1 Corinthians and End of Year Wrapped!

 New Content! 

10 books. 6 weeks. All new content! With less than 3 weeks to go until Christmas, we are excited for this week’s gift–1 Corinthians!

The Audio Guides for this book are available–right now! Let me tell you, this book was a fun book to record. If there was ever a Bible book written for today’s church, this is it. The church was facing struggles from the culture they lived in, but it was also dealing with struggles from within. Paul writes to help guide the Corinthian church through these difficulties, and pens some of the most famous scriptures of all time. 

You can find the Audio Guides in the TTW app, the Bible App from YouVersion, and on our website. Be sure to check them out, and let your friends know! You can easily share an Audio Guide by swiping left on any guide from the plan menu. 

And don’t worry, we aren’t getting rid of Pastors Sandy and Skip’s Audio Guides.  All of them will still be available on the TTW app. To find them, just click on the teacher’s name at the bottom of the browse page! 

That’s a Wrap!

As the end of the year approaches, my kids get excited about one of the greatest holiday traditions–Spotify Wrapped. And this year, we saw from a number of people that Through the Word was their top podcast on Spotify! It made us think, “What would our listener’s Wrapped would look like on the app?” Well, here it is–your top five completed plans on Through the Word!

Donation Thank-You Gift!

Anyone who donates to Through the Word between Wednesday, November 23 and December 31st will receive a free TTW tumbler as a thank-you gift! Just visit throughtheword.org/donate to give and request your tumbler.

These travel tumblers feature a beautiful cork wood bottom and are made of double-walled vacuum-insulated stainless steel. This tumbler will keep your drinks cold for up to 24 hours, and will keep your hot drinks warm for 12 hours!

Amazon Smile

Want to support Through the Word while shopping? Be sure to visit smile.amazon.com and select Through the Word as your non-profit of choice. 

God Bless!

Jonathan 

Donation Match and Thank You Gift!

Hello TTW family! 

I hope you have your menu planned, the shopping done, and the pies baked for Thanksgiving! 

This year has been amazing for Through the Word. As we head into the holidays, it’s time again to look back at all that God did this year. 

Check out the video update below as Pastor Kris shares a major milestone, an impact story you don’t want to miss, and how you can help us along the journey ahead in 2023. Then read below for this year’s TTW donor gift and donation match opportunities, both happening… right now!

Donation Match

This season, we are proud to announce we once again have a donation match opportunity! For a limited time, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar and help us take on new content creation, ambitious projects and make big steps forward in new lands and new languages. 

TTW remains 100% listener supported, and all of our amazing stories and stats are made possible by you, our faithful donors!

Thank You Gifts Are Here! 

This year’s gift is the TTW Travel Tumbler — a stainless steel, vacuum sealed, heavy-duty, beautiful white 18 oz tumbler with our awesome TTW logo on the side. It’s our thank you gift to donors, and it’s free! 

Visit throughtheword.org/donate to donate! And after you donate, be sure to fill out the form at the bottom of the screen to request your tumbler!

God Bless! 

Gospel of John and Something Special Coming...

 Hello Through the Word Family! 

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family! Canadians, you are welcome to join us this Thursday, and get two Thanksgivings in one year!

This is a very busy week for most of us–between traveling, cleaning, cooking, eating, and watching football–but it’s also a time for us to stop and give thanks for all that God has done in our lives.

And we want to thank God for all of you who make Through the Word a family. We couldn’t be doing what we are doing without each and every one of you.

Now for some other news keeping us busy (besides the food and football)!

New Content Released!

10 books. 6 weeks. All new content! And today, we are excited to release the book of John from Pastor Peyton Jones!

The Audio Guides for this book are available–right now! And this is a huge book for us to finish–it is the last of the four gospels, and a wonderful book to share with your friends, especially those who are new believers or who are Bible-curious.

You can find the Audio Guides in the TTW app, the Bible App from YouVersion, and on our website. Be sure to check them out, and let your friends know! You can easily share an Audio Guide by swiping left on any guide from the plan menu. 

And don’t worry, we aren’t getting rid of Pastors Sandy and Skip’s Audio Guides.  All of them will still be available on the TTW app. To find them, just click on the teacher’s name at the bottom of the browse page! 

End Of Year Thank You Campaign

And there is more! This Wednesday, we are beginning our end-of-year Thank You gift campaign! We have a great gift we are excited about…But you’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out what it is! 

