A small congregation of approximately 30 baptized believers was left in Colombo in the hands of replacement missionaries when we moved to New Delhi, to start the church in the capital city of the densely populated country of India.

Almost four decades have flown by, and there have been many wonderful and exciting changes in the church/world situation during these years. Of course the population of the world has mushroomed, while the number of missionary families in foreign fields is less now than 40 years ago. But the spiritual picture has also changed, and in very encouraging ways!

How is that? Forty years ago the Lord’s church existed in few countries of the Indian Sub-continent and Asia. Today there are some Christians in almost every nation, and a healthy nucleus in many of those countries. What a wonderful thing to have local brothers and sisters to work with and through!

Vision for the Work

Looking at India’s huge population, it was apparent to us that in an entire lifetime spent on the mission field, we, as a family, could make very little dent in the spiritual needs of so many people. So we prayed and looked for more effective answers.

Answers to Prayers

In 1975 Sri Lanka was on the brink of bankruptcy. Part of the president’s solution for more foreign exchange was the opening of her powerful radio stations to foreigners for religious broadcasting, in exchange for dollars. “The Giant of Asia” was certainly a tremendous answer to prayers! Where, previously, new contacts had to be made through gospel meetings, limited newspaper advertising, and friend-to-friend, with the voice of radio it was now possible to speak to the masses of Indians who listened faithfully to Radio Sri Lanka for “reliable” news and for entertainment!

Can you imagine the excitement of the radio speakers when they went to their post boxes and found them literally stuffed with cards and letters? Multitudes of homes were now open to the Gospel, and the resulting demand for Bible Correspondence courses was overwhelming!

Radio + Literature + Personal Work = Evangelism

What a success story this combination is! With the passing of time we have developed radio lessons in four of India’s major languages, spoken by literally millions of people. We now have 13 weekly programs, using speakers who have been Christians for 30 or more years, men who are seasoned in the faith, with a very sound knowledge of God’s Word.

The programs cost $143.50 each — a small price for a voice that reaches the entire sub-continent, with more than a billion people! But its reach is even further: it can also be heard as far east as the Fiji Islands, as far west as Sweden, and we have regular listeners and Bible course students in the Persian Gulf, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), and other neighboring countries. What a powerful tool God has given His church to use!

Literature Is a Secondary Tool

We have printed literally hundreds of books, some 2000 to 5000 copies each, in India, including the manuscripts for the radio programs in the various languages, and many other books written by American and Indian brethren. These books have been offered to radio listeners, and to any others who request them — free of charge. Bible courses are also offered to listeners, and monthly magazines in ten local languages. All of these mass media tools, coupled with correspondence, Gospel meetings, and personal studies have done much to develop and strengthen a brotherhood throughout the country. All major cities and most minor cities now have one or more congregations of the Lord’s church.

But the job is far from finished. There are more than one billion people to be reached! The radio programs must continue! The literature work must continue! The new TV work must continue! We need to add others of India’s 20 major language groups to the radio and TV, as well as the literature work.

The monthly magazines are tremendous tools to bring the Gospel regularly to thousands of families in their own language. We must continue those and add to them.

Tremendous Outreach of the Work

But India is not the only country needing mass media tools to enable the local church to stabilize and evangelize. Seeing those needs, we help with the printing of study books in/for numerous other countries — Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, the philippines, etc.

These books are valuable beyond comprehension to American Christians. Accustomed as we are to freely ordering whatever we need from an array of Christian bookstores, most of us do not understand the plight of Christians and seekers in other countries where there are no bookstores to order from. In those places, even locating a place to buy a copy of the Bible may be extremey difficult. But there is absolutely no place to order study aids written by Christians, beyond the occasional Bible correspondence course. For twenty-five years we have printed what we could, where we could, when we could — depending on the availability of funds — and thsse materials have been supplied freely to those who had a desire to study and grow. Much more of this work needs to be done.

The Voice of Truth International

What a wonderful blessing this quarterly magazine is proving to be to multiplied thousands of Christians and truth-seekers all over the world!

As with reference and other study materials, American Christians are extremely blessed to have an abundance of excellent magazines and periodicals to read. In most of the rest of the world, the church is too small, too young in years and development of talents, or too poor to produce its own magazine. To help fill that void, we began printing The Voice of Truth International, a book-type magazine with several categories of sound and well-written articles by respected men in the church. The Voice of Truth International is sent all over the world, free of charge. Foreign editions of the English version are printed as funds are available.

Other-language editions — Spanish, Tamil, and Telugu — are also printed and made available at no cost to the recipients.

How are these editions paid for? We urge American Christians to use The Voice of Truth International here in the States, as an evangelistic tool, and also enabling us to use what would be “profit” to cover the printing and postage bills for these magazines for foreign consumption.

The Voice of Truth International can be kept in public waiting rooms and used as “take home” materials for those involved in home studies with contacts. Congregations that give $25 per month receive 35 copies of each issue, for use within the congregation or in the personal work program. Individual subscriptions are $12 per year.

For World Bible School Teachers

Coupled with local Christians for follow-up work, World Bible School teachers have done a tremendous job of sowing the seed and of helping to harvest it in many foreign fields. We realized the need for on-going materials for their students and began to print here in the US some of the study books we’ve printed overseas. At the present time we have more than 25 titles on a variety of subjects, by a variety of authors, and in several languages.

Regardless of the size or cost of printing these books, they are offered to WBS teachers, people involved in personal work programs, and for jail ministries at the often-subsidized price of 75 cents a copy. We have made this another way of serving the church and of being instruments in spreading the Gospel.

In all of these areas of work, it is possible for us to do only what brethren will enable us to do with their contributions to the work. Our lives have been spent in these areas of service, and we want to do more — not less — in these latter years. We ask you to look at our record, to see that we have used funds sparingly, and have invested them in lasting tools that will continue to serve after we are gone.

Please be a part of this work. Pray for us, support us, and help us bring hope and life to those who love the truth. J.C. and Betty Choate ✞