Thanksgiving, Sharing TTW, and Leviticus

Welcome back TTW Family (including those still trying to figure out why the Rams ran a fake field goal Monday night)!

Next week is Thanksgiving in the US, and we wanted to let you know that we are thankful for each and every one of you. We are so thankful to God that we get to be a part of your lives as we journey through the bible each day.  The TTW Family is growing every month, and we are excited to have you along for the ride.  We have a lot of great features and content coming your way in the next year, so stay tuned! 

Share Any Audio Guide

As we approach the New Year, ( less than 6 weeks of 2021 left!) we want to remind you that every Audio Guide in our App is now fully sharable with your friends! Now is a great time to share your favorite audio guides with your friends, family, coworkers, and anyone else you chat with. Let's reach out to as many people as we can, and encourage them to start a new journey with Through the Word in the coming year. 

On the playlist for your plan, swipe right on the Guide you want to share, and boom! the share icon will pop up. The Guides are fully sharable, so feel free to send them on any messaging platform you use. 

Text it to your sister! 

WhatsApp it to your friend!

Tweet it to the world!

Ok, I know I'm a little biased, but I get excited about the possibilities.  Share a message with your Life Group at church.  Encourage the kids in your youth group. Send a message to a friend who is taking their first steps in checking out the Bible.  

Even Leviticus is Great!

Here is another great testimony, left as a review on the App Store. JLAndrew writes:

These guys are AMAZING! My husband and I try to complete four readings every day, and we’ve gotten through the New Testament TWICE in a year and much of the Old Testament. 

We listen to the commentaries by Kris, Sandy, and the others after the Bible readings, and they’re always enjoyable, inspiring, and make you think about what it is to be a genuine Christian. They inspire us to spread the word to others more and more with each audio guide we hear. 

We use this app most to grow in our faith together as a married couple and with our children. They use humor at the appropriate times to engage their listeners - young and old alike. Sandy with his bad dad jokes and Kris with his 80’s movies quotes and music references are great! His interactions with his children are heartwarming. How Peyton can take the gross rules and regulations about skin conditions and bodily fluids in Leviticus and put an amusing yet very insightful spin on them is beyond me! It was tempting to skip over this book simply because of the topics, but we’re really glad we didn’t. 

We enjoy their personal stories of struggle, their road to finding their faith, and their constant perseverance in keeping the faith no matter what. We have grown sooooo much in our faith over the past few years because of this amazing group of people. We truly feel blessed to have come across this amazing app! Thank you!

God bless you all! May your Thanksgiving be a day of peace, love, and no politics. :)

Pastor Jonathan 

 

Congrats to YouVersion - 500 million downloads!

Hello TTW Family! (Including those who still aren't playing Christmas music. We still love you.)

Did you see the big news? The Bible App from YouVersion has now surpassed 500,000,000 installs! That is over half a billion devices with the bible installed! It's hard to picture that many people at once. Think about this: that is about the population of the entirety of North America! 

We want to congratulate everyone at YouVersion on this momentous milestone. Your hard work, sacrifice, and dedication have helped the Church in our goal of fulfilling the Great Commission. People from 1600 different languages now have free access to scripture in their languages. People are finding salvation. Discipleship is happening around the world. So thank you, and here's to 500 million more downloads!

Almost every day, we hear from listeners who tell us they found us after listening to one of our plans on the Bible App from YouVersion. Many found us by searching for plans on Revelation during the early days of the pandemic. We have seen over 2.5 million plans completed on the Bible App! 

We love being partnered with YouVersion. So would you join me in thanking them? If you found us through the Bible App, would you drop us a line at story@throughtheword.org? We would love to hear your story, and share it with the team at YouVersion!

God Bless You All!

Jonathan Ferguson

A Prayer Request for TTW

Hello TTW family! I hope you are doing well this final week of October, and have stashed enough Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to last you until Christmas. 

