Nora Stobart interviewed by Sandie Keetch

A Truck Load of Bibles

Nora Stobart is married to Eddie – founder of the largest road haulage company in the UK.  She is also a member of the women’s auxiliary of Gideons International to speed  the gospel message. Sandie Keetch investigates.

“I never cease to wonder at God’s plan for my life when, as a four year old orphan, I felt the world was against me,” says Nora who inspires women to spread the Good News through the placement of  New Testaments in schools, hospitals and hotels. “Prayer is vital to this ministry. It gives courage and leads to opportunities,” says Nora.

Prayer underscores every aspect of her life, including her family. She has seen her two sons take over her husband’s modest haulage business, steering it one the fast road to success. Today, Eddie Stobart vehicles criss-cross Britain and the Continent. There are more than 15 depots, over 2,000 staff and a 20,000 member strong fan club. And with its massive international and commercial centre, it is at the cutting edge of the industry.

During the company’s 25-year anniversary celebrations, Nora remarked that she prayed daily for God to keep her sons and prevent them from doing wrong. Nora’s prayer still continues, extending to the grand-daughter who works for the business as well as the rest of the family.

The way ahead has been tough at times. Nora has faced adverse publicity about her son, Edward, the current company chairman, She and her family have not attempted to defend national press claims. “At times they have bothered me, but they are untrue and I have learned to ignore them,” explains Nora.  “Trials like this can do you good, since they cause you to examine things more closely.  I am just thankful that I have my faith to help me.”

The business has always been based on biblical principles; honesty and customer loyalty have been keynotes. “We have never led people to believe we could meet unrealistic deadlines. Rather than lose customers, it has helped maintain them, since they have come to trust our word,” explains Nora.

In the early days, Nora provided the business with vital support; she answered the telephone and, with young children in tow, she helped Eddie and his men deliver fertiliser and plant to farms. The family home became ‘open house’, as Nora provided meals for staff in between delivery jobs.

She sees hospitality as an important way of sharing God’s love. Following her conversion and her first visit to her local church, the elder and his wife invited Nora to supper. “They nurtured me in my Christian faith and soon I spent all my free time with them. They helped mould my life, letting me see that any stranger who came into that little church was invited into their home.”

Despite a chequered childhood, at 17 Nora felt the impact of God’s love during an evangelical meeting. “At Sunday school I had often heard that God loved me, but this time the Holy Spirit really touched me through the speaker,” she remembered. Two years later, Nora swapped her job in Scotland for a similar post in Carlisle with a Christian family. She met Eddie and marriage and four children followed before her work with Gideons International began.

Eddie helped establish the Cumbrian branch of Gideons, but a year later Nora needed persuading to join the women’s auxiliary group, which was originally started to cover every Testament and Bible placement in prayer. “I made all kinds of excuses, saying that the children needed me and I could not pray in public,” recalls Nora. “Eventually I relented on the proviso that I was not asked to do anything!”

In more than a decade Nora progressed from area co-ordinator, zone chairman, national chaplain, vice-president and national president. She has been responsible for the pastoral care of women members and led devotional sessions and presented numerous reports to an audience of hundreds within the organisation.  She has also attended international conventions in America, which has promoted new and lasting friendships.

“I have taken part as I felt God lead me. There have been heart-searching moments and I always feel inadequate, I have learnt to be humble and count to ten when I have felt impatient. But I have also become even more convinced that God is sovereign and in absolute control.

“Joy has come through fellowship within the organisation and knowing I have been in the place God has wanted me. I am just an ordinary auxiliary member with a job to job to do, with God’s help,” explains Nora.

She has seen, and helped forge, the continually evolving role of women members. “At first we did very little, practically, but now we are more involved and help the men with the distribution in schools. I think this is one of the most exciting parts of the ministry. When you visit school assemblies with more than 200 children, you think of the potential in all those young lives. Yet there is a sadness too, since a big percentage nowadays come from broken homes.”

Work involves visiting hospital wards to provide nurses with white or blue Gideons to match their uniforms. “In my home town of Carlisle, Christian tutors have enabled us to make placements at nurse training schools. Many people don’t realise that a nurse’s job description involves caring for the physical and spiritual needs of their patients, so we hope the little testament helps her and those she nurses.”

All Gideon New Testaments contain the Psalms, although their covers vary from red, blue, brown or white. They are unique in giving a personal plan of salvation at the back and a list of helpful scriptures at the front,” explains Nora who has placed many through personal encounters with exciting results. They include a meeting in a restaurant where Nora was seated opposite a young, despairing diner. Nora gave her the antidote to her sad life story, with a Gideons testament.  The pocket-size book fuelled new hope, regular meetings with Nora and a blossoming faith.

At 51 Jacqui died of cancer with a funeral that bore testimony to life in Christ.  Previously, the dress shop owner, had a fear about death, and shared her anxiety with Nora, a customer she knew well. Nora gave her a Gideon New Testament. Within weeks she had given away three more to shop staff. Continued enthusiasm led to monthly bible studies at Nora’s home and through a satellite link with American evangelist Billy Graham, Jacqui made a pledge of faith.

“By the time Jacqui died, her brown Gideon Testament was worn, marked and well read. It has been a great thrill to see what God has done. All Jacqui’s customers knew she had become a Christian and although her death was sad, there was an atmosphere and knowledge of God’s presence at her funeral,” Nora recalls.