God Bless, and Happy Thanksgiving!

New Content: 1, 2, 3 John!

Hello Through the Word Family! 

It’s finally here…The countdown to a complete, original Audio Guide through the New Testament from Through the Word! 

10 books. 6 weeks. All new content! And today we start by releasing not just one book, but three! 1, 2, & 3 John!

The Audio Guides for these books are available–right now! And if you have never studied these books, you are in for a treat. Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...Wait…that’s The Princess Bride. But there is a deep story with these letters–true disciples, traveling deceivers, dangerous hospitality, confident faith, arrogant leaders… 

You can find the Audio Guides in the TTW app, the Bible App from YouVersion, and on our website. Be sure to check them out, and let your friends know! You can easily share an Audio Guide by swiping left on any guide from the Journey menu. 

And don’t worry, we aren’t getting rid of Pastors Sandy and Skip’s Audio Guides.  All of them will still be available on the TTW app. To find them, just click on the teacher’s name at the bottom of the browse page! 

Also, next week we will be announcing our end-of-year donor gift, so stay tuned!

God Bless,

Jonathan 

New Content Starting New Week!

Hello, Through the Word Family! Thank you for praying for us over the last week as the TTW team gathered together for a time of praise, prayer, and planning! And your prayers were heard! Over the week, we were able to plan out the direction TTW would be heading over the next year. We have some exciting new content we will be creating, translation projects starting, updates to the app, and so much more.

Honestly, I felt like The Avengers, assembling together to conquer the evils of Bible illiteracy and false teaching. But, alas, not everyone felt that way–the nerds on the team discovered that there were some who didn’t really get all the Marvel/DC/Star Wars illustrations…please continue to pray for us. :)

Now for a Big Announcement…

We are so excited to let you know that our team has been very busy over the last few months–finishing out Audio Guides for the entirety of the New Testament! Now, you might ask, didn’t you already have Audio Guides? Yes, but many of those were borrowed from other pastors' sermons. So Kris, Peyton, and myself have been busy studying, writing, and recording original TTW content for John, 1 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1& 2 Timothy, Hebrews, and 1, 2, & 3 John. We aren’t removing the messages from Sandy and Skip, but we are adding our own original content!

So what does that mean? We will be releasing new content weekly on both the TTW App and on the Bible App from YouVersion–for the rest of the year! And it all starts next week, November 14th, with Pastor Kris’ Audio Guides through the Letters of John. 

As the plans are released, you can find them on our app or at throughtheword.org/plans, where you can listen to our plans online and find links to all of our plans on the Bible App from YouVersion. 

We’ll keep you posted here, as well as on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter with all of our updates. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay informed! 

We want to thank our donors and supporters for making these possible. We can’t wait to share these remaining New Testament Audio Guides with you! 

God Bless!

Jonathan 

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Would You Pray For Us?

 Hello Through the Word Family! And Happy November!

This week the Through the Word team is gathering for our annual praise and planning meeting.  We have a lot of great plans we are working on and are looking forward to sharing them with you all shortly!

We know prayer makes a difference. Through the Word exists as the result of many hours upon hours of prayer. We trust in God’s goodness and continually ask Him that His will be done in our lives and in the ministry.  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14). And we love the partnership we have with our entire TTW family.  As you pray for us, know that we are praying for you. 

This year, we are praising God for a number of things. The team has grown, and we have some amazing projects we are accomplishing.  The Tech team has been busy at work, making the app more stable and secure, and dealing with those pesky login issues.  We have also created a lot of new content, which we will be sharing soon!

Would you join us in prayer as we plan for 2023? Specifically, can you pray for wisdom and knowledge for us as we gather this week? 

• We have a number of decisions to make on future plans, and we want to be sure that the plans we make are in alignment with God’s will.  

• In addition, please pray for the health of the entire team. As a bunch of us are flying in from across the country, we are asking God to keep those pesky travel bugs away!

• Finally, would you join us in prayer for the future listeners of Through the Word in 2023? We hope that many more people will find us and better understand the Bible, one chapter at a time.

We are excited to see what 2023 is going to hold for Through the Word!

Thanks for praying!

Jonathan

P.S. We receive prayer requests from listeners every day. Send your prayer needs to us on Instagram, Facebook, or email us at help@throughtheword.org.

Halloween - All Tricks or All Treats?

