It all began when I ordered a book from a magazine add. After receiving the book, written by a pastor and his wife from Tennessee, they put me on a mailing list to receive their monthly newsletter.
One newsletter told of a new ministry they were beginning. In the pastor’s travels, he learned of a need where people from different countries had received a tract, filled in the confession of receiving Jesus as their Savior, and mailed it back to the Fellowship Tract League. The tract had promised follow-up, yet the response had become too great and many were left unanswered.
This Tennessee pastor decided to enlist volunteers who would like to help by sending Bible Correspondence Study Courses, a New Testament, and be willing to correspond with these people. Those interested in this mission were asked to fill out a questionnaire. If accepted, the volunteer could correspond with 5, 10 or 15 people. I filled out the questionnaire and chose only 5 people since I thought I could easily handle the time and cost that would be involved.
A couple of months later I learned I had been accepted, and received my five people from the country of Ghana, West Africa. I began mailing the first correspondence course to these five in June 1996.
The Bible Correspondence Study consisted of 5 courses. There was a booklet portion to be read, and a question booklet to be answered and returned to me for grading. The Tennessee church provided me with the first two courses, and I then took small teaching books for the last three courses and wrote my own question booklets. After completing all 5 courses, I would send a daily devotional. Each correspondent also received a New Testament if needed.
This ministry kept us busy for about 7 or 8 years. We ended up with more than 2,500 people enrolled in the courses. We sent over 1,000 Bibles to Ghana, with about two-thirds of them being New Testaments.
How did this happen? One of the first five correspondents, a young teenage boy named Solomon, began telling his friends about the courses, and his friends began telling their friends, and their friends began telling more friends, and you get the picture.
As the cost of the ministry grew, Shane and I could no longer fund it on our own. Friends and family began giving money and Bibles to send to Ghana. We then felt God leading us to become a non-profit ministry, so we would be completely accountable with the money passing through our hands. A friend who was an accountant helped us file all papers at no charge and another banker friend helped us pretend we were eloquent when filling out legal forms. On September 11, 1997, Willing Hearts Ministries became a corporation and then on April 14, 1998, the ministry was approved as a tax exempt, non-profit organization by the Internal Revenue Service.
Most of our correspondents didn’t have a Bible and they were excited to receive one. Many were teenagers, yet there were varying ages. We also received letters from pastors who had great needs in their churches. We were able to occasionally send Bibles to the pastors for their church members. One time we were able to wire some money to a pastor so he could purchase a keyboard for their church.
Finally in 2005 we dissolved Willing Hearts Ministries since the correspondence had gradually slowed to a halt. We took the remaining money and gave it to Reinhard Bonnke who ministers mightily to Africans.
We never personally visited Ghana though we were able to minister to many people through letters. We simply followed God one step at a time, and met a need that was presented to us.
This ministry grew much bigger than we ever imagined. What we thought to be our way of touching a few people turned out to be God’s way of touching many. I have always believed God has a great sense of humor, which was proven once again. I can only imagine what He was thinking when I asked for only five people.