Rich Kastura is known to his fellow churchgoers as “the Bible guy” No he is not the pastor but a heating and plumbing technician who when business is slow drives around the neighborhood collecting and delivering Bibles. He calls his gig the “Word On the Street Ministries”
Airbrushed on the side of his van “Need a Bible, ask me for one.”
It all began when he started trying to find 70 bibles for kids in a youth group. Katsura says “When it’s [the Bible] in the hands of young people, it can give a lot of inspiration…People need to know that others care about their physical and spiritual well-being.” I get the spiritual part but the physical part sounds a little weird.
Since he reached his goal things started to take off. Katsura has thousands of new and used bibles and has received $16,000 in cash donations.
“Packages of Bibles have come in from all over the county, as well as numerous donations that have allowed the ministry to purchase more books. He recently purchased a trailer to help haul the shipments around, as well as to house the mobile ministry.”
As Daniel Radosh noted in his New Yorker article “The Good Book Business“
“The conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles—twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book. The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.”
This guy is going to need a bigger trailer.
Then there is the story of the ‘Good Book’ chain The Bible Factory Outlet
At its peak Bible Factory Outlet had 70 stores, last week when they were forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy by the court they had 24 left and a website bibleoutlet.com.
At the end they were claiming assets less than $50,000 and liabilities of $1 to $10 million.
The mission statement of the company: ‘To glorify God by distributing the Bible, literature, and other products that minister to, inspire and encourage our customers.”
With less than $50,000 in assets one would wonder if there might be some sinners in upper management.
