Christmas Audio, T-Shirts, & Gratitude

Merry Christmas TTW family!

Pastor Kris here with some a few updates and lots of gratitude as we move into Christmas. We just sent out lots of our new TTW T-shirts, and we're still taking orders through New Years day. Details on that below. As for our donation match campaign, we met our goals early! More on that below too, along with information on our annual Christmas audio drama called The Shepherd of Bethlehem, and our annual TTW Ministry Update for 2020. It's all here, so keep reading!

The Shepherd of Bethlehem (Audio Drama)

Just in time for Christmas, we have a very powerful audio drama that's perfect for the season. The Shepherd of Bethlehem is a a dramatic retelling of the Christmas story from an eyewitness perspective. The story is told by a shepherd named Josiah, who happened to be watching his sheep on the hills outside Bethlehem on that fateful night when a host of angels appeared with some very big news. This one man audio drama in two acts was written and performed by Bill Welsh (TTW Acts audio guides), and it's one of my favorite holiday traditions.

Audio drama in two acts

You can find the Shepherd of Bethlehem plan on the TTW Browse page in the New and Updated section. It's a two day plan, and the audio is about 30 minutes each day. Perfect for listening with family, for your drive time to grandma's house, or wherever this busy season gives you a little time to stop and listen. And in other holiday news...

T-Shirts Mailed - Get Yours Before they're Gone!

TTW T-shirts are free for every donor this year! We just mailed the first big batch of t-shirts (over 1400!). If you ordered by the December 11 deadline, you should have them in time for Christmas (shipping outside the US is slow - so expect delays). The deadline for orders is New Years day, and the next batch will be mailed after the last order is in Jan 1. We  only do this once a year, so get your order in now...

Step 1: Donate at throughtheword.org/giving (if you donated already, step 1 is done!)

Step 2: Order your shirt at ttw.churchcenter.com/people/forms/194605

Ministry Update: Thank you!

Donation Match is complete!

We reached our goal early! Lots of gratitude to everyone who donated this month and to our donation-match sponsors, as $172k in general giving came in since we started in Thanksgiving. Every one of those dollars is now being matched by a few of our generous donors! And what's more, for every dollar donated in 2020, TTW has seen 400 minutes of Bible engagement. That means every $25 donation brought us 10,000 minutes of Bible engagement! Thanks so much for a successful campaign and for all your generosity, and we are now provided with the funds that we need to step into some very big opportunities that have opened up for 2021. More on that soon! 

GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating site GuideStar.org awarded TTW their highest honor for the third year in a row.

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Kris Langham on behalf of the whole TTW Team

*T-shirts have no resale value and are given freely as a thank you gift for your support of TTW this year.

**Prior donors who can no longer give due to 2020 financial hardship can still get a T-shirt. Thanks for giving, we’re praying for you! 

***Note for donors outside the USA: Due to dramatic increases in shipping costs in 2020, it now costs TTW an extra $15 to $25 to mail shirts outside the US. Please consider this cost when donating – thanks!

The Shepherd of Bethlehem

 

Merry Christmas TTW!

Can you believe it's almost here! Well just in time for Christmas, we have a very powerful audio drama that's perfect for the season. The Shepherd of Bethlehem is a a dramatic retelling of the Christmas story from an eyewitness perspective. The story is told by a shepherd named Josiah, who happened to be watching his sheep on the hills outside Bethlehem on that fateful night when a host of angels appeared with some very big news. This one man audio drama in two acts was written and performed by Bill Welsh (TTW Acts audio guides), and it's one of my favorite holiday traditions.

Audio drama in two acts

You can find the Shepherd of Bethlehem plan on the TTW Browse page in the New and Updated section. It's a two day plan, and the audio is about 30 minutes each day. Perfect for listening with family, for your drive time to grandma's house, or wherever this busy season gives you a little time to stop and listen. And in other holiday news...

Get Your T-Shirts Before They're Gone!

Our t-shirt orders have been straight fire!

Of course this is the only time to get them all year.

