"Our goal was to reach every home in Fairbanks (population 30,000) with the gospel," says John Coghill, pastor of the Bible Baptist Church of Fairbanks, Alaska.

During the summer of 1994, a group of young people gave their time every Saturday to place a plastic door hanger on as many houses as possible. In the bag was a church invitation pamphlet and a couple of tracts. This worked very well and several people were saved during the summer.

When the summer ended the young people went back to school and the effort slowed.

One day while driving, the leader of a group was praying and meditating on how to do this more effectively. Almost immediately Adopt-a-Highway, the program which some states have where business and organizations agree to keep a section of a highway clean, popped into his mind. "Why can't our church have an Adopt-a-Street program to get the gospel into every home?" he wondered.

When the idea was presented to the pastor, he quickly approved. A large map of the city was obtained and more bags and tracts were purchased. The Chick tract This Was Your Life was chosen because of the amount of the Word of God included in its message.

The city was divided into sections and the program was presented to the church. Individuals, families, church groups and even Sunday school classes signed on to adopt a street and visit every house in one week.

The week before our Missions Conference was chosen. We included a special time of prayer and dedication during the Sunday worship service at the beginning of the week. Our deacons and ushers lined up across the front of the church holding the 10,000 packets of literature containing the glorious gospel of Christ.

The Adopt-a-Street program was such a success that every accessible home in the city limits was reached with the gospel tracts. Several more were saved and new visitors came to the church. Phase II of the Adopt-a-Street program is being planned. It will cover all the homes outside the city limits.

Some of the testimony letters which come to Chick Publications speak of tracts that sometimes lie hidden for years in desk or bureau drawers or inside books, until one day they are rediscovered when the reader's heart is open to the message. The Chick tracts sown like seed in the Adopt-a-Street campaign will be germinating for years in homes all over Fairbanks as the Holy Spirit orchestrates the harvest.