Chance Encounters to Bibles

It is September 17, 2012 and I have failed to make the updates here that I planned.  And, today, I do not yet have a photograph that I would like to post with the page but I will find one soon and update this page with it.  Chance encounters sometimes turn in to opportunities to give a Bible to one of our service men or women.

I have been working with Jay and Susan Hurt and others to bring about the 50th reunion for my Pawhuska High School class of 1962 and as we went along, I spent small sums of money on it.  I bought stamps, a file for record keeping, a plastic box to hold envelopes, envelopes, business cards, several things along that line. And I had intended all along to leave what I spent on the table for the reunion so that proceeds would be donated to the Pawhuska Educational Trust Fund (and I may have its title incorrect).  Last week, the Hurts insisted on settling money with me and returned to me $280.00 which I tried to get them to keep but, well, they were very insistent and said that I could use the money for my vacation to Santa Fe.  I did not feel right keeping the money as it was never my intention.  So, I decided to invest in Bibles.  I had $280.00 plus $20.00 that John Main had paid me for a few photographs I had printed of him, and I told him I could not charge him, a long time friend of so many years, but I would accept a donation for Bibles.  With that, I had $300.00 plus the donation that a gentleman in Tulsa makes plus my $100.00 so we soon had $500.00.  I took the money to my financial organization and deposited it in the account for Bibles.  When I specified the account, the young lady waiting on me asked, politely, "May I ask, (raising her brow), do you give Bibles to the military?"  "Yes," I replied, "We give military Bibles to Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, the whole smear across the board."  She then told me that she knew of a unit in Afghanistan who would like to receive Bibles.  I got her name, e-mail and told her how to find my blog here on the Bibles and I went to Ruth's Christian Book store up the road in the Washington Park Mall.  I ordered thirty Soldier's Bibles with the intent to take them to the larger recruiting station in Tulsa, as I have done now for some seventy Bibles.  I was just thinking that this delivery would make one hundred Bibles delivered to that office.  The soldier I had just met, Jessica Beach, weighed on my thoughts, and through our e-mails, I got her name correctly, took one of the Soldier's Bibles I had at home back to Ruth's and asked for Jessica's name to be printed on it.  I delivered it to her in the late morning and then confirmed a few things we had talked about with the unit she asked me to ship to.  At this writing, we plan to divert this order of thirty to that unit.  Yes, there will be a few more complications than just driving sixty miles to deliver them, but I hope the station has enough Bibles for a while to allow me to send this order to the unit.  I have a few more e-mails to exchange with Jessica and the sergeant but then they will be on their way where I know they will be received well.

See how a chance encounter with someone turned out to be good?

Stephen

Blue Star Mothers Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Anita Scaler (seated) and Della Wilson (standing)
Washington Park Mall, August 4, 2012

Blue Star Mothers Bartlesville, Oklahoma

I like to use something visual with my writing and my original plan for this page was to be photographs of the new edition of the Holman Military Branch Bibles.  I bought three just for photographs, but I have not yet made the photographs.  These three Bibles will be given away to a Soldier, an Airman and a Marine as soon as I have completed photographs of them for this blog.

I have purchased Bibles from Living Word Store in Washington Park Mall, in Bartlesville, owned by Melvin Nichols, for about four or five years now.  Melvin has retired and closed the store in February but he continued to fill my needs from his home until the recent opening of Ruth's Christian Store, also in the mall but at a different location.  On Saturday, August 4, we purchased five Soldier's Bibles and gave them to the women of the Blue Star Mothers seen in this photograph to give to any soldier, wife of a soldier, mom of a soldier, who came by and asked about the Bible since one was displayed prominently in the center of the exhibit.  By the end of the day, four of the Bibles had found homes.  The Blue Star Mothers have home made items which they sell at the monthly exhibit for fund raising.  I asked them to just say that the Bibles were paid for and to take it to Ruth's for imprinting of the soldier's name on the Bible.  I also arranged for five military Bibles to be paid for and kept in the store.  It was just a blanket payment for any military Bible on the shelf so that a dependent could pick it up, take it over to the cashier, and then be told that her or his Bible had been paid for.  I was pleased to learn today that four Bibles were taken.  I don't know the branch or who took them; I only know that it was a blessing to several of them.  In fact, the lady who waited on me today, when I bought an Airman's Bible for my young cousin serving in Japan, whom I have not yet met, told me that a young wife had told her that she wanted to get a Bible for her army husband but could not afford it.  Ellie told the young wife, "Your Bible has been paid for so all you have to do is  pick one out, bring it over and we'll print his name on it."

My Aunt, Julia Hardy Griffin, was a Gold Star Mother of World War II.  This is not good for to be a Gold Star Mother, you must lose a son or daughter in war.  My older cousin, Bennett Griffin, her son, was lost in battle in 1944, possibly in the Battle of the Bulge.  I only knew him through photographs, his ribbons and medals and the grave I visit in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

The Blue Star Mothers is an organization of the mothers of servicemen but it's not restricted just to mothers.  In a official capacity, yes, but there are auxiliary volunteers and young women who help by volunteering time and energy for fund raising efforts.  I help here in the smallest of ways.  I attend their fund raising efforts, breakfast once each month, the exhibit and sales they have at the mall once a month and other small ways.  I photograph events when I can and I share the photographs on Facebook and Flickr.  I also photograph the service men and women and give them or the families portraits when I have made a good one.

But my main contribution is what I do in giving the military Bibles.  Most of the expense has been borne by me, and my wife has helped in contributions as well.  Then we have had a few contributors.  We have not solicited funds with the exception of when I told the Pawhuska Methodist Men's Group that we would accept a donation and they generously provided us with $200.00.  We have one consistent contributor and I do not have permission to publish his name yet.  And, a former marine who is from my home town of Pawhuska contributed $500.00.  With $100.00 we can furnish five Bibles to service men and women.

I had said that our total was about 275 Bibles and I thought that to be correct.  But, alas, my Excel program tells me that we have provided 257 Bibles and our expense for Bibles has been $6,057.24 for Bibles.  Any mailing costs are separate and I absorb those without keeping a record; I just buy a box and pay for mailing and consider it a minor expense.  The Bibles are the main thing.

Along with the Blue Star Mothers, I am the Red Shirt Fridays for our area.  I tell people about Red Shirt Fridays and I  have shirts I have purchased from the Red Shirt group but, so far, I seem to be the only person here who is involved in Red Shirt Fridays.

Our efforts are small and we what we do with our Bible project is small, but it's still something and I'll do it as long as I can.

Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne