Some high school and middle school students in the Houston School District got the opportunity last week to share their faith with peers.
Members of the 4Twelve youth group at First Baptist Church in Houston participated in the Life Book Movement (TLBM) — a program designed to reach high school students with God’s Word. It is best described as a short-term mission trip in which high school students get the opportunity to offer The Life Book to classmates.
The book’s unique design engages students with the truth of God’s Word as they are introduced to Jesus Christ, using an interactive format with honest student comments and real-life questions in the margins.
Working through local churches, TLBM provides free copies of The Life Book to Christian students to give to classmates during school (distribution of religious literature in public schools is a legal practice for students). The organization was founded by The Gideons International.
Twenty-six members of 4Twelve took 25 copies apiece of The Life Book to pass out to their middle school and high school peers.
“It was a really neat opportunity for our students to take a bold step and share their faith in school,” said First Baptist youth leader Jeff McNiell. “We took the time to pray for individual students and the district as a whole before the week began. It’s our prayer that God would use the books to make a positive change in students’ lives.”
In addition to Houston, Life Book distribution or “saturation,” took place last week in the Missouri communities of Jefferson City and Concordia.
When his youth group met last Wednesday, McNiell said 100 Life Books had already been distributed in the first two days.
“We sat in youth group and shared stories about their experiences,” McNiell said. “It was powerful to hear of students requesting a book or reading them in class. My favorite story was a girl who rejected the book, then later that day approached the person she rejected and asked for a copy.”
With saturations scheduled throughout the United States this spring, the end goal of the TLBM (based in Nashville, Tenn.) is to eventually place the book in the hands of 17.5 million high school students. More than half a million have already been distributed.