62-year-old Jonathan Adams and his wife Anh are truckies. Humble Christian retirees, they’re not your stereotypical burly Aussie truck drivers, but they sure know how to handle a gear stick.

As for cargo, their truck is loaded up with 25,000 New Testaments and a few thousand more Good News Bibles.

Jonathan and Anh spend most of their time at the wheel of what’s known as The Bible Truck, a 12-metre-long, 4-metre-high Bible-carrying beast. It was bought and decorated 7 years ago by the couple who’d been praying for an opportunity to serve God.

“We were about to build a house, but we never built a house. Instead, we built a Bible truck,” says Jonathan.

The couple and their young daughter drive around Australia offering churches the opportunity to connect with their community through the distribution of free Bibles. Churches pay a nominal fee to buy a box or two of Bibles before Jonathan and his wife spend half a day handing them out to people in the most-trafficked areas of town. And when the churches don’t want their services, they go doorknocking and give Bibles away wherever they can.

“In a country town, most people take them. If you offer 10 people a New Testament down the main street, 6 people will take them.”

“Often people want to connect with the church giving them away. People have a prayer need, or a wedding or a funeral coming up, and for whatever reason they haven’t had that communication with their local church. We give them that opportunity.”

When Jonathan and Anh first started driving the Bible Truck, they would go from their home in Queensland right around Australia, even visiting remote mining towns in Western Australia. But increasing fuel costs have meant a change in strategy.

“Now we just go up the east coast and then come back down inland. We’re based in Tasmania now, so just the cost of ferrying the car across alone is $1500,” says Jonathan.

The couple had planned to take the truck up to Sydney during this year’s winter, but when it became clear this wasn’t possible, Jonathan decided to use the money they’d save on fuel and transport costs to give Bibles away freely in Tasmania over the coming months, starting at Easter.

Jonathan says one of the most memorable Bible Truck experiences he’s had was while door-knocking the tiny town of Ongerup, north of Albany in Western Australia.

“We were door-knocking, it was raining, and I hadn’t come prepared. We knocked on a door and this 30-year-old guy answered, but he didn’t want a Bible. He said, ‘Thanks, but no thank you, anyhow’. I told him there was no obligation and we wouldn’t come knocking on his door again, but he still said no. So I walked up the road in the rain, crossing from side to side. I must’ve been about 500 metres up the road when I saw this same man running down the road towards me and I turned around and he said, ‘Have you still got one of those Bibles left? I’ll take it.’ And I thought, praise the Lord!”

“You never really know what happens to these people, only God knows really. But I still remember that day.”

The cost of running the Bible Truck is absorbed entirely by Jonathan and Anh, who bought the truck with their retirement savings. During their journey, the family sleep, shower, cook and live inside the truck and their 8-year-old daughter is home-schooled by Anh. The Bibles are sold to churches for $4 each, but that only covers the cost of the books, not fuel or living expenses. But Jonathan says there’s nothing else he’d want to be doing.

“Our money is God’s money anyway. We don’t make anything out of it, but we want to serve in this way.”

“We have the way, the truth and the life in our hands when we hand out those books. And it’s just wonderful to think that people will take them.”

If your church would like to be visited by the Bible Truck, or you’d like to help fund the Truck, visit BibleTruck.org for more information.