Our Beginnings

Swiss Valley Christian Bookstore opened its online shopping portals on August 31, 2003, as an outreach of The Missing Link, Inc., its parent organization, linking troubled youth and adults with life-changing programs since 1983, from their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio USA.

Chaplain Mario, its founder and president, was converted to Christianity through the power of the printed page entitled The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson. That book sent him on a journey toward Christ and deliverance from nine long years of alcohol addiction.

Today we serve side-by-side in prison and Internet ministry.

Swiss Valley Christian Bookstore is one more additional way we can point hungry hearts to Christian books that change lives and music that restores the soul.

We deeply appreciate your patronage!

The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson

The classic story of David Wilkerson's work with New York gangs and the conversion of violent drug users including Nicky Cruz (who continues to evangelise young people today) has captured viewers for over thirty years. Although the original events depicted in this classic film from the drug infested, gang dominated streets happened over thirty years ago, the life-changing solution that David Wilkerson brought to desperate lives was just beginning. The beat goes on.

The change in the life of notorious gang leader Nicky Cruz, as shown in the film, proved to be wonderfully lasting and real. Nicky continues today to reach young people around the world with the same life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that delivered him from violence and despair.

And what about the skinny preacher, David Wilkerson, who braved the meanest streets of New York to tell desperate and drug crazed youth that there was a better way? Now, three decades later, he is still at it with a ministry based in Times Square that is still changing lives and offering genuine hope to countless souls who had given up on life.

Now in over 25 languages, The Cross and the Switchblade, starring Pat Boone and Eric Estrada, is one of those rare films that has shown its unique power to connect with the deepest hopes and fears of youth around the world. It remains today one of the most compelling stories of love, grace and the truth that no one is ever so far gone that they cannot find the way out.

It is now 30 years since Nicky Cruz was converted, and his conversion has lasted. This special anniversary release of the ever popular film tells the true story of the beginning of David Wilkerson's work among the gangs of New York City and the dramatic conversion of the notorious street fighter, Nicky Cruz. This film, while now almost three decades old, is still used around the world to help young people find new life in Christ. Starring Pat Boone and Eric Estrada.

Learn more.