Hello, Through the Word Family! I hope you are doing well, especially those already getting snow! Sorry, you guys seem to have skipped straight from Summer to Winter, missing the most incredible season of all - Fall!

Can a Christian Celebrate Halloween?

We’re just a week away from Halloween, the official start of the holiday season.  After Halloween, we only have 24 days until Thanksgiving and 55 days until Christmas!

But before we get into those holidays, let's talk about Halloween a little. I know that Halloween can be controversial with Christians.  After all, isn’t it just a celebration of evil and darkness? Well, Halloween’s origins might surprise you.  

Many Christians celebrate All Saint’s Day on November 1, also called All Hallows Day. It’s a day to thank God for his faithfulness to all believers that have died. It’s a celebration that our loved ones who have died in the faith are resting in the presence of God! 

The day before (October 31) was called All Hallow’s Eve, which was later shortened–to Halloween. Unfortunately, the day's original meaning has been lost, and many in the world have focused not on celebrating the faithfulness of God to the dead but instead on death itself.  So, how should a Christian view Halloween? Is it a day to celebrate or ignore completely?

I think we can find an answer to this in 1 Corinthians 8. The church in Corinth was a pretty messy place.  One of the issues dividing the church was eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols in the pagan temples.  Some Christians were perfectly fine eating this meat because they knew the pagan gods weren’t real.  They would get their meat, usually at a lower price, and thank God for their food.

Other Christians, however, saw this as an absolute sin.  Pauls says, “But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled” (1 Corinthians 8:7). Having come out of idolatry, every time they saw that meat it was a reminder of their old sinful lives. 

So how does this relate to Halloween? Well, if you feel the candy your neighbor is handing out is unclean because of the skeleton decorations hanging outside, then for you, it is! Don’t participate! Paul writes in Romans 14:23, “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

But if you feel it’s okay for your kids to dress up as Captain America or a bowl of ramen (one of the best costumes I ever saw), then go for it! And make sure you collect the candy tax from your kid's goodie bags.  And feel free to send me any of the Reese’s you get. 

But here is the vital thing to remember–your righteousness is not determined by whether you participate in Halloween or not.  We are saved by the work of Christ alone (Acts 4:12), not by observing or abstaining from holidays (Colossians 2:16). Christians that take their kids trick-or-treating are still Christians. And Christians that stay home and ignore the doorbell are also Christians.  So don’t look down at each other. We are going to spend a long time together in Heaven, where we will forever be celebrating God’s faithfulness to us all. 

We are going to be discussing this more on social media this week, so if you aren’t already, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

God Bless!

Pastor Jonathan

“My Year Through the Word”—One Woman’s Story

Hello Through the Word Family, even those cheering on the San Diego Padres. Well done against the Dodgers, but I'm still going to root for the Phillies (Although Kris is VERY happy about the Padres!)

I wanted to share a story with you from our TTW Family.  We love to hear from you all! Our feedback link is below; please reach out to us!

Flourishing in the Word

At the beginning of 2021, I was halfway through medical school and drowning in depression and suicidal ideations. Every day I woke up and I was struggling, hating my life. Nothing was wrong with me; my grades were up, I had friends, I had a place to lay my head and yet I was drowning. There was this hole in my heart and I didn’t know what (or who) went in there. 

And then I found Through the Word. I tell everyone I know that God was smiling on me the day I found this. 

For the next month, it was a lot of soul searching, a lot of tears, and a lot of struggling with God and in March of 2021, my heart was broken—I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.
To be honest, there wasn’t an immediate change in my thinking. I wouldn’t say everything in my heart fell into place at that moment, but there was a change I couldn’t describe. Over the next couple of months, as I combed through Scripture (with TTW as a guide), my heart changed. 

It’s been a bit over a year and a half now and I can say, nothing compares to the sweetness of knowing Jesus. Every day I wake up and I want to know more about God; I want to experience the God that I read on the pages of this Bible. 

I never thought I would say this again but I have joy. Turns out who I was looking for was the God of the Bible. 

I’m in Journey 8 right now, and I thank Pastor Kris, Pastor Jonathan, Pastor Peyton, Pastor Bill, Pastor Sandy, and Pastor Skip. You are in my prayers often and on this Pastor’s appreciation month, I thank you for answering the call that God put on your life. 

God saved my life, physically and spiritually and I am thankful for the part you played in that. 

