We run a bookstore! Who knew?

Our little Bible bookstore has been a part of our ministry for almost ten years now - but it is rarely mentioned on the blog or website. It's not especially glamorous or exciting, but it has been quietly serving the community here all this time.

The store consists of about four large bookshelves, sitting in the front room of Russell and Iris' house. Casual businesses being run out of homes are very common here, so we fit right in with all the small household shops. The store is open when someone is home, and closed when they are not. Most often, Iris is the one manning the store.

The stock includes multiple versions and style of Bibles, study Bibles, commentaries, and a small collection of other Bible study materials. We price the books to cover the cost of purchasing them, so basically wholesale. Since there are no salaries or overhead involved, the money which comes in from the book sales is simply used to purchase more books . . . so this has become a more-or-less self sustaining aspect of our ministry.

Books are a rare, expensive luxury item in our part of Honduras. Many of the books we sell for around $20 are priced at $80 - $100 in the bookstores in the cities. Even at $20, one book could easily cost a pastor from a mountain village an entire week's wages, so we're delighted to have the ability to make these books available to them!

In the past, we have offered discounts on purchases at the store to pastors who attended the pastor training school or the occasional pastor training conferences which we have held. This year, the pastors who complete the school will receive, for free, several of the hefty "pastor's library" volumes which will be used as part of their school materials.

This little-known, not-especially-exciting part of our ministry is actually a valuable piece of the whole!

If you didn't know about it before . . . well, now you know.