“Aliquippa woman to distribute free copies of book”

Aliquippa woman to distribute free copies of book

Posted: 24 Jul 2010 08:36 PM PDT

ALIQUIPPA — Up to 1,000 Aliquippa households Saturday will discover on their doorstep a blue plastic bag containing a book.

It won't be a phone book.

It'll be a book that Aliquippa author Bernice Meade Mason penned in hopes of fortifying faith.

Mason gave her book a title that's long, but straight to the point: "How to Share the Word of God With Your Family, Neighbors and Friends and Why You Must Do It Now!"

In its 53 pages, Mason sets up questions people might have about God and then quotes Scripture to provide the answers.

"I sort of put it into a conversational style," said the 79-year-old Mason, who will distribute the book for free, starting with the Plan 11 neighborhood, "because this is where I live."

The books next will be presented to the Valley Terrace neighborhood, "because I found some reliable people there to help me pass them out," she said.

Any books left from her preprinted supply of 1,000 will be supplied free to outlying neighborhoods. In time, she hopes to round up donations to print more books for the rest of Aliquippa and beyond.

"She's got it all planned out," said Towsell "T-Baby" Thomas, who has lived 85 of his 89 years in the same Plan 11 house. "I think it's a wonderful thing."

T-Baby — that's what everyone in town calls him — created the book's lone illustration, a painting of a lion gently hugging a lamb, a biblical reference to a future era of peace.

Each of the softbound, blue-covered booklets will contain a blue ribbon marking the page where his illustration appears.

"You will notice that everything is blue: blue plastic bag, blue book, even a blue ribbon marker inside the book," Mason writes in a separate letter — colored blue, of course — that begins with "Dear Neighbors" and will be placed inside the front cover of each tome.

The letter specifies the book's purpose: "to put some Scriptures into people's hands that will give them rudimentary knowledge about God's plans for mankind and the world and will motivate them to seek the Lord God and make some efforts to get their lives in order."

Interviewed Wednesday in her living room, Mason said, "I've always believed in evangelism."

While not an ordained minister, she has prepared numerous Bible studies and religious seminars, and previously wrote two books on Bible prophecy that she sold in her religious bookstore formerly on the city's Franklin Avenue, where she also offered a black history museum. Many of the museum's artifacts, ranging from Jim Crow-era porcelain figures to President Barack Obama memorabilia, are scattered throughout her home.

Parts of her new book might stir up controversy, Mason said, explaining that her views of the Last Days and the Great Tribulation aren't preached in all churches.

For those segments of her book, she quoted Scripture from the King James version of the Bible, "but I encourage people to go investigate for themselves," Mason said. "Go online."

And if people want to make photocopies of the book to give to friends and family, that's fine, said Mason, who, like all authors, wants to reach the widest possible audience.

Her daughter, Felicia Mason, is a Virginia-based author.

"The funny thing is, she's a romance writer," Mason said.

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