I know that God didn’t promise me a smooth journey, but I know that as long as I hold on to God and my roots continue to grow in the foundation of Christ; and in the faith, no matter what comes my way, as long as I have Him, I have more than enough, more than I deserve.

Flourish

We'd love to know how journeying Through the Word has impacted your life this year. Please share your "My Year Through the Word" story at throughtheword.org/leave-feedback.

Blessings, 

Jonathan

Share An Audio Guide—With Anyone!

Welcome Through the Word Family! Pumpkins Spice Lattes are back, the weather is getting cooler, and leaves are falling from the trees…You know what that means–The MLB playoffs are here! Whether you are already disappointed or are still cheering on the next World Series Champions (Let’s go Dodgers!), it’s a great month for sports!

Share the Audio Guides – With Anyone!

Want to share an AMAZING Audio Guide you just listened to with a friend that absolutely needs to hear it, but they don’t have the TTW app? Well, we’ve got you covered!

Okay, back in July we announced the ability to share any of our audio guides with your friends. If you remember, I got a little excited about sharing it with you. (It was also nation blueberry day and national freezer pop day, so it could have also been the sugar rush from the blueberry freezer pops…) But I am excited to share our new and improved share feature!

On the playlist for your plan, swipe right on the Audio Guide you want to share, and the share icon will pop up. You can share the Audio Guide across all of your social media platforms! You can also share an entire Journey or Plan by tapping the three dots in the upper right corner of and Plan.

And what’s even better now–the link you share is a dynamic link! When your friend clicks on the link, it will take them right to the audio guide in the Through the Word App! 

Now back to the question earlier. What if they don’t have the Through the Word App? The link will open on their web browser with an audio player, a description of the app, and download links for the Apple Store and Google Play! 

Now you can share the TTW app with a simple text message! 

Text Genesis 1 to your sister asking about Creation and Evolution!

WhatsApp the Anxiety Plan to your friend halfway around the world!

Tweet the Book of Matthew to the entire world!

Sorry, still excited about this sharing feature (and no, I didn’t have any blueberry freezer pops today). I just get excited about all the possibilities with this. 

Text out daily audio guides to your youth groups.

Share the Faith Journey as an evangelistic tool.

Share an Audio Guide to your Life group discussing the chapter you are discussing that week.

Send a word of encouragement to anyone, anywhere.

God Bless You All,

Jonathan 

Pastor Appreciation Month!

 Hello TTW Family! Hope you are having a great week, even if you are a Broncos fan and are dealing with Raiders fans after the terrible loss on Sunday.

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and this Sunday, October 9th, is Pastor Appreciation Day! It’s a day to show your gratitude for all your pastor has done this last year.  And believe me, the last few years have been tough on pastors.  So make sure you take the time to show some love to your pastors!

Here are some ways you can encourage your pastor this week.

Send a card. Pastors hear a lot of bad news. Some of it comes with the job–calls from the emergency room or people needing counseling.  A handwritten note in a card can go a long way to encourage your pastor.

Send them on a date with their spouse. Pastors can be quite busy–often late into the night! Give them a gift card for a local restaurant and encourage them to take their spouse out for a night away from ministry.

Send them a funny meme. Try to find a meme or joke that illustrates a point from Sunday’s sermon.  It can give them a good laugh, and let them know you were listening!

Fund their library. Find out if there are any books they have been wanting, and order them from Amazon.

Help them give your church a Bible habit. Let them know about throughtheword.org/churches and youversion.church. Through the Word can help a congregation develop a deep Bible-reading habit. Using Through the Word plans on the new YouVersion for Churches platform can get your church on a reading plan together. Connect around the daily audio guides with in-app conversation by selecting the option to start a plan with friends.

Alright, Family. Your mission, should you choose to accept (and I hope you do!), is to encourage your pastor this week.  Believe me, it will go a long way! 

God Bless!

Jonathan

Prayer for Hurricanes Fiona and Ian

 Hello Through the Word Family,

Our prayers go out right now to all of our listeners, their families, friends, neighbors, and communities affected by both Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian. 

The last few weeks have been devastating for the Caribbean and the Eastern Coast of North America.  Two weeks ago, Hurricane Fiona hit the Caribbean islands of Guadalupe, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Turks and Caicos before heading out to sea and making landfall again in eastern Canada. 

Today, we are watching as Hurricane Ian, which has already knocked out power to all of Cuba, makes landfall in Florida. 

