During the first day of the third annual Shepherds’ Conference Outreach, I led a group of conference attendees in an afternoon of ministry, on the campus of UCLA. During our time on campus, we distributed 240 bibles, hundreds of gospel tracts, engaged students in conversation, and preached the gospel in the open-air.
For me, the highlight of the day, and maybe the highlight of the entire five-day outreach, was the opportunity Danny and I had to distributed bibles to an elementary school class and their teachers.
After all of the children (pictured above) received a Bible, their teacher had them line up for a class picture.
I am so very grateful for the loving and courageous public school teacher I met at UCLA that day. I thanked her for loving and caring for her students.
What About the Teacher?
After posting the video on the Internet, the pastor of one of our supporting churches contacted me and shared the following reasonable and understandable concerns:
“Hello sir! Loved seeing the video of the kids taking the Bibles. I do have one possible concern with it going viral. I certainly don’t know the judicial case law well enough to speak definitively here, but should someone see the video—be it a parent of one of the kids, or just a Dan Barker-type—who doesn’t like what happened, could they put these teacher(s) jobs in jeopardy for allowing (much less possibly encouraging) this to happen on school-sponsored time? Much ado could and would certainly be made by the right malcontents, and a range of more chilling outcomes could even be effected as well. As a fellow evangelist, please help me (and others) think through this further. Thank you for what you do to testify to our sovereign God so boldly and fearlessly! SDG”
And here’s my response:
“Thank you, brother. I did consider that before posting the video. The teacher and the teachers/assistants took several pictures of the children lined up with bibles. Additionally, if the teacher were to experience any blow-back from allowing the children to receive bibles, I would think that would have happened by now, as the children returned to their respective homes that day, to their parents, with new bibles in hand.
“The children were not obligated/required by the the teacher to take the bibles. Once the first child voluntarily took a bible, the rest of the children (as children do) followed suit.
“Could someone seeing the video complain to UCLA? Yes. Could someone try to find out what school, class, and teacher are in the video? Yes. Am I forcing the teacher into a potentially untenable position by posting the video? I do not believe so. The teacher made a bold and loving move by allowing the students to receive bibles. The teacher believed that by allowing the children to voluntarily receive the bibles from me, she was freeing herself from the potential repercussions if she had instructed the children to take the bibles or had given the bibles away herself in her classroom.
“Additionally: I was wearing my GoPro camera on a chest mount, with extensions. The contraption was visible and obvious. The camera’s face had illuminating red and blue flashing lights to indicate the camera was recording and was connected to WiFi. The teacher knew the event was being recorded. The teacher was not concerned about my video camera, nor was she concerned about me taking still photos of the group of children with my cell phone. At no time did the teacher ask me not to publicly post/share the video or pictures.
“I hope this helps, brother.”
Here’s the video:
If you find the video as encouraging as I do, please share it on your various social media platforms. Let’s make a good video go viral for a change.
Forrest says
Great photo! look at the girl on the top right.. she is already reading it.
Glory to God.
Jamie st. john says
Hi ! Jamie here! will you send me a free bible? here is my address – ( 38a baymeadow rd. spfld. mass. 01109 usa. thank you!