Every donor this year will receive a free t-shirt as a thank you from TTW!

PLUS every donation will be matched thanks to a generous donor who wants to see more TTW content!

You have up until the New Year to put your orders in, BUT in order to get one you’ll need to place your order before the end of the year:

• Step 1: Donate at throughtheword.org/giving
• Step 2: Order your shirt at ttw.churchcenter.com/people/forms/194605

Be sure to hurry! Our t-shirts have been going quick! We’ve already had to make more!

Ministry Update: Thank you!

Donation Match is still on!

How would you like to double your donation? Our donation match allows your gift to go twice as far! Every donation made between now and January 1st will be matched, dollar for dollar, until we reach a total of $170k in donations. 

All you have to do is donate, and it gets matched!

GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating site GuideStar.org awarded TTW their highest honor for the third year in a row.

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Peyton Jones on behalf of Kris Langham and the TTW Team.

*T-shirts have no resale value and are given freely as a thank you gift for your support of TTW this year.

**Prior donors who can no longer give due to 2020 financial hardship can still get a T-shirt. Thanks for giving, we’re praying for you! 

***Note for donors outside the USA: Due to dramatic increases in shipping costs in 2020, it now costs TTW an extra $15 to $25 to mail shirts outside the US. Please consider this cost when donating – thanks!

TTW T-shirts by Christmas

Hello TTW Family – Pastor Peyton here with a quick about our TTW T-shirt giveaway and Donation Match event!

I’ve been blessed to come onto the team full-time this year and wanted to update you on some exciting opportunities for all TTW listeners!

We’ve been cranking out content faster than ever thanks to you and your generous support of TTW.

Ministry Update: Thank you!

Your giving response as TTW listeners was amazing this year! We were very humbled that your outpouring of love and appreciation was so tangible! This allows us to continue to create more of the same content you’ve come to expect from us!

Kris is working on a brand new series called The Marriage Talks!

I (Peyton) am working on Song of Solomon!

TTW T-shirts: Order by Friday – get it by Christmas! 

Every donor from Thanksgiving to New Year gets a free TTW T-shirt!

BUT… in order to get one before Christmas, you’ll need to place your order for it by this Friday, December 11th.

• Step 1: Donate at throughtheword.org/giving

• Step 2: Order your shirt at https://ttw.churchcenter.com/people/forms/194605

Be sure to hurry! Our t-shirts have been straight fire, and have been going quick!

Donation Match is still on!

How would you like to double your donation? Our donation match allows your gift to go twice as far! Every donation made between now and January 1st will be matched, dollar for dollar, until we reach a total of $170k in donations. 

All you have to do is donate, and it gets matched!

GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating site GuideStar.org awarded TTW their highest honor for the third year in a row.

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Peyton Jones on behalf of Kris Langham and the TTW Team.

*T-shirts have no resale value and are given freely as a thank you gift for your support of TTW this year.

**Prior donors who can no longer give due to 2020 financial hardship can still get a T-shirt. Thanks for giving, we’re praying for you! 

***Note for donors outside the USA: Due to dramatic increases in shipping costs in 2020, it now costs TTW an extra $15 to $25 to mail shirts outside the US. Please consider this cost when donating – thanks!

TTW T-shirts, Ministry Update, & Donation Match!

Hello TTW Family - Pastor Kris here with a whole bunch of good news! First, it's our annual TTW Ministry Update, and wow do we have some great stories to share. Then find out about our TTW T-shirt giveaway and Donation Match event. Check it out!

Ministry Update: The best of 2020 stats & stories

The stories this year are amazing. In the midst of all the chaos of 2020, God is at work! There's a lot going on, so I recorded the video below to tell you about it...

Get your TTW T-shirt! 

Every donor from Thanksgiving to New Years gets a free TTW T-shirt!

• Step 1: Donate at throughtheword.org/giving
• Step 2: Order your shirt at https://ttw.churchcenter.com/people/forms/194605

Donation Match!

