October 1, 2026
CORDELE, Ga. — For eight days beginning on April 10, the Crisp County Courthouse in Cordele was the site of the first-ever Crisp County Bible Reading Marathon. Volunteers gathered there to read the Bible from cover to cover.
“I got to read the Bible with almost everybody in town, and that just blows me away,” said Rock the House Ministries founder and marathon facilitator Danny Flick.
Local officials, clergymen, Boy Scout Troop 270, and other residents took part in the opening ceremony on Friday night, April 10. Among those was Jerry Tuck, who leads the Bleckley County Bible Read-a-thon. The Blackley County read-a-thon inspired Flick to organize one in Crisp County.
The theme of the read-a-thon was community unity. “The word of God is the only thing that will heal our community. The writer of Hebrews says the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart,” Flick said. “People who were speaking were very excited about uniting our community and bringing glory to God.”
The crowd size varied each day. The opening ceremony had 60 people and the closing celebration had around 100 attendees. Some people listened under tents, and some listened from the outside. "There was an ebb and flow of people that was just incredible. People in, people out, people proclaiming God’s word,” Flick said
Readers registered online for 15-minute time slots to read. There were walk-up readers also. “God was present throughout the entire event and made this work His way,” Flick said.
Spanish, English, and Ethiopian were spoken over the course of the event.
“We had a church planter visiting from Ethiopia, Pastor Baru Agenda Asore, who read part of Revelation in Ethiopian on the last night,” Flick said.
Joy Hill, a local teacher at Crisp Academy, brought three different classes on several different days. “These youth and these children got up and read. It was incredible,” Flick said.
Crisp Academy first came on Tuesday with 12 kids. “We were ahead of schedule and bought pizzas and soda for the kids," Flick said. "I told the kids, while we're eating, we have about an hour until the next scheduled reader, so let’s have an open mic. If there's a favorite verse you have or if there's a favorite chapter, you can come on up and read,” Flick said.
He added that as testimonies were shared, the Holy Spirit's presence was felt and people began crying.
Crisp Academy brought 70 more students on Thursday to read.
Flick said revival happened in the hearts of those who attended the event. “People went to read the Bible and walked away saying God touched them,” Flick said. “They're like, wow, this is awesome. I need to do this.”
The event was set up to the side of the courthouse steps. “We had a beautiful place set up. People were stopping in. Because the courthouse was open on several days, there were some people who were going to court, and we talked to them. We prayed for some people before they had their cases.
"A few people stopped in afterwards to just sit and listen. We had a few people who live on the street just come in and listen. That was quite a big thing. We had some people from the police department come over to listen, and they asked if there were any opportunities to read. I told them to come back in an hour when there was an opening. It was incredible. The presence of the Holy Spirit was strong.”
Flick said it’s important to be bold and not be afraid to proclaim the word of God from anywhere and everywhere. “I pray that the Holy Spirit of God will make us bolder for the Glory of God,” Flick said, adding, “I hope and pray that we have greater support for this next year. I can see it becoming greater, not so much even the quantity, but just the intensity of it."
Flick said God blessed the community in a big way. "There are probably about 300 people who walked away with a deeper understanding of the Lord because they read publicly, and some of those were touched by the Holy Spirit.”
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