The Unexpected Growth of a Legacy Broadcast

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Hey, it’s Mike Treem. We’re here with Steve Sweat. Steve is the chairman of the board and host of Through the Bible. And Steve, you recently received a letter from someone in Littleton. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:11

Yeah, Mike, thank you for that and the opportunity to share this. This comes from Elizabeth, and she says, I cannot tell you how happy I am as Dr. McGee explains every psalm in my absolute favorite book. I have been reading a psalm a day for years. Dr. McGee brings them to light even more precious than it was before. When I wake up, I cannot go back to sleep. I say the 23rd Psalm and the 103rd Psalms. I even cry as I read some of them. I listen to the program twice a day through the Bibles is number one teaching among all the programs on radio. May God keep you on until he returns. God bless your ministry greatly. And I just want to encourage if somebody is listening even now and you haven’t had an opportunity to listen to Dr. McGee, you join Elizabeth and just listen. Listen for five days and see if you catch the passion that she has, not only for the Word of God, but for Dr. McGee’s unique way that he presents it and teaches it. If you stay on the Bible bus for five years, you will have gone through the entire Word of God, all 66 books. And the reality is a lot of Christians have not done that. So I’d encourage you to give it a shot.

SPEAKER 01 : 1:16

That’s great, Steve. And we’ve got two times on KLTT during the week, 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. So it gives people mornings if that works for them. And if it doesn’t, kind of, you know, get dinner done, sit down, get on the Bible bus from 7 o’clock to 7.30 p.m., not to mention the weekend times, too. And that gives them a chance to hear Dr. McGee and then finish up their evening, do whatever. It’s just so easy.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:44

Yeah, and we really do appreciate you guys giving us the opportunity to be on at those really good times. But part of the reason that I think through the Bible has been the success that it has and that Dr. McGee went home to be with the Lord back in the late 80s, and yet the ministry is substantially larger. By some measures, we are five times larger than he was when he stepped into eternity back in the late 80s. And the reason I think that the Lord continues to bless the ministry is because of the focus that we have on our byline, getting the whole word to the whole world. And we’ve been doing that consistently for over 50 years. And just one of the things I want to highlight the ministries was our first ministry, which was going into Spanish. And that was really pivotal for us as a ministry because prior to that, Dr. McGee didn’t really see the application of through the Bible going into different languages. And it was because of TWR, Trans World Radio, the president and founder, Dr. Paul Freed, really just kind of bothered Dr. McGee into reluctantly going into Spanish, the one that I’m going to talk about now. And He just kind of said he was at a missions conference that Paul was speaking at, at Church of the Open Door, his church. And he said, okay, Paul, you got your 15 minutes or whatever it was. And he was just adamant about getting through the Bible in Spanish. And Dr. McGee said yes. And once Dr. McGee saw the fruit coming from that ministry so long ago, he was all in on getting it into as many languages as possible. And today we’re in over 250, 250 languages. Parcel languages in over 120 full languages, full translations of through the Bible. And its impact has continued to grow. And even in our first language, which is what I want to focus on, our Spanish translation, which is Otra Vez de la Biblia. and all the things that are happening in North America and even in the U.S. because they’re on Spanish stations here. But my focus, as we’re talking in the brief time we’ve got, is on everything that’s happening in South America, and it is exciting.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:49

Steve, tell us about what that means to people living there. Because for us, we have the word everywhere if we’re willing to look for it, you know, being invited into our lives, if you will. But it’s not that way out there. Just tell us what this has actually meant through all these years. Because you had to be one of the early adopters of Spanish language through the Bible.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:12

Yeah, with religious broadcasting on terrestrial radio, absolutely. And we’re still significantly playing a significant role in Spanish in those areas as well. But one of the areas that we’re particularly excited about is what’s going on in Nicaragua. And we’re starting to do this more and more, and that is we’re partnering with other ministries that already have ministry in a particular country and then working with them as to how we can bring the resources through the Bible, the content, if you will, to help them in their ministry. And we’ve done that with a partner named ShareWord Global. And you may not be familiar with the ministry ShareWord Global, but most of the listeners are probably familiar with the Gideons. And basically, the Gideons in Canada rebranded as ShareWord Global, broke away from the Gideons, and started a ministry. And one of the areas that they’re focused on is Nicaragua. And what they’ve been able to do is take one of their magazines, their children’s magazines, and with the blessing—this is incredible—with the blessing of the Nicaraguan government— they’ve been able to take this magazine and put it into the schools uh the public school system in nicaragua and part of that package that will be going is material from through the bible including a link and a qr code on the back page of this magazine that’s going to go into all these different schools with the opportunity for them to download the through the bible app in spanish and then get the bible teaching along with dr mcgee in spanish on their smartphone device. And it is something that’s still in the process of rolling out, but we are super excited about the opportunity that we have there and how that will also then feed into and help the terrestrial radio program that’s going out in that country as well.

