Upward School Gives Bibles to Inmates

Nine-year-old Victoria is an active, energetic third grader who loves her school and church family very much. Recently, Victoria and her school classmates at the Upward Adventist School in Flat Rock, NC, organized a special community service project where they collected

Bibles for prisoners. This project is very near and dear to Victoria and her classmates because several students, including herself, have a parent who is incarcerated.

The idea began in November of 2021 during a routine Friday morning worship time. The speaker presented a devotional thought on the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-

30. Students were encouraged to share their talents with others and were given $100 to start an outreach project.

While deciding how the $100 would be used, Victoria shared how her mother, currently in prison, had received a Bible from an inmate who was being released. She was so happy that her mother was now able to study the Word of God. The other two classmates with incarcerated parents agreed that they would love for their parents to have a Bible, and the project took off.

It wasn’t long before the students had the members of the Upward Adventist Church involved. Soon that $100 turned into just over $900, and the students were able to collect and purchase 336 Bibles! With the help of Jim Wetmore, Carolina Conference prison ministries coordinator, the Bibles were donated to the Blue Ridge Prison and Jail Ministries of Hendersonville, NC, to be distributed to inmates.

Blue Ridge Prison and Jail Ministries is a local, non-profit organization that provides services to inmates and their families in Henderson County, NC, including Bibles, Bible studies, counseling, uplifting reading material, and support events for children of inmates. This ministry also works with organizations that recycle used Bibles, turning Bible pages into packing material that can be shipped into countries where owning or a reading a Bible is illegal.

Victoria and her classmates were excited to deliver the Bibles to the Blue Ridge Prison and Jail Ministries office in person. It is the prayer of Victoria and her classmates at the Upward Adventist School that many lives will be changed by receiving these Bibles.

If you would like more information about this project please contact Jenn Watson, principal of the Upward Adventist School, at 828-388-5952 or jwatson@carolinasda.org.

—by Jennifer Watson, Upward Principal