Published Nov 01, 2011
ALBUQUERQUE – When Faith Comes By Hearing began their military outreach in early 2008 with an initial production of 1,000 Military BibleSticks, nobody at the ministry had any idea what the project would grow into.
A little more than three years later, they have gone from honoring a request from a handful of chaplains for a “deployment-ready version” of their standard BibleStick to fulfilling requests from more than 800 chaplains for these small, portable audio devices that come pre-loaded with the entire dramatized New Testament. Currently, the world’s foremost audio Bible ministry has shipped more than 140,000 Military BibleSticks to chaplains serving around the globe.
“The continued requests from chaplains has been totally amazing,” said Jon Wilke, spokesman for the project. “We really haven’t done a lot of advertising; yet through word of mouth – from chaplain to chaplain – this (project) has just spread like wildfire.
“Chaplains in the military don’t have huge budgets for ministry tools, so they depend on organizations like Faith Comes By Hearing,” Wilke noted. “Fortunately, individual donors and an outpouring of support from church partners across America have come together to bless them with BibleSticks free of charge.”
Dwight Simpson, director of missions for San Diego Southern Baptist Association, said he was “impressed with what they are doing” and wanted his association’s churches to have the opportunity to get involved. He said he thought the ministry would have “special interest to our San Diego churches because of the very large military population in our region.”
Simpson added, “The whole Faith Comes by Hearing approach is incredibly useful to a church that wants to distribute copies of the audio Bible either in their neighborhood or during a mission trip.
“Also, the audio player for field missionaries (or volunteer mission teams) to use in the public setting of a village is jaw-droppingly simple and robust – solar powered, no moving parts and enough volume to be heard by several hundred in an open field.”
Cost for the Military BibleStick is $25 per unit, which covers the audio player and ear-buds, an additional audio Bible on MP3 disc and packaging and shipping. The package also comes with a postage-paid postcard servicemen and women can return with requests for additional MP3 discs to be sent to their spouse and children at home.
As Wilke reported, “It is important to the ministry that the spiritual needs of our troops and their entire family be met.”
Faith Comes By Hearing is an audio Bible ministry that currently has word-for-word New Testament recordings available in 582 languages spoken by more than 5 billion people in nearly every country of the world.
For more information call 800-800-2555 or visit https://militarybiblestick.com/