With heightened general-public attention on God's Word this year due to the King James Version's 400th anniversary, retailers and publishers are seeing a good response to initiatives to help get the Bible in as many hands as possible with giveaways and promotions.

Among the efforts is one led by Scott Reed, manager of the LifeWay Christian Store in Conyers, Ga., who began asking customers in October 2010 if they would like to donate a Bible to "a wounded warrior" recovering at an American military hospital outside of Ramstein Air Base in Landstuhl, Germany.

"The response has been overwhelming," Reed, who served in the U.S. Air Force as a staff sergeant in a security team detail 20 years ago in the Gulf War, told Christian Retailing. "I had an original vision to provide 200 Bibles from our store, but it has turned into thousands of Bibles."

The Wounded Warriors Ministry Project, an initiative of the store's Military Chaplain Outreach Program, has grown to include eight other LifeWay stores and a church in Conyers.

Reed's campaign is separate from CBA's Operation Worship Bible initiative with Tyndale House Publishers, in which nearly 800,000 units have been sold in the Christian retail channel and sent overseas to American military personnel since it began in 2008. The campaign is expected to reach a million units sold in the next 12-18 months, Tyndale officials said.

Similar in concept to the Operation Worship Bible effort, Tyndale launched the Inspire Life Bible Campaign to coincide with this year's Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on Jan. 23—a partnership with Care Net Pregnancy Centers and Christian retailers—to provide free Bibles for pregnant women who are considering getting an abortion. Running through the end of this month, the initiative invites customers to donate a copy of Tyndale House's Beautiful Everyday—a softcover edition of the New Living Translation, which retails for $5.99.

Read more in the June issue of Christian Retailing.

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