This week, the team from Through the Word will be gathering in the San Bernandino Mountains in California for a few days--planning the future of Through the Word. Our goals include planning future audio guides, features, and a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff as well. Last year's planning meeting resulted in amazing growth for the team and saw the beginning of our podcast and Through the Word Together, coming soon. 

So would you join us in prayer for the coming week? 

Vanity and Glory

Hannah from Australia writes:

Three years ago, just after I was married, I became sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I used to find joy and meaning in doing things for God and others, including serving at church and in small Bible study groups. But my illness had taken all that from me - both church and Bible study became too hard for me to attend. 

One of my friends mentioned her church was listening to Through The Word, so I gave it a go. I found, in God’s kindness, that listening to the Bible was much easier for my energy than reading it. I could also listen to the app in bed, when I found it too hard to get up. It also gave structure and meaning to my day - when I couldn’t work, or do much at all, I could always listen to the Bible and pray. And over time, God changed my heart - spending time in His Word became the highlight of my day, and an absolute joy to do. 

I am so thankful that, in the past year especially, God has answered my prayers for healing.  I am now back at work part-time, and was able to join a Bible study group again last year. My life’s schedule is slowly filling up again, but spending meaningful, personal time with God (including reflection and application), remains my priority. I still listen to Through The Word, and it continues to be a highlight of my day. I just finished Kris’ series on Ecclesiastes, which was especially helpful for me - I used to find it a confusing and confronting book, but Kris’ teaching, and my newfound maturity, made it speak to me in new ways: I used to count many earthly things as “gain”, like my success in the workplace, academic achievements, and so on. But, through my illness, God has humbled me and reminded me of what is vanity, versus what is glorious - what has substance; what lasts. I try to no longer place my value on what I do, but rather on what Jesus has done for me. This will be a lifelong struggle, but God’s word encourages me to keep running the race, and to “finish well”!

God Bless You!

Jonathan Ferguson

TTW Stickers Are on the Way!

Hello TTW Family! We are finally in the season where everyone is decorating for TTW! That's what all the orange pumpkins are for, right? I mean, they're the same color. I just haven't figured out why pumpkins...

Anyway, fun update today - TTW stickers are in the mail! If you submitted your address after listening to, subscribing, and reviewing our Teach Through the Word podcast, your stickers are in the mail! Well, unless you already received it, in that case, I hope your sticker is on your car or water bottle or somewhere else cool! We sent out over 900 stickers last week - with the help of a few of my favorite kids for stuffing and licking envelopes!

If you don't receive your sticker soon, please be patient. The USPS just announced mail will be taking a bit longer over the next few months.

Let us know where you put your sticker! Send us a picture of your car, school notebook, or wherever you are sharing TTW with others!

Another Great Testimony

JD Hornbacher from City Life Church in Leduc, Alberta, writes: 

Yesterday I hit 500 days in a row for reading my Bible. And that whole streak has been done by using Through The Word.

My name is JD and I’m on the pastoral team at our church in Leduc, Alberta. When Covid shut down our church and small groups, I made the decision to start a daily Bible study for men using the YouVersion app. I found TTW in the “plans” section and asked a bunch of guys to commit to daily devotions for a period of time. That period of time has never ended. Once we crushed every TTW plan available on YouVersion, we switched to the app to listen/read and started a WhatsApp chat where we share our thoughts every day. It’s become so much more than personal insights. Over the last 500 days we have prayed for and seen miracles, had huge lightbulb moments regarding faith and doctrine, and so much more. 

Thank you, team, for all you do. One of the guys in my devotional group said “I have never read my Bible this faithfully in my whole life”. I actually have no plans to stop this group. 500 days strong, and we show no signs of slowing down. My ultimate goal would be to polish off every book of the Bible using TTW. I have grown in wisdom of the Bible and and faith in tough seasons, and you guys have played a formative part in that. 

