Guy’s great idea: a child’s story
Once upon a time there was a little boy called Guy. . .

NEW ZEALAND — Guy Hasler was seven years old and he lived in a beautiful part of New Zealand. It was in the north east of the North Island, by the sea, about an hour by car from the city of Auckland.

The Haslers’ house was on the main road between the East Coast Bays and the rural community of Okura.

Every Sunday Guy went to children’s church and he was doing some serious thinking about what he had learned there. He had been taught that there were a lot of people who didn’t know about God and he was worried about them.

“They need to be friends with Jesus,” he thought. “But how are they going to find out about God?”

Then Guy had an idea. He had noticed that there were a lot of old Bibles around the house. His parents no longer read these particular Bibles any more, nor did they take them to church.

Go to heaven

“I’ll get all the old Bibles from around the house that nobody reads any more and put them at our front gate,” thought Guy. “Then people going past can stop, pick one up and have it to keep. That way they will be able to read about Jesus, and become his friend, and go to heaven.”

So that is what he did. First, he borrowed the little house which the Hasler family’s goat normally lived in and moved it to just outside the front garden gate, by the roadside. That would keep the books dry when it rained. Then he gathered up all the old Bibles he could find and put them into the goat house.

Finally, he painted a sign saying that the Bibles were free to anybody who wanted one and he set it up alongside the goat house.

The Haslers lived on a busy main road and Guy hoped people would read the sign as they came past.

To his delight, the plan worked! Passers-by, curious about the goat house standing at the roadside, stopped. They read the sign, chose a free Bible from the goat house and, after looking cautiously round, went happily on their way.

Running out

In fact, so many Bibles went that the goat house was in danger of running out. So Guy asked his relations and friends if they could donate their old Bibles for the goat house. And they did.

But still more people kept coming and yet more Bibles kept going. One day even the postman came and knocked on the door.

“Have you got any more Bibles, young man?” he said to Guy. “All the ones in your goat house have gone.”

Then a lady stopped by the house and came in. And she asked the same thing.

When Guy told his Dad that all the Bibles had gone, his Dad suggested they go and get some more Bibles from the Bible Society. So they did.

Jesus film

Then a friend of the family gave Guy some videos about the life of Jesus to give away.

“I haven’t got any more Bibles to give you,” he said. “But why don’t you take these copies of the Jesus film and put them out in the goat house?”

So that’s what Guy did.

A lot of new buildings were being built in the road where Guy’s house stood, so every day there were a lot of people coming and going. Some came to deliver things and others came to inspect the building work. A lot of them inspected the goat house, too, and, when they discovered it contained free Bibles and Jesus videos, they took one away with them.

And, even better, one day Guy received a gift of $500 (US$348)! The person who sent it didn’t give their name but they told Guy it was a present so that he could buy more Bibles to put in the goat house.

Primary school

Now at the end of every day Guy runs down to the garden gate in great excitement to check how many Bibles have been taken. So far he thinks he must have given away about 140!

And recently he has thought of another idea. His grandmother lives in a house just down the road from a large primary school, and Guy is planning to make another stand like the goat house outside her gate so that the school children have a free Bible to take home.

“That way they will be able to read about Jesus and become his friend, too,” says Guy.

This story is based on one which originally apppeared in the Bible Society in New Zealand publication, From the Desk of the Chief Executive. (WR 388/19 - 10/11.04)