Michigan—The Ten Commandments Day movement caught many by surprise. As Michigan Conference officers and several department directors met to discuss the many approaches that could be taken, a vision came into focus—mobilize members to distribute encouraging literature about the Ten Commandments to 500,000 Michigan homes.

With the support of district superintendents, pastors, and conference evangelists, many members caught the vision and believed this was a God-given opportunity.

Various teams explored available materials and gave local churches the opportunity to choose those most appropriate for their communities. A major donor made it possible for Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN) to give the Michigan Conference 100,000 copies of Ten Commandments Twice Removed, if Michigan paid for shipping.Project Restore, a lay-driven supporting ministry, edited one of their publications naming it, The Law of Liberty, Enduring Principles of Freedom. This material on the Ten Commandments especially focused on the Sabbath. The Michigan Conference designed a back page for 500,000 copies of the publication with a special offer and a new website (http://www.godsholylaw.com/).Because time was short, orders for materials were placed quickly. Some chose the 3ABN offer, others chose The Law of Liberty, Enduring Principles of Freedom magazine; most chose some of each. It soon became evident that the order to 3ABN had to be increased to 150,000 books. An insert about the new website was designed for placement in the books. Although there were no funds budgeted for this major outreach, churches willingly picked up a major part of the expense by faith.

To save shipping expenses, church orders had to be filled by the time pastors came to Lansing for a previously-scheduled meeting. The Hamblin Company, a supporting printing ministry in Michigan, prepared the book inserts and delivered them when needed, although time was very tight. Remnant Publications, another supporting ministry in Michigan, printed the 3ABN books on time, and the Review and Herald Publishing Association delivered the 500,000 magazines as scheduled.

By Tues. evening, Apr. 11, three semi-trailers arrived in the Lansing Adventist Church parking lot. The next morning, the pastors rose to the occasion by coming to the meeting in work clothes, ready to help with the distribution. A schedule was devised that organized churches and pastors into four-minute time slots to collect their materials.

With the help of Conference office staff, the system worked like clockwork, even through intermittent bouts of rain. By 3:15 p.m., loading was completed. More than 350,000 magazines and 215,000 books were distributed to the churches through the pastors and lay members, all in less than five hours.

When the materials arrived at the churches, some were labeled for mailing while many others were hand-delivered to people in their communities. Even though it was spring in Michigan, the literature was scattered like the leaves of autumn.

Michael Nickless, Michigan Conference communication director