In the fall of 2016, the new movie about Private Desmond Doss' life called Hacksaw Ridge was released. There were quite a few people in the Fairbanks Church excited about the ministry opportunities the movie release provided. After some discussion, the church board decided to purchase 2,500 copies of Hero of Hacksaw Ridge, a book written to complement the movie, to distribute at the theater after the movie's showing.
The church didn’t know exactly what it was getting into. It turned out the shipping to Alaska was going to be about the same price as the books, and the theater wouldn’t allow members to hand out the books unless they received payment of $850. What should the church do as now the whole project's cost had doubled or worse?
God provided the answer, and ultimately the church was able to purchase and ship 1,500 books within the budget it had to work with. God also open the door where the church was able to come to an agreement with the theater and rent one of the 162-seat auditoriums and hand out the books for free. God provided a way.
A full-color ad was placed in the local paper inviting the community to see the feature release of the movie for free, one night only, first come, first served. Quite a crowd showed up, and not everyone was able to get in because the auditorium filled so quickly. Members gave out almost 900 books that night; even people who didn't come to the theater to see Hacksaw Ridge stopped by the table to get a copy of the book. Within a few weeks after the movie event, nearly all 1,500 books have been given away. Please pray the seeds planted will grow into fruit for the kingdom of God.
(From left) Leola Gillete, Mallory Weatherington, Matthew Weatherington, Ruth Prato and Nan Thierheimer help distribute books to complement a showing of Hacksaw Ridge.
