Up from the Muck Podcast
Up from the Muck Podcast seeks to provide encouraging interviews of Christian believers, showcasing their “stories of the middle”, the mucky moments where God steps in, highlighting the gritty middle and not just the polished end.
Up from the Muck Podcast
The Gideons: Spreading Faith Across the Globe with Troy Bostick Episode 78
Step into the profound journey of faith as we sit down with Dr. Troy Bostick, my father-in-law and trusted dentist, to unravel the incredible story behind the Gideons. Originating from a simple idea to counter the saloon culture of the late 19th century, this evangelistic association has blossomed into a monumental force for spreading the Christian faith across the globe. Discover how two determined businessmen from Wisconsin ignited a mission that now operates in over 200 countries, distributing Bibles in 196 languages, with a staggering 95 million Bibles shared just last year. We'll uncover the unique color-coding system that helps direct Bibles to groups like military personnel and medical staff, and dive into the biblical inspiration for the name "Gideons," drawn from a figure known for his steadfast obedience to God's will.
Our conversation takes a personal turn as we explore the impact of becoming a Gideon, emphasizing its non-denominational nature and the heartfelt commitment involved. Dr. Bostick sheds light on the various roles within the organization, from speaking engagements at churches to the distribution of Bibles in hotels and hospitals. We also highlight the innovative Gideon card program, a meaningful way to honor loved ones by donating Bibles in their name. With personal stories and gospel narratives at the heart of this endeavor, we discuss how these tales of faith can connect and empower. Join us for an episode brimming with inspiring stories, and learn how the Gideons continue to make a difference worldwide.
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Well, in today's episode, I have with me here Dr Troy Bostick. Hello, it is kind of weird for me to call you Dr Bostick, but he is also my father-in-law and a dentist my dentist, I mean. Today we're going to be discussing an organization he's been a part of called the Gideons, and so we're going to learn all about the ins and outs about who they are and what they do.
Speaker 2:Who are the Gideons, well, gideons is an evangelistic association of Christian men and women.
Speaker 1:Okay, and how are they founded and how long has it been around, and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:There were a couple of businessmen up in Wisconsin who gathered together at a hotel. And back in 1899, there wasn't a whole lot to do but go to the saloon or the gambling hall, and they were strong Christians and they just wanted someone to have an alternative where they wanted to go alternative, yeah, where they wanted to go and so they kind of started having bible study together and then decided they needed to witness to people, and so that's kind of how it started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they changed their business of selling whatever into, I guess not really selling bibles, but made their organization that does that yes, yeah turn that skill around.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I think you know I was reading about that before. I was like, yes, yeah, I think you know I was reading about that before. I was like it's cool. It's kind of like you know, what we all can kind of do is mission, because we can all make our whatever we do like that Right, turn it around and make it missional Our mission field. Yeah, that's a long time ago. That's really cool. That's really cool. So why exactly they decided to do it and how did they actually come to doing it?
Speaker 2:Well they found that there just wasn't very much to do other than the things that I talked about, and so they wanted to provide at least the opportunity for people to have something else to do besides.
Speaker 1:Like conversation wise.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, it wasn't just Matter of fact. They didn't really distribute Bibles until 10 years after they started.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that part was because that's what I kind of knew about them. I was like oh, gideon. Bible you know, yeah, but so that came. But for the first 10 years it was more like for a socialization yes, exactly, and then later it became about distribution. Right, that's right. Are they international, or is it just?
Speaker 2:our nation or just a region Over 200 countries. Wow, gideons are in and we distribute Bibles in 196 different languages.
Speaker 1:That's really cool.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know there were 196 languages.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there's probably a little bit more. There are, but I think there's like only I say only, there's like 200 in what country? It's 275?
Speaker 1:I don't know I'd have to look that up, be on the show notes. But that is like 200 and something countries, so I mean that's the majority of the countries you guys are in. That's really impressive, didn't didn't know that my dad my dad is also a Gideon and he is not informing me about all this stuff, so he's letting me down. Yeah, do you know how many Gideon Bibles have been given out this year so far? Did you even know that number? Or I can tell you.
Speaker 2:Last year, we kind of have figures, we kind of run in the 95 million Bibles Wow, that's a full testament, or a full Bible and New Testament, but still 95 million Bibles have been given out.