Giving season is upon us, and several generous donors have come together to encourage generosity from all our donors by offering this amazing opportunity. Every donation made between Thanksgiving and New Years will be matched, dollar for dollar, until we reach a total of $150k in donations. All you have to do is donate, and it gets matched!

GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating site GuideStar.org awarded TTW their highest honor for the third year in a row! 

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Pastor Kris

*T-shirts have no resale value and are given freely as a thank you gift for your support of TTW this year.

**Prior donors who can no longer give due to 2020 financial hardship can still get a T-shirt. Thanks for giving, we're praying for you! 

***Note for donors outside the USA: Due to dramatic increases in shipping costs in 2020, it now costs TTW an extra $15 to $25 to mail shirts outside the US. Please consider this cost when donating - thanks!

New Plans in Judges, Kings, & Chronicles!

Hey Through the Word family! Hope you and your loved ones are doing well and staying strong in the Lord through all the challenges and trials that 2020 throws at us. Pastor Kris here with your latest news and updates on all things TTW, and I'm so excited about this one...

New Plans in Judges, 1 Kings & 1 Chronicles!

We have several new reading plans, and a whole bunch of new audio guides! Peyton Jones has been recording new content through several Old Testament books of history over the last year, and we finally have them live for you. The new plans include Joshua, Judges, 1st Kings, and 1st Chronicles. You can find them on the Browse Page under Old Testament, where you should now see two plans for each of those books. Hope you enjoy the new guides!

Why are there two plans for the same book? Great question! TTW has reading plans and audio guides for every book in the Bible. However, not every book has original TTW guides - at least not yet. For the Bible books that don't have original guides, we have borrowed teaching from sermons by outstanding teachers like Sandy Adams and Skip Heitzig. Those guides are great, but our ultimate goal is to produce original TTW guides for every Bible book. The Bible has 66 books and 1189 chapters, so recording original audio guides is a work in progress! But thanks to hard work by our teachers and our audio team, with great support from donors in our sponsor-a-chapter campaign, we're making great progress! So with the new reading plans in Joshua, Judges, etc. we are adding the plans but leaving the borrowed plans in place so that you have two options to choose from. In the future, we will organize the interface so that it will be easier to see which is TTW original and which are from sermons, but for now, just choose your favorite teacher, or try listening to both!

More Plans on the Way! We are getting some great studio time lately, as Jonathan Ferguson and I have been finishing out Exodus, and Peyton Jones is recording 2nd Chronicles. We also have more topical plans on the way in our Bible Basics Explained series, with plans on Prayer, Forgiveness, Marriage, and more to come. Thanks again to our chapter sponsors for covering the production cost so we can keep these moving forward. If you would like to sponsor a chapter or guide, the cost is $150, go to https://throughtheword.org/giving/ and select the Sponsor-a-Chapter option. Thanks so much!

And in other news...

TTW earned the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating sight GuideStar.com awarded TTW their highest honor for the forth year in a row! You can check out our page here: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/45-2540720 (note: you may need to sign up for a free account to view the full page). 

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Pastor Kris

#VerseoftheDay Road Trip - Join us!

Hello TTW Family! 

Pastor Kris here with all the latest at TTW, and an invitation to join us on the road! (On the road on social media that is). It's our #VerseoftheDay Road Trip, and we're posting new videos every day on social media. Check it out!

Or follow these links to find more on our social media...

TTW Instagram or TTW Facebook

It all started with a little idea: 

• Read the verse of the day at extraordinary locations...
• Record it for social media...
• Hashtag it for everyone to share with #verseoftheday

The heart of the idea is simple: speak God's Word all over God's world. And we hope it catches on! Just imagine - people all over the world reading the same verse on the same day, and capturing it to share on social media. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. First we had to get some videos ready to start things off. We wanted to capture some great locations, so we decided it was time for... a road trip!

