The Danville faith community in Virginia set the fastest nonstop Bible-reading world record for the Guinness World Records last Thursday. The participants clocked in at around 76 hours, breaking a previous Bible-reading record set at 113 hours.
Some 75 students from the Westover Christian Academy, 35 staffers at the Roman Eagle facility and 60 members of the First Pentecostal Holiness Church joined in the record-breaking effort, which was held at the Roman Eagle Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. They read verses from the King James Bible and originally expected to do the reading over at least five days.
Students from Westover came to the center to read the Bible from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. when they started timing the clock on Monday, April 30. The group from the church took over in the next hours, while staffers and residents at the rehabilitation facility volunteered to fill in during the hours when there were no Bible readers.
Within a span of 76 hours, however, the group was done. Incidentally, they broke the record during the National Day of Prayer.
"It's has been a, spiritually, very rich experience," Doug Barber, the president of the Westover Christian Academy, told the Roanoke Times. "When I walked in this room, I sensed the presence of God in a very wonderful way," he added.
Residents came to watch and listen to the participants read the Bible, which had a 92 year old and a six year old. Videos and other documentation were recorded, which will be sent as proof to the Guinness Book of World Records.