In addition to the ruin these natural disasters leave in their wake, it is tough to see this destruction as anything but, well, wrong. Why do these things happen to us? Why is this world so broken? 

Let’s be honest: there are no easy answers to these questions. But one thing we can be sure of: God has called us to help those in need. But how do we help those who are in need, especially if we are far from the affected areas?

The National Christian Foundation has assembled a list of organizations already on the ground in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and other islands in the Caribbean. The NCF is an organization that helps direct generous people to create a giving strategy based on biblical principles to give with more impact. For a list of charities you can assist with the recovery after Hurricane Fiona, visit National Christian Foundation. 

When Hurricane Ian clears, there will be additional organizations that will assist with relief. As we become aware of more avenues to help, we will provide you with links to where you can support to assist with hurricane relief. 

We at Through the Word have a heart for those dealing with the destruction that follows disasters like this. Pastors Kris and Jonathan visited the relief work in Mississippi in 2006, and Pastor Kris and his family moved to Diamondhead, Mississippi, in 2007 to assist a church plant there. 

If you live in any of the affected areas of Hurricanes Fiona or Ian, please let us know. You can find us on Instagram or Facebook @throughtheword. We want to know how we can pray for you!

With Deepest Prayers,

Jonathan

Big Update News!

 Hello Friends! 

We are excited to share that we have a big update to the app! 

One of the biggest additions–we now have playback speed controls! That’s right; you can now listen to us faster than ever! Wanna hear what Pastor Kris sounds like after drinking a Red Bull? Well, you won’t hear that, but you can adjust the playback speed from .75x up to 2.0x.

You can now also swipe right to add/remove audio guides as favorites.  So if you really love the Beatles references in Exodus 18, you can now save it so you can listen to it again! That same swipe also lets you mark a guide as completed, so feel free to swipe right!

Other new features include:

- Improved, smoother audio player

- Improved sign-in process, with Password Manager support

- Dismissing News & Updates will be remembered

- Improved experience changing translations on the Passage screen

- Fixed missing verses in some chapters (Ezra 1, Ezra 2, Joshua 12, Nehemiah 7)

- Overall stability improvements and bug fixes

If you haven’t already noticed these changes, be sure to update your app today! If you are experiencing any issues with the update, please reach out to us at help@throughtheword.org.

God Bless! 

Jonathan

Finding Meaning While Mourning

Hello to all of our Through the Word Family, especially to our Dallas Cowboys fans. Today’s post may be of particular interest to you today.

Finding Meaning During Mourning

When I was on staff at my church, I would regularly get phone calls from people who would explain the difficulties they were facing, and then ask the question, “Why is this happening? I thought as a Christian my life was going to get better!” 

The Bible never promises us an easy life on earth. It repeatedly warns us that we will face trials of various kinds. Death. Persecution. Pain. Rejection. And when we face these difficulties, they often lead us into mourning and grief.  

We are currently watching as our friends in the United Kingdom are in the middle of a national period of mourning. As England grieves the loss of Queen Elizabeth, it is a good reminder that we live in a world filled with pain and loss. Sin has destroyed the perfect world we live in, and we are still dealing with the consequences today. 

But the Bible offers hope in the midst of suffering and grief. One of the greatest truths to this is found in Matthew 5, where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Here are some more truths to help you find meaning when mourning:

• God heals the brokenhearted and will bind up our wounds (Psalm 147:3).
• God’s promises give us life, even when mourning (Psalm 119:50).
• God is with us, even when we are near death (Psalm 23:4).
• God will strengthen us in times of fear and dismay (Isaiah 41:10).
• The Spirit of God intercedes to the Father for us, even when we can't find the words to pray (Romans 8:26-28).
• One day, all pain and sorrow will be taken away, and we will be filled with joy (Revelation 21:4)
• We can know that God can use our pain and mourning to accomplish good (Romans 8:28).
• We can trust in Jesus, who has overcome the evil and wickedness of the world (John 16:33).
• We can comfort others when they are in pain, with the comfort we received from Christ and others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

As you journey through the Bible, Through the Word is here to help you understand it. With audio guides explaining each chapter of the Bible in less than 10 minutes a day, we want you to grow in your understanding of scripture, whether it is book by book, or topic by topic. Here are a number of Audio Guides (all available on the app) we recommend you listen to if you want to know more about finding meaning when mourning.

