When and where were Gideon Bible's placed in hotels?
The Association began in a hotel room on September 14, 1898, in
Boscobel, Wisconsin. The manager of the Central Hotel there asked
traveling salesmen John H. Nicholson of Janesville, Wis., and
Samuel E. Hill of Beloit, Wis., to share a room in a crowded hotel,
which was hosting a lumbermen’s convention. In Room 19, above the
saloon, the men discovered that they were both Christians. They
prayed and read the Bible together before settling down for the
night. They talked about starting a Christian traveling men’s
association but parted ways the next morning without any definite
plans. A chance meeting the following May rekindled the idea, and
on July 1, 1899, the two salesmen, joined by a third, William J.
Knights, met in Janesville and founded the Gideons. The name comes
from the Old Testament book of Judges, and refers to a man who was
willing to do whatever God asked of him. Today, the Boscobel Hotel,
where the two founders met, is listed on the National Historical
Register, and Room 19, where the idea of the Gideons was conceived,
is marked with a special plaque. The Gideons primary purpose has
always been personal evangelization conducted by Christian business
and professional men. As early as 1900, the organization considered
putting Bibles at the front desk of the hotels its members stayed
in, but it was not until 1908 that the association voted to place
Bibles in all hotel rooms. Within 20 years of the first placement
of a Gideon Bible in a hotel room, the association distributed one
million Bibles. Because the Gideons so quickly became associated
with hotel room Bibles, the association has, at times, had to
remind its members that the Bibles are but a means to an end, not
an end in themselves. The sole purpose of the group is to win men,
women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ through personal witnessing and the distribution of Bibles
and New Testaments. Today, the association counts more than 140,000
members in 175 countries. According to its web site
(www.gideonsinternational.org), the Gideons distribute more that 56
million Bibles and New Testaments every year. This averages out to
be one million books every seven days, or 107 per minute.
Evangelical churches of many denominations financially support the
Gideons’ work of distributing Bibles, not only to hotels and
motels, but also to hospitals and doctors’ offices, jails and
prisons, elementary and high schools, colleges and universities,
and military bases. See Gideon website:
http://www.essortment.com/all/gideonbible_rcwz.htm
Professor
Rene
Vivi
