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When people think of hearing the Bible read aloud, they probably imagine it happening either in a church setting or in someone\u2019s home. Most people do not picture a group of people reading the Bible outside through a loudspeaker. That, however, is exactly what happens every year in Stuart, Florida.<\/p>\n
The annual Bible Reading Marathon began in 2001 in the aftermath of the September 11th<\/sup> terrorist attacks. Pastors Gene and Donna Healton of the Spirit of Prophecy Ministries felt that Scripture could bring some much needed hope, comfort and strength to the country as America reeled from the barbaric and unprovoked attack. \u201cWhen the Towers came down,\u201d Donna Healton said, \u201cthe Lord spoke to our hearts about doing this for our nation. This is for our nation, not for our church, but for all the people in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n The local governments of Martin County and Stuart have been openly supportive in a time when publicly practicing Christianity has fallen under attack. The reading takes place at Veterans Memorial Park in Stuart, and participants sign up to read for 15 minute increments. Their words are then blasted through loudspeakers for 90 straight hours from Sunday through Thursday as volunteers read out every word of the Bible from the first sentence of Genesis to the final \u201cAmen\u201d in Revelation.<\/p>\n Due to health concerns, the Healtons have stepped back from spearheading the event in 2018. They remained involved but handed management of the marathon over to Eddie and Joanne Rodrigues of Step Into Grace Ministries. \u201cWe are very excited to do this,\u201d Eddie said, \u201cand we thank [the Stuart City Commission] for allowing us to use your park to speak God\u2019s Word out into the open, into the skies and to the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n The annual event has grown larger and continued longer than anyone ever expected.\u00a0 \u201cWe thought we were just doing it one year,\u201d Donna Healton said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a mandate God says [to do]. I think this may be the most important thing that the Lord has called us to do here in this county. Just to be able to have God\u2019s Word go forth from here, and with the Ten Commandments here on the land \u2026 God\u2019s people are just coming together and I think it\u2019s just exciting what God\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n The event has inspired other marathon Bible reading sessions across the nation since its inception. Despite social pressures to relegate religion to something practiced only behind closed doors, public readings of the Bible have created a sense of pride and solidarity among Christians who hear God\u2019s Word spoken in public as well as hope for the future. \u201cWe need to think about building the kingdom of God, and so as people are struggling and having hard times, I think they\u2019re seeking God out more. We have to tell people God is our answer, and so we have to turn to Him because He says things are going to happen in the nations, and we\u2019re one of the nations,\u201d Donna said. \u201cThere\u2019s no hope sometimes if you look in the natural, but with God, all things are possible, and He\u2019s our hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When people think of hearing the Bible read aloud, they probably imagine it happening either in a church setting or in someone\u2019s home. Most people do not picture a group of people reading the Bible outside through a loudspeaker. That, however, is exactly what happens every year in Stuart, Florida. The annual Bible Reading Marathon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[170,245,246,247],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","tag-bible","tag-bible-reading","tag-christianity-in-public","tag-living-faith"],"yoast_head":"\n