You’ve also helped reshape my preaching and passion for the Word. This past week I preached on Psalm 103 (using some of Ps Sandy’s insights from the app) and apparently it was one of the strongest messages I’ve preached. I was inspired listening to your “Bible Teacher’s Podcast” to really let the Word of God do the preaching more than my own thoughts/insights. Wow it made a difference.

Thank you Pastors Kris, Peyton, Jonathan, and everyone else who has contributed to this ministry. TTW has been an anchor in this stormy season. Praise God for what you do and the way it is helping others. 

God Bless You All!

Jonathan Ferguson

A Big Thank You to One of Our Partners - YouVersion!

Hello TTW Family! Hope you are enjoying the season now that no one can give you grief for drinking a pumpkin spice latte - as it is officially autumn!

For years, Through the Word has partnered with the team at YouVersion, providing audio guide reading plans for the Bible App. Many of you have found us through YouVersion, and we love being a part of what God is doing through YouVersion. We have 50 plans on the YouVersion App, and our Start plan has now been translated into 23 languages - including Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Mongolian, and even Ukrainian! We want to thank YouVersion - they have helped us reach millions more than we could alone. TTW listeners have already completed 2.5 million reading plans on YouVersion!

Our team was recently in Oklahoma to visit with YouVersion, to discuss a new aspect of the partnership. While we can't share yet what is going to be happening, we can share that we are super excited for a new feature coming out in just a few months! Stay tuned - we'll keep you posted as soon as we can!

From L-R: Kris Langham and Ryan McCarter, TTW; Jeff Moore, Director of Global Impact, YouVersion; Brian Russell, Executive Director, YouVersion 

Another TTW Family Testimony

Jill from Cincinnati writes: 

My story may not be different from many. I've been in church my entire existence. From womb till now, 36 years. I've taught bible school classes for about 15 years, lead small groups, and rarely miss a Sunday. As I started into my 30s, I realized I've never been without God, but I've never really had Him either. So I started searching. I started to use the Bible app on my phone. I would occasionally run into one or two devotions that made me think, but when it got to the part about reading scripture on my own I read the passages out of obligation, never because I wanted to.  I didn't understand it but felt it was a duty.  

Fast forward a few years while still going through the motions of using my Bible App and using an ESV bible (because that's what a book I read on reading the bible told me to do), I stumbled upon a Bible Basics plan.  That seemed like a good place to start.  I listened to the sample and was like,  YES! This is what I'm looking for.  I downloaded it and finished the plan pretty quickly and then went looking for another one just like it. Then it dawned on me to look for the actual app - Through The Word. From there my love for reading the bible has grown tenfold.  I share pretty regularly with family members in our group text, and I've pointed several people to it on Facebook. I've finished many plans and am on my second Journey.  

This app has grown my faith, my ability to share, and has helped me point my kids in the right direction when they too have questions.  I finally enjoy reading the bible and I'm no longer going through the motions but living/ breathing The Word. 

God Bless You All! (And go enjoy a fall beverage!)

Jonathan Ferguson

Bible Teacher's Podcast - Season One Complete!

That's a wrap!

Well, we made it to the end of The Bible Teacher’s Podcast – Season One! Eight weeks, 40 episodes! If you missed it, all forty episodes in season one are there and waiting for you on Apple Podcast, or just search for Bible Teachers Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Whether you’re a pastor, small group leader, youth leader, or just a curious listener, join us as we equip you to do what you do better - and together with you - elevate the craft of Bible teaching. And you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how we make our audio guides Through the Word.

 

Thank you to all who listened in – we got some fantastic feedback and reviews from you all! We are sitting at a 5.0 rating on Apple Podcast!

 

For all of you who reviewed the podcast and ordered stickers, please be patient, just a bit longer. The vinyl is on backorder, but we should have the stickers by the end of the month.  

Testimony

We wanted to share some of the amazing testimonies we have received here at TTW. We absolutely love hearing from our listeners - your stories remind us why we do what we do! If you have a TTW testimony you'd like to share, drop us a note at story@throughtheword.org. So here's a testimony from Ana!