Speaker 1:So y'all do do both like a full Bible and the New Testament. Yes, yeah, the whole Tales kit, the big book bibles have been given out. So y'all do do both like a full bible and the new testament. Yes, yeah, yeah, the hotels get the big, the book you know, the big, yeah, yeah, and the hospitals, yeah. So there's a lot, yeah, and so you guys are going to a lot of different places, so the hospitals and the schools and prisons, oh, no nursing homes.
Speaker 2:Nursing homes, police stations, fire stations, all military have their own.
Speaker 1:Bible.
Speaker 2:We distribute to everyone that gets deployed. They get a New Testament, camouflage New Testament.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and aren't they color coded Like a different? Is that part of how you know which ones go? Where Is it the different colors they are?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, the brown ones are for us to just give out on the street. The little brown ones, the blue ones are spanish new testaments. Okay, white ones are for nurses and medical personnel.
Speaker 1:So yeah, everything's color-coded to give us an idea is there anything special in the white ones compared to the brown ones? No, there's the same, just different color. That way, you just knew that. That went to that location okay.
Speaker 2:So like we went to the fair the state, I mean the fair locally here and gave out orange ones, okay, so it's more of a an office thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay. I just went like hey, does there? They got extra words in there than mine, more red words than mine, I don't know, maybe that's good. Yeah, okay, all right. So where does the Gideon name come from? Because I think the guys that came up with it they're not named Gideon, who was the founding guys for it?
Speaker 2:Let's see. Their names were John Nicholson and Samuel Hill. No word Gideon. Nothing Gideon in there. No middle name Gideon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nothing like that. Yeah, so like what made them think of to choose that to name this organization?
Speaker 2:Well, in the Bible, gideon was a man who was willing to do anything God wanted him to do. That was his trademark, was he was willing to do whether he knew the reason or not. Yeah, that was. His purpose was to do whatever God wanted him to do, and that's kind of what that was fashioned after Gideon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they wanted that character.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And valor from the same members, I guess for them too. Yeah, yeah, okay. So who can be a Gideon? Any qualifications to it? I mean, I guess, being a Christian you want one.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, born again believer. You have to be a professional businessman or own your own business, and outside of that, that's really the only qualifications you have to have.
Speaker 1:So like when you say being a professional like, what exactly does that mean? Like you can't work at? Is there certain places you can and cannot work at or be a part of?
Speaker 2:You know, if you graduated from high school and went to work for U, you're not qualified. You have to have advanced education. I guess is what I want to say now. If you own your own business, yeah, you can do that. If you got out of high school and started your own pest control business, you can be a member of it. But there's certain yeah, there's just certain qualities they're looking for in an individual. Yeah, um, they think that's what they require.
Speaker 1:Or that's what it was. Starting from that point it was yeah, because these were professional salesmen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had a profession.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, yeah, so they wanted to keep that bar there.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, and are girls allowed? No girls allowed. Is the ball a boys club?
Speaker 2:Any wife or spouse of a Gideon can join as an auxiliary and the auxiliary has certain functions that only they can do, so it's exclusive to women for going to women's prisons, nursing homes. We have graduation, nursing school graduation, and our auxiliary gives out bottles to all the nursing school graduates and all the medical offices. So they have a specific role in their own everything. So yeah, women can be a part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how long have you been a member?
Speaker 2:It's been about 11 years, I think, yeah, wow, I didn't think it'd been that long and I looked it up.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, oh gosh, yeah, I think that makes Caleb would have been just 21. Such a baby, yeah, 21. Such a baby, yeah, yeah, he's almost. I think he turns 32 this year. Oh my gosh, yeah, he does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like man, goodness, you know, when you heard about the Gideons and you know cause this has been around I knew I've known about them when I was cause I think I saw someone, a Gideon member when I was a student in elementary school, come out and give Bible. So, like you know, they've been around a while. But what made you say, hey, I want to be a part of this, I guess?
Speaker 2:there were two things that really drew me to be a Gideon. One is it's non-denominational. We have Methodists, we've got Baptists, we've got non-denominational people that are part of the group.
Speaker 1:It's really good because it doesn't exclude anyone that's a.
Speaker 2:Christian. Second thing is any money that's given to the Gideons. All that money goes to printing Bibles and distributing. There is no overhead. In other words, no administrative cost comes out of it If somebody gives $10, all $10 goes straight to printing the Bibles, putting them in people's hands, and you don't pay for the president of the Gideons to have a rental car or stay in a hotel room.
Speaker 2:All that's covered by the Gideons themselves. So to me that was attractive, because I know there's organizations out there that 85% of what you give goes to overhead costs and just doesn't go to the actual cost.
