings throughout the 10 month project. There were also a number of great Christian businesses and leaders that supported us financially."

This is the fourth CityReachers event to be held in North America. Jackson says while they don't know how many people have come to Christ in these four areas, Jackson says, churches, "definitely saw an upsurge. There were new people who came as a result of it.

Jackson says while they've only completed five projects to date, the future is bright. "There are probably 50 or 60 cities who have expressed interest to us in doing a project that are at one stage or other of interest. But, right now we're working in nine additional areas."

Those cities include: Spokane, WA, Fort Worth, TX, Kansas City, MO, Philadelphia, PA, Harrisburg, PA, Pitsburg, PA, Miami, FL and Virginia. There's also interest in two areas of Canada.

Jackson's been amazed at the willingness of newspapers to support this outreach. "The newspapers in many case lean toward the liberal side of the political spectrum and social spectrum. They still see that this is a good thing for the community. So, we have had very, very few newspapers that have expressed negatives to this project."

Pray for funding and church support for the next CityReachers event which is in Kansas City in November.

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[01/03/2008]

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