I'm Ana. I'm a Brazilian, 18-year-old girl. I first heard of TTW when I started studying the Bible.  

After reading it, I wanted to understand more. So I started searching for studies on some "less popular" books on the YouVersion app, & I found an audio guide of yours. 

I loved it from the beginning! 

Today, through the app, I'm studying the whole Bible. My faith has been made stronger by these studies. How many times, I've been "mind-blown" by how much God is teaching me in 10-min guides. Wow. 

As a Brazilian, these guides also help me with English. I'm glad to say that I'm starting to learn a church and Biblical vocabulary. 

The pictures attached are of my Bible. I write a few words about every guide I hear, to have a sum of what I've learned and want to remember. 

Thanks, TTW team. The Holy Spirit often guides me by reminding me of what I've listened to in your guides. 

Ana's Bible - with notes from TTW

Relief Work Links

Afghan Refugee Relief

If you are in the Los Angeles/Orange/Riverside area, we recommend getting in touch with Voice of Refugees, who have been working in Little Arabia in Anaheim, CA, for many years.  

World Relief has offices in 11 states, and its website has volunteer and advocacy opportunities.

Church World Service has provided relief assistance for 75 years; with volunteer locations in 17 states, there are many opportunities to serve. 

If none of these services are in your area, visit the Refugee Council USA website for a map of other agencies across the country.

Hurricane Ida Relief

Salvation Army - The Salvation Army has refrigerated trucks and has set up mobile kitchens, feeding 15,000 people a day. They are also providing mobile units for showers and laundry. 

World Vision - based in Texas, World Vision is sending trucks of supplies into Louisiana and other hard-hit areas to assist with food and relief work. 

Be sure to check with your local church or denomination to see what they are doing as well.  Many larger denominations will be able to send resources to local churches in the affected areas, allowing the local churches to reach out to their neighborhoods, sharing the love of Jesus with a hot meal and a gospel message. 

Kris is a Grandad?? Links for Relief Support - Ida and Afghan Refugees

Hello Friends!

Jonathan here, with some important updates for our Through the Word Family!

Baby Ezra Is Here!

Noah and Daisy have welcomed home their first child - Ezra! Noah has been a part of the team for years, helping with audio editing and a hundred other jobs along the way - and Daisy has helped us introduce many of the books on the app. But this isn't just a first for them - it's also Kris and Andrea's first grandchild! Here's an update from Kris: 

Call me Grandad - because that is what I am! Our first grandchild was born last week. Ezra Matthew Short was born 7 lbs 11 oz, he is healthy and as cute as can be. Andrea and I are so excited. Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed for our family. Our daughter Daisy had a long labor and a real scare afterward - but the doctors have done their work and we thank God for a healthy family. 

Join us in welcoming the newest addition to our TTW family!

Hurricane Ida Relief 

The TTW Team would like to extend our hearts and prayers to all our TTW Family hit by Hurricane Ida - from the Caribbean to the Gulf and through to New York and New Jersey. Relief work is near and dear to the team - as the Langhams moved to Mississippi to help after Katrina. The church made a difference in the lives of many back then, and we can do it again today. 

Ways to Support the Relief Work

Salvation Army - The Salvation Army has refrigerated trucks and has set up mobile kitchens, feeding 15,000 people a day. They are also providing mobile units for showers and laundry. 

World Vision - based in Texas, World Vision is sending trucks of supplies into Louisiana and other hard-hit areas to assist with food and relief work. 

Be sure to check with your local church or denomination to see what they are doing as well.  Many larger denominations will be able to send resources to local churches in the affected areas, allowing the local churches to reach out to their neighborhoods, sharing the love of Jesus with a hot meal and a gospel message. 

Afghan Refugee Relief

In our last newsfeed, we shared links to organizations helping settle Afghan refugees across America.  Check out our previous post for more details on how to help. 

That's it for today!

God Bless You All!

Jonathan