Speaker 1:Oh man, we could be doing so much more, yeah, so that was a big draw for me. Yeah, okay, and so once you're a member, you're in the club, it's not a club. Okay, what are the dues?
Speaker 2:It's like $65 a year.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, no different than other things you do? Yeah, certainly not. But once you're in, you know what is the expectations Like. What are some things you're able to do? You know you said the girls have one job. What do other people get to do?
Speaker 2:Okay, you know that's another thing that I didn't know about the Gideons that I find attractive now that I've been in it it is. There's so many things you can do in the Gideon organization. If you want to be involved, you can be just as involved as you want, or you can be just as not involved.
Speaker 2:Okay, one of the things we do is we go into different churches and we give a report and so if you take the training to be a speaker, you can go and speak in churches, and so that's something that if you feel gifted in speaking and want to do that, you can do that.
Speaker 1:If you say that's the last thing I want to do is stand up in front of a bunch of people and speak.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of other things you can do as a Gideon.
Speaker 1:You can organize the speaking yeah, which that is a lot.
Speaker 2:It is a lot.
Speaker 1:Scheduling is tough. It's a big deal. Yeah, it's tough, I know about that.
Speaker 2:Distributing Bibles is another big thing. In other words, the hotels call us and say, hey, we need some Bibles. And so we get a call and they say, hey, we're going to the comfort inn next Tuesday. Can you come and help us put Bibles in all the rooms? Same thing with the hospitals. So you know, there's lots of different jobs and things that you can do. Just got to figure out what you want which one, yeah.
Speaker 1:I know you go out and you're a speaker, I'm a speaker. How many of those do you do like a year, do you know?
Speaker 2:I'll probably do about 10 a year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I ever saw you're not in our church because you know, guys, we go to church together and I was like, oh, you're at a Gideon church, even though it's not a Gideon church, right, which just means you're out speaking that day about the message and whatnot. So yeah, I just wondered like how many is a year, which is not too terrible? 10.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, we got 52 weeks in a year, so it's only like a smidge of that. Yeah, that's not too bad. And so I think they have like what's it called? Like, a Gideon card is a thing y'all have too. That's another thing. So what is that? The Gideon card program?
Speaker 2:We have every church that we are part of. We have a rack of cards and they are in memory cards, in recognition cards, thinking of you cards, and they're free. You can take this card just like you buy at Dollar General or Walgreens or CVS.
Speaker 1:It's cards that you would send someone.
Speaker 2:And when you do, you give money to the Gideons and they put Bibles in those people's names.
Speaker 1:You know, I think I have heard because I think my dad has started like advocating for that, because you know certain people that pass away he's like, hey guys, we can do this. So I think I have heard a little bit about that, yeah, which is really neat, not?
Speaker 2:that I don't think flowers are great, but it's a really good way to spend $25 in somebody's memory and you can put five hotel bottles in somebody's memory and it'll be inside that bottle It'll say these bottles were given in memory of whoever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is really nice. Yeah, yeah. So it's $25 for, like, for five bottles.
Speaker 2:Each bottle is $5. Wow. Each complete Old and Each Bible is $5. Wow. Each complete Old and New Testament is $5. And the little personal witnessing testimony is $1.30. Wow.
Speaker 1:So what do you mean by that? The little?
Speaker 2:bitty New Testament is $1.30 to print it, and so if you gave $13, you're buying 10 little New Testaments to give out.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, that's really cool, yeah, so that can go a long ways it can. Yeah, that's really neat, very cool. So how often do you guys meet? I ask this because my mom makes jokes about my dad, because I know they have some like uh, dinner meetings and I don't know the whole story, so I'm trying to get the facts from you. So how often do they meet, you know? Is this a monthly, weekly, quarterly? What kind of commitment is just the meetings are?
Speaker 2:and is that mandatory, or is it just?
Speaker 1:highly encouraged. It's highly encouraged.
Speaker 2:That's a very good word to say highly encouraged. We meet once a month as a group on a Thursday night, and it's usually two hours. It is at a restaurant and we have a meeting.
Speaker 1:That's where the jerks come in. Oh sure, as a food I love your food.
Speaker 2:But every Saturday morning we have a prayer meeting, 30 minutes, starting at 7 o'clock in the morning. So you can go every Saturday and you can go every Thursday night, or you can show up twice in the year, or you can be there in spirit, that's right.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'm going to pray at my house, but I'm praying for y'all.
