I received this product as part of the Tyndale blogger book review program. Tyndale provided me with a complimentary copy, but I’m under no further obligation to them.

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Tyndale made this DVD and CD set available the week before Christmas. I went ahead and signed up to receive it, even though I knew that it wouldn’t arrive in time for me to do a pre-Christmas review. I realized my mistake later… even I wasn’t that interested in reviewing a Christmas product after the fact. So now, here I am, almost six months later, finally watching, listening and reading No Room At The Inn.

This product is largely a promotional product for the Hungry Planet Bible Project. The idea is to play off of the Christmas story, connecting the image of a “homeless” Mary and Joseph and the homeless today. There’s a 30-minute documentary about homelessness, focusing on the women and children who make up a large percentage of the homeless. There’s an audio CD with these same homeless people reading Luke chapters 1 and 2, as well as author Hayley Dimarco reading the same story. And there are some materials in PDF format on the DVD.

I don’t want to sound hard-hearted, but I don’t see the value in this product. I do understand that the idea is that part of the proceeds will go to projects that work with the homeless, but I think there are better ways to get the money directly to them. The material on this DVD/CD set could be placed on a website with a link for giving. (I was disappointed to see that the Hungry Planet website seems to be dormant) This doesn’t seem like an effective way of fundraising, nor an effective way of educating.

The Hungry Planet Bible Project is involved in a worthwhile effort. I just don’t think this project was the best use of that organization’s time nor resources. I hope that many will be moved to help the homeless. I’m not convinced this product will do it.