• 2 Samuel 1–David mourns for Saul and Jonathan
• Nehemiah 9–Where mourning sin leads to a revival
• Ecclesiastes 7–It is wise to go through Mourning
• Amos 8–A call for the full nation to mourn
• Mark 5–Trusting in Christ through difficult times
• John 11–The resurrection of Lazarus

God Bless,

Jonathan Ferguson

Everybody Wants to Rule - TTW Plans Through 1 & 2 Kings!

Welcome Through the Word Family, especially those still adjusting to new school schedules!

Wow.

People are seriously buzzing about two long-awaited (and very expensive!) fantasy prequels series out these last few weeks. Millions tuned in for House of the Dragon last week, and more are expected to tune in for Amazon’s The Rings of Power. At one point, over 30 percent of Americans considered themselves at least casual fans of the “Game of Thrones” series. A staggering 19.3 million people watched the series finale. And the Lord of the Rings franchise is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential film series ever made.

These mega-hit fictional worlds both share a significant theme: Everybody wants to rule. This is also the theme of our Journeys through 1 & 2 Kings. In these plans, Pastor Peyton walks people through each chapter in a clear and concise audio guide that takes less than 10-minutes a day.

When God offered King Solomon anything he desired, he doesn’t ask for riches or fame. Instead, he asks…for wisdom. We may not all be kings or queens, but we all have our own realm to rule, and Solomon’s reign provides a powerful lesson on how to (and how not to) rule rightly.

Check out our 1 & 2 Kings plans on the Through the Word app or on the Bible App from YouVersion. The plans start with “1 Kings Explained Part 1 | Everybody Wants to Rule.”

God Bless!

Pastor Jonathan

Marriage Talks...And Kris Is on the Move Again!

 Hello Through the Word Family! Pastor Jonathan here, and we are deep in the wedding season right now! This year, a record number of weddings are expected—2.5 million couples will tie the knot! That's a lot of toasts, cake cuttings, and a whole lot of "We are Family" from Sister Sledge. But with all those weddings, I bet none will have a Best Man's speech as long as one delivered 20 years ago this week—when Pastor Kris delivered a 40-minute speech—as my Best Man.

This week marks my wife and I's twentieth anniversary. We've officially reached that point where we have been married for more than half of our lives! And the secret to our longevity? Obviously the grace of God, but that grace often came through the wisdom of couples that have been married longer than us. Through pastors, friends, and great authors—we have learned how to love better, forgive faster, and even learned to share the remote.

Through the Word has four helpful journeys on marriage, where Pastor Kris has taken his Best Man's speech and created 23 amazing audio guides! (Okay, they didn't all come from the speech.) The audio guides cover topics such as "Unity," "Love and Respect," and "Making it Last."

You can find the Journeys on the “Bible Topics and Extras” page on the app, or on The Bible App from YouVersion.

Look for this icon on our “Bible Topics and Extras” page!

Kris is Heading to Africa!

This week, Pastor Kris is heading off to Kenya to visit his son Kaleb. Kaleb has been a part of the TTW Team for years—he was technically the first employee! He’s been in Kenya for a year, finishing a degree with Bethany Global University. Kris would really appreciate prayers for a great time of bonding with Kaleb, and for safe travels!

Of course, many of you know I lived in Kenya for 7 years, so I taught Kris some helpful Swahili phrases, such as, "Iko wapi choo?" ("Where is the bathroom?") and, "Nisaidie! Simba anatafuna mguu wangu!" (Help me! A lion is chewing on my leg!") Just kidding. But I did tell him to never, ever say, "Hakuna Matata." It really does mean, "There are no worries," but it is the best way to mark you as a tourist.

God Bless!

Pastor Jonathan

YouVersion for Churches!

Hey TTW Family! We are excited to announce that the Bible App from YouVersion is launching a brand new feature—YouVersion for Churches!

Join YouVersion for a free virtual event on August 16th to find out how you can use YouVersion to help your church build community and connect with each other outside of weekend services.

Churches will be able to create a profile on the Bible App and feature Plans from YouVersion's vast selection. Want to take your church on a journey with Through the Word? Share one of our plans easily with your entire congregation! Take your small groups through "Matthew Explained" or your youth through "Revelation Explained." Teaching a series on Marriage? Feature our "Bible Basics | Marriage" series!

For more information and to register for this free event, click here!

God Bless, and Hope to See You There!

Pastor Jonathan