One Family Responds to Safely Home

By A Family in Mesa, Arizona
December 1, 2001

Dear Mr. Alcorn,

I wanted to share with you the miracle that has happened, and what a privilege it has been for my family to be a part of it.

After reading your book, Safely Home, I shared some of the information with my children whom I homeschool. We decided to make a project for the school year of raising money for Bibles for China. We got the information from your website and set a goal of 300 Bibles. We knew that $1,200 would be a lot to raise, but we had until the end of the school year to do it.

We spoke to another family that goes to a large church nearby and also homeschools, and they asked if they could join us. With that, we raised our goal to 500 Bibles. The mother in that family has parents who are very active in their church, and who are very involved with the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. We asked them if we could put up a table at their I.D.O.P., but they informed us that the church did not allow ministries to collect money at that event but only to give out information. We thought the door there was closed.

We planned two upcoming events, one a walk-a-thon to be held on November 3 (the day before the I.D.O.P.) and the other a garage sale on December 1. Meanwhile, we were excited to learn that The Bible League of China currently is offering a matching grant, dollar for dollar, for all money donated for Bibles for China. This meant we could now buy a Bible for $2.00, rather than $4.00. My children began giving up birthday money, tooth money, chore money, and babysitting money for Bibles. They would talk about how many Bibles we can buy by skipping Taco Bell! We set up a change jar, where all my husband’s change got deposited at the end of the day, along with any other coins in the house (they come running with them to put in the change jar). Even my three-year-old came in with a penny yesterday and asked, “Tan I div dis to China?” Before we knew it, we had $272, which would originally have purchased 68 Bibles, but through the matching program would now purchase 136 Bibles! But it gets better....

My friend’s parents went to the pastors of their church to talk about the idea of providing Bibles this year in honor of the I.D.O.P. for the Persecuted Church. One pastor spoke up and said it was time for them to put their money where their mouth is and give $5,000 for Bibles. Then it was decided that they would make it a matching program, and match dollar for dollar any money given for Bibles through them, and then pass the money on again to be matched at The Bible League. Suddenly the cost of Bibles was reduced to $1.00, which they would make $2.00, and which Bible League would make $4.00! We now had enough for 272 Bibles! But it gets better still....

A local Christian radio station has a talk show host who is widely broadcast. He is also a member of that large church. He decided to do a show on The Bible League and China. My friend’s parents called in and talked about the matching program. Then my friend called in and told about our walk-a-thon and our efforts with our kids to raise money for these Bibles.

The host of the program then challenged everyone out there to call in and give money for these Bibles to be used in the matching program. Before we could even realize what was going on, people were calling in and giving money for the Bibles. Some even came in their cars to the radio station. When the night ended, they had enough money in hand to provide over 4,100 Bibles to the people of China. (We’re walking three miles.) The radio host was so inspired, that they began giving away tickets to Magic Mountain for anyone giving $100 or more. (I know, it doesn’t compare to heaven but they did it anyway!) Besides that, family members, friends, and the people of our church poured out generous sponsorships of our walk-a-thon, even with one family sponsoring my 8 yr. old daughter $50 per mile!

Through the many cogs of the wheel of the body of Christ, what began as inspiration from reading Safely Home, and turned into a hope of being able to provide 300 Bibles for China, we at this point, already have seen the hand of God move and multiply efforts and provide 4,557 Bibles for the Chinese Christians. To make it more amazing, it has taken less than a month!

I thought it would bless you to learn of this. It isn’t even finished yet, sponsorships are still coming in!

Thank you for inspiring the body of Christ!

A family in Mesa, AZ

This article appeared in the Winter 2001 issue of Eternal Perspectives.

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Endorsements and Book Reviews of Safely Home

Endorsements and Book Reviews of Safely Home

article - Multiple Readers
This story opens with “Is this the day, the day I die?” and continues to tell a story that will remain in your mind long after you finish the book.  From Jon Pratt — Usually when I read fiction, I do so for fun. I place this type of entertainment in the same category as attending a Twins’ baseball game. But a book I’ve recently finished, while clearly a fictional work, did not have the same effect as baseball. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home (Tyndale 2001) kept my attention like any well-written book, but Alcorn’s story provided insight into the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world in a way that profoundly affected my thinking. Using an American businessman and a Chinese house-church pastor as his main characters, Alcorn describes the realities and challenges faced by the persecuted church in China as a window into the life of the suffering church throughout the world. Along the way Alcorn provides a sound theology of the wisdom and providence of God in bringing people through suffering, even when that suffering ends in martyrdom. From Jon Pratt — Usually when I read fiction, I do so for fun. I place this type of entertainment in the same category as attending a Twins’ baseball game. But a book I’ve recently finished, while clearly a fictional work, did not have the same effect as baseball. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home (Tyndale 2001) kept my attention like any well-written book, but Alcorn’s story provided insight into the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world in a way that profoundly affected my thinking. Using an American businessman and a Chinese house-church pastor as his main characters, Alcorn describes the realities and challenges faced by the persecuted church in China as a window into the life of the suffering church throughout the world. Along the way Alcorn provides a sound theology of the wisdom and providence of God in bringing people through suffering, even when that suffering ends in martyrdom.