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2012: Big Year for the Great Controversy

In late 2008, a North Carolina layman named Jack Henderson sat down with Mark Thomas, an executive from the Review and Herald, and expressed his dream to place a copy of The Great Controversy in every home in the country.

It was an audacious dream because Henderson didn’t have the money to send millions of books. At least not at that time. But as of today, donors have provided the funds to distribute 1.7 million copies of Ellen White’s complete book in communities all across the North American Division. Furthermore, his Great Controversy Project has been embraced by the world church. General Conference president Ted Wilson says that he has pledges from the divisions around the globe to send out more than 170 million copies.

The Review and Herald began 2012 by shipping one million copies of an short version of the book to Nigeria. They are also printing editions in Spanish and Portuguese. “It has been so exciting to see this project catch fire,” says Thomas, who has since become president of the Review and Herald. “Our employees have rallied around this outreach effort. Some have donated one, two, or even three weeks of salary.”

“Mark got out his pencil and found a way to get the price down on these books,” says Henderson. “If not for the Review, this project would never have happened.” From now until April 15, pre-publication orders can be placed at Adventist Book Centers for a newsprint, abridged edition that costs only 49 cents each.

In North America, every conference is designating a person to coordinate the distribution of The Great Controversy in their area. It looks like Henderson’s hope of covering the whole country with the book is beginning to come true. But he says that he gave up that dream a long time ago. “Now I want to reach everyone in the whole world,” he says.

For more information visit www.GreatControversyProject.org.