Speaker 2:That's right. It's just a time to focus on praying for our missionaries, for our Indian workers and anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that is nice. Just to know that you have a community there that's willing and conscious to pray with you on whatever. That is a nice thing to know about. So what kind of impact has this had on your life personally? You've been a part of it for 11 years, I'm sure over that time it has grown to mean different things to you than, probably, when it first did. What kind of impact has it been for you?
Speaker 2:It all started when I first gave out a New Testament to someone. I had been in the Gideons for four or five months and I didn't have. I kept looking for an opportunity, or thought I was looking for an opportunity, or thought I was looking for an opportunity, and I passed an opportunity up and the Lord convicted me and I turned around and went back to these people that I passed up. I mean, they're just standing on the side of the road with a sign saying I need supplies and God said what do they have to have a sign that says I need a Bible, you need to stop. And so I did. And so that gave me the courage, having just a little tool, a little testament in my hand.
Speaker 2:Very few people are going to refuse a Bible, yeah. And so it kind of breaks Like an icebreaker. It's an icebreaker, it eases somebody to let you at least talk to them about the Bible. You may not get to give the whole testimony, but you can at least give it to them, and God's word is supernatural and you don't know what's going to happen once that Bible gets in somebody's hand. So it's given me the courage to be a little more bold in sharing my testimony with strangers, complete and total strangers. I've never given a Gideon Bible to somebody that I know. It's always been to a waitress, to a traveler, somebody on the side of the road, different situations. It's somebody that I don't know and ordinarily before I became a Gideon, there's not a chance that I would have ever spoken to a person like that without having that Bible and the knowledge that they're probably going to take the Bible and at least listen to a little bit of what you say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's how it's impacted my life. Yeah, made you more intentional, yeah, yeah, which we all should be, you know, because the Great Commission the command for us to share this for everybody. You know it's not discriminating of age or gender or anything. So why should the next generation, or just anybody, want to join the Gideons and the younger folks? Why should they want to be a part of this?
Speaker 2:In our camp, and that's what we call. The group that I'm a part of. I'm one of the youngest ones, along with your dad. Yeah, and you know, we're 61, 60. You know we're not super young, so if we don't get new, blood new people, then it's going to die out and there's a big field out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we need people to step up and join. And I realize that some people station in life or the time of their life that they don't have time to commit to doing stuff like that, but in all honesty, most of the time Gideons are older people because they have more time to go to meetings or prepare to go to a church and speak instead of wrangling kids.
Speaker 1:Wrangling your toddlers at church?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's just a difference in life. I don't know that I could have done it when I was 35 years old, yeah, but later in life I had time to do it. So we just it's going to die out if we don't get new members.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be a tragedy. It would be. It would be, yeah, if someone was interested. Like I want to keep it going. How could they figure out how to join? How can they be part of the club, the Christian club Most of the time.
Speaker 2:If you want to be part of the Christian club, your pastor will know how to do it, because we ask preachers to recommend people. That's where we get a lot of our members is from pastors who say, hey, look, these three guys, they would be good candidates for Gideons. And then we speak to them or we'll contact them and we'll say, hey, your pastor thinks you would be a good Gideon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what do you think about this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really cool. And is there like another, is like a website or something they can go to as well? Do y'all have one?
Speaker 2:We do. It's called G and find out a lot of information. A lot more fun facts about the Indians, faqs and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very cool. Well, this has been a really fun conversation. I got to tell everyone more about you and my dad a little bit. Have more ammunition, there you go. So I've enjoyed this and learning more about that and thank you for coming out here and sharing Sure.
Speaker 2:Been a pleasure, thank you.
Speaker 1:You know, I have to say too, like I think it's interesting that just talking about how, like just having the Bible in your hand, is a tool to help you give the courage to share. Because, you know, honestly, for me and my podcast, this is kind of part of that, what I hope it is for others as well, because I found that the more you get in practice of just sharing your story or sharing the actual gospel story because those are two separate things yeah, what happened to you and then the actual story of the gospel are two separate stories. But once you know both of them, and practice saying what they are.
Speaker 1:It's really not that hard to do to a stranger Right. So just giving you that courage, so I connected with you on that so yeah. So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:My name is Troy and this is my story of the middle.
Speaker 1:And I'm your host, Brandi Bostic, and you've been listening to the Up for the Mutt podcast.
Speaker 2:If you'd like some merch or just some extra content, you can check out my Patreon account in the show notes below Psalm 40, verse 2. He brought me up from a desolate pit out of the muddy clay and he set my feet on the rock, making my steps secure.
