If you fancy a night away in a hotel there are certainly plenty to choose from. The Hotel Industry Magazine says that there are 45,000 hotels in the UK and that figure excludes small guest houses and B&Bs. A night away could be in the heart of a vibrant city or in a remote location, miles away from anywhere. It was once said that if The Gideons had not found a hotel it must be remote!

Over the past three years The Gideons have been running the Hotel Survey Project. This aims to contact as many hotels, guest houses and B&Bs as possible by letter and telephone to offer each one free Gideon Bibles. So far over 15,000 establishments have been contacted and Bibles placed in the rooms of many of them.

Some of these hotels had not previously been found by The Gideons. Now they have, and the Bible is in the room to prove it. One such guest house was on the Isle of Arran in the Clyde where a lady and her husband were overjoyed to be offered and receive four Gideon Bibles. The husband admitted that this was the first time in the 20 years of business that they had been offered Bibles. One of the Gideon Branch members said, “It may have missed the Branch radar but not that of the Hotel Survey Project team!”

The hotels, guest houses and B&Bs that were contacted included some where previous visits by The Gideons had not gone beyond the receptionist. In others our letter had identified that the hotel’s Gideon Bibles were old and tired and needed to be replaced with new ones. This has now happened and to date as a result of the Hotel Survey Project over 21,000 Gideon Bibles are in rooms waiting for guests to read them and for the Lord to speak through His Word to each reader.

As members have placed the Bibles they have been blessed with some encouraging responses from hotel staff. Please give thanks for the privilege of placing these Bibles where they are needed and pray that the Lord will use every one to bring someone to a closer knowledge of Himself.

Grand opportunity

Recently, the Brighton & Hove Branch have benefitted from help given by the National Office in updating the database of hotels in the area and identifying some premises where Bibles can be placed. Branch member David Goldin followed up those requests, in some cases providing Bibles for the first time while, in others, further “top-up” supplies had been requested.

On one occasion, David was to visit the 5-star Grand Hotel (202 rooms) situated on Brighton sea front, where a further 60 Bibles had been asked for. On his arrival, he realised there would be difficulty in parking his car on site, due to extensive building work being carried out to the facade, seriously reducing any car access close to the main entrance. However, as David said, “I need not to have worried, because the Lord was obviously in control of the situation.”

David telephoned his hotel contact, only to find she wasn't available, so he made the decision to leave the Bibles there anyway, rather than delay delivery. He says, “I drove to the front entrance as best I could, in spite of much scaffolding in the parking area, as well as a number of builders' vehicles in the vicinity. I was greeted by a commissionaire, who asked the purpose of my visit, to which I replied that we had been asked for some additional Gideon Bibles to be delivered.” David continues his story by saying, “With great excitement the commissionaire said, 'Gideons, that's great. We love having Gideon Bibles at our hotel.'”

The commissionaire allowed David to double park and, once that was done, he said to David, “I'm a born-again Christian and reading the parables at present. Which one do you like?” David admits to being put on the spot and says that he briefly shared some thoughts about the parable of the Prodigal Son. To this the man responded, “I agree, and we also really need Jesus in this dark city.”

Another member of the Hotel staff helped to carry the boxes into the building and, while the three of them were together, the commissionaire asked that he be allowed to hold the last box while he prayed. David says, “Of course, I readily agreed to his request and he prayed for these Bibles, that God would bless and use them to help many who visit the hotel. Still standing in the street, the commissionaire then prayed a lovely prayer, thanking God for the work of The Gideons. The Spirit of the Lord was truly there!”

David closes his story by saying, “I then presented both men with a Personal Worker Testament for which they were very grateful. I left the Grand, to go on my way to other hotels, amazed at the Lord's presence, knowing that He had overruled in providing an opportunity to know that one of our largest hotels now has a Bible in every bedroom! Praise God.”

Submitted by Tony Lovering, Development Manager