So last month I hit the road with my family in an RV for two weeks, driving the phenomenal Pacific coastline from Southern California all the way to the northern border of Washington. We visited a bunch of amazing national parks and landmarks along the way - from Redwoods to the Oregon Coast to Olympic - and at every beautiful location we stopped to read a Verse of the Day and capture it all on video to share with you. The trip was amazing, and now we're posting the sights for all of you to enjoy. So go check it out! Use the links above to find us on Instagram or Facebook, then click follow to get our latest video each day. They're all short - about 20 to 30 seconds each. So they're perfect for sharing and reposting. Hope you enjoy them - and hope you enjoy our road trip!

And in other news...

Thanks for the App Store Reviews!

Our request or app store reviews was a huge success. The TTW app is now rated 4.9 stars in both iOS and Google, with about 1500 reviews each - and so many amazing stories. I was so blessed to read so many of your stories (yes, I really did read through hundreds of them) and hear about what God is doing through our humble ministry. You can read them for yourself - or post your story - here:

TTW in Apple's App Store - TTW in Google Play Store

*Note: If you have issues with the app, please email us rather than post a bad review. Most issues can be solved easily in one or two email, and email makes it much easier for us to respond: help@throughtheword.org.

And in other news...

Journals Are All Sent!

If you ordered one of TTW Journals in July or August, we put them all in the mail! If you haven't received yours yet, email us at help@throughtheword.org to let us know!

TTW earned the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating sight GuideStar.com awarded TTW their highest honor for the forth year in a row! You can check out our page here: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/45-2540720 (note: you may need to sign up for a free account to view the full page). 

Sunday Services Live

For any of you looking for a Sunday service to join online, you're invited to join me at facebook.com/refugelb/live - Sunday mornings at 11am PST / 2pm EST / 6pm GMT. See you there!

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Pastor Kris

We Need Your App Store Review!

Hello TTW Family - 

Pastor Kris here with the latest news and updates for TTW. Hope you're all hanging in there through all the crazy that 2020 is throwing at you. We're praying for you! Now here's what's going on... 

App Store Reviews! (a great way to help TTW!)

If you're looking for a great way to help our mission here at TTW and tell the world about that app, this is your chance. We need your review! Posting a review to the app store takes just a minute, and it makes a big difference in moving TTW up on search results and helping users know what they're getting. Plus, we love reading your TTW stories! And its easy...

1. Choose your store: Apple App Store or Google Play Store

2. Select "Write a Review"

3. Tell your TTW story!

*Note: If you have issues with the app, please email us rather than post a bad review. Most issues can be solved easily in one or two email, and email makes it much easier for us to respond: help@throughtheword.org.

Coming to Social Media Sept 1: #verseoftheday

We're launching an all new series on social media called #verseoftheday. We'll post more details when we launch, but for now, you can connect with us on any of our social media pages. Just look for @throughtheword - and friend us! Then watch for daily #votd posts beginning on September 1!

And in other news...

Journals Are on the Way

If you ordered one of TTW Journals in July or August, we are sending the rest of those out in the next two weeks. Thanks to all who responded - we got a huge response! We ran out of the first batch, so thanks for your patience. The final batch is arriving this week, and we will be mailing them out over the next few days. 

TTW earned the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency

The charity rating sight GuideStar.com awarded TTW their highest honor for the forth year in a row! You can check out our page here: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/45-2540720 (note: you may need to sign up for a free account to view the full page). 

New Plans on Faith, Peace & Anxiety!

We just launched the first four plans in a brand new series of topical plans called Bible Basics Explained. We're kicking it off with plans on Anxiety (parts 1 & 2), Faith, and Peace. We also have new plans in Joshua, 1st Peter, and more on the way in Judges and 1&2 Kings. You can find the new plans on the Browse page under "New and Updated" or "Bible Topics" (see the screen shot below). 

And there are more BBE plans in the works - like Forgiveness, the Ten Commandments, Science & the Bible , and more. 

Sunday Services Live

For any of you looking for a Sunday service to join online, you're invited to join me at facebook.com/refugelb/live - Sunday mornings at 11am PST / 2pm EST / 6pm GMT. See you there!

Questions? Email help@throughtheword.org

In Christ,
Pastor Kris