Selling Bibles ~ Wanda

A pastor concluded
that his church was getting into very
serious financial troubles. While
checking the church storeroom, he
discovered several cartons of new bibles
that had never been opened and distributed.

So at his Sunday
sermon, he asked for three volunteers from
the congregation who would be
willing to sell the bibles door-to-door for
$10 each to raise the
desperately needed money for the church.

Jack, Paul and Louie all
raised their hands to volunteer for the
task.

The minister knew
that Jack and Paul earned their living as
salesmen and were likely capable
of selling some bibles. But he had serious
doubts about
Louie who was a local farmer, who had
always kept to himself
because he was embarrassed by his speech
impediment.

Poor
Louie stuttered badly. But, NOT WANTING TO
discourage Louie, the
minister decided to let him try anyway.

He sent the three of
them away with the back seat of their cars
stacked with bibles. He asked
them to meet with him and report the
results of their door-to-door selling
efforts the following Sunday.

Anxious to find out how
successful they were, the minister
immediately asked Jack, 'Well, Jack,
how did you make out selling our bibles
last week?'

Proudly handing
the reverend an envelope, Jack replied,
'Using my sales prowess, I was
able to sell 20 bibles, and here's the
$200 I collected on behalf of the
church.'

'Fine job, Jack!' The minister said, vigorously
shaking his hand... 'You are indeed a fine
salesman and the Church is indebted to
you.'

Turning to Paul, 'And Paul, how many
bibles did you sell for
the Church last week?'

Paul, smiling and sticking out his chest,
confidently replied, 'I am a
professional salesman. I sold 28 bibles on
behalf of the church, and here's $280 I
collected.'

The minister
responded, 'That's absolutely
splendid, Paul. You are truly a professional
salesman and the church is indebted to you.'

Apprehensively, the
minister turned to Louie and said, 'And
Louie, did you manage to sell any
bibles last week?' Louie silently
offered the minister a large
envelope.

The minister opened it and counted the
contents. 'What is
this?' the minister exclaimed.
'Louie, there's $3200 in here!
Are you suggesting that you sold 320 bibles
for the church, door to door,
in just one week?'

Louie just nodded. That's
impossible!' both Jack
and Paul said in unison. 'We are
professional salesmen, yet you claim to
have sold 10 times as many bibles as we
could.'

'Yes, this
does seem unlikely,' the minister!
agreed. 'I think you'd better explain
how you managed to accomplish this,
Louie.'

Louie shrugged.. 'I-I-I
re-re-really do-do-don't kn-kn-know
f-f-f-for sh-sh-sh-sure,'
he stammered.

Impatiently, Peter interrupted. 'For
crying out
loud, Louie, just tell us what you said to
them when they answered the
door!'

'A-a-a-all I-I-I s-s-said
wa-wa-was,' Louis replied,
'W-w-w-w-would y-y-y-you l-l-l-l-l-like
t-t-to b-b-b-buy th-th-th-this
b-b-b-b-bible F -f-for t-t-ten b-b-b-bucks
---o-o-o-or--- wo-wo-would
yo-you j-j-j-just l-like m-m-me t-t-to
st-st-stand h-h-here and
r-r-r-r-r-read it t-to y-y-you??'