In the April 2002 issue, we introduced you to the Christian bookmobile at Emmanuel, Las Cruces, N.M.

Here’s a recap:

Purchased from a public library, the bookmobile began taking Christ-centered materials into the area around Las Cruces in October 2001. Donations from WELS members helped the outreach program get started. The bookmobile made its rounds twice a month, stopping at senior centers, lower-income apartments, a gas station, post offices, and members’ homes.

“It’s been a tool for sharing God’s Word with more new people in a month than we usually meet in a year of conducting regular worship services,” said Pastor Curt Backhaus.

So, where’s the bookmobile now?

It’s hard to keep track. Residents of Las Cruces, N.M., are accustomed to seeing the bookmobile coming down the road . . . but look! Now it’s gliding down the street in community parades with members handing out candy and invitations to visit Emmanuel. Onward it goes: a thousand miles onward with 12 students from Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, to assist three mission congregations with Christmas for Kids programs.

“This winter,” adds Backhaus, “you’d find the bookmobile parked 65 miles west of Las Cruces in Deming, where Emmanuel has started a preaching station to reach winter visitors who drive in with their RVs, as well as the locals.”

The bookmobile has clearly expanded its outreach efforts. Last school year it made regular visits to a local homeschool co-op, where Emmanuel loaned out books and taught Bible stories to some 80 children. In the summer, 43 children participated in a Christian reading program that mirrored the public library’s summer literacy effort. The bookmobile has allowed Emmanuel to meet and serve 200 families with God’s Word on a regular basis.

When Emmanuel was in the process of becoming a self-supporting congregation in 2003, they had to make some cutbacks, including dropping some regular bookmobile stops. However, by concentrating on the subdivisions near the church and continuing the summer reading program and door-to-door canvassing work, they now hope to do an even better job of identifying and witnessing to the unchurched.