SPEAKER 01 : 6:02

We’re speaking with Steve Swetz. He’s the chairman of the board, host of Through the Bible. And we’re talking about Through the Bible in South America and some of the things God’s doing through Through the Bible. Steve, how do you get a government to say yes? That here doesn’t really compute other than just a few isolated local areas. So what happened?

SPEAKER 02 : 6:23

Yeah, it’s interesting because our framework, our reference as Americans is this whole, which I think is a misnomer of the founding fathers, you know, separation of church and state. And so we feel like that should be, you know, to this big wall between the two and there should be no influence. And that was not the intent originally of that separation of church and state. It’s that the founding fathers didn’t want basically a Church of England replay that basically controlled the government. That’s what the separation was about. And so other countries don’t necessarily have that level of control. you know, animosity, if you will, towards anything related to the Bible and related to, you know, Jesus Christ. And so for whatever reason, and I don’t know the specific, you know, people that we met with, but that there was an opening within the Nicaraguan government to say, we need this in our schools. And a lot of times it starts not because they want to see all their public school children come to the Lord, although that’s what we would love to see happen, but they really see it as we need morals and we need conduct that’s going to help you know, give our people some guardrails of how they are to be good citizens. And Scripture provides that for us. You know, there’s so much. You think about the good teaching in Romans about, you know, being citizens and submitting to authorities and government. You know, governments are very open to that. So it’s given us a unique opportunity because they don’t view us as a threat. They view us as a resource for their people, which we are. But more importantly, we’re reaching them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:55

Steve, that’s amazing. So government seeing the practical part of it, you know, where they realize, hmm, these guys are helping us have a better society. I don’t know if I’m using the right words, but just a better cultural environment for the people who live here. Why would we not do this? And of course, our government is constantly saying, well, you can’t do this and have Christianity in there. That’s pretty wild. And you guys get to be a part of that through the Bible.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:27

Yeah, and just, you know, you see how Christianity, biblical Christianity, when it takes root in a society, the society gets better and improves. And, you know, even if the government is, you know, against that, they can’t deny the reality of it. And we’ve seen it in Uganda. We’ve seen it in – and I know we’re talking more about South America and North America. We’ve seen it in a region of Mexico where – There was tremendous persecution against evangelical Christians in a certain area, and they were sent away into this mountainous region and formed a community there, started a radio station. They were broadcasting through the Bible and then also the local language, and they were simultaneously translating it. Anyway, it has built this kind of Christian community in this isolated area, and it’s And it’s interesting. Crime rate in that area, because it’s a high concentration of evangelical Christians, is lower than in any region in that state. The land values are higher. The world there in terms of the roads and the infrastructure and all that – is working better as a whole than other parts of that state in Mexico. And that’s really a testimony to, yes, the saving faith of the gospel, but also just the good order and citizenship that drives out of coming to Christ. And the regard for neighbor and loving your neighbor as you love yourself and all of those teachings play out in a society. And the governments can’t help but deny that. I mean, it’s good for them from a from a business standpoint, if you will, in running a country.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:04

Steve, you’ve shared a lot of these amazing stories with us. Greg Harris has too, your president. Tell us about the World Prayer Team and kind of that part of it for our listeners. Because there’s listening to Through the Bible. There’s the financial support, which is so critical because that’s the funding that makes these things happen. But what about the prayer part of it too?

SPEAKER 02 : 10:29

Yeah, and I would even put that before you support the program, be praying for us. And Greg was the one that really thought of this, gosh, it’s 10 years ago, I think, that we started what we call the World Prayer Team. And what that is is a group of committed people that have said, hey, I’m going to pray for this ministry every day, Monday through Friday. And so every day, Every day, Monday through Friday, you’ll get a short email in your email inbox, and you can read a testimony. And what we say is we pray, we travel the world together on our knees. And so we pray about specific regions of the world. We’ll focus on South Asia. We’ll focus on Western Europe. We’ll focus on Africa and all the stuff that’s happening there. We’ll focus on South America. You get the point. And what it does is it allows everybody to read a quick testimony, hear about what the prayer prompt, prayer request is, and then just to pray for it. And I encourage people to join because I say it revolutionizes the way you go through your inbox. At least you’re looking for that World Prayer Team email, and you can quickly read it, be encouraged, and pray that the Lord would continue to work in that particular part of the world. And you can sign up. It’s super easy, and we’re not going to spam you. We’re not going to sell your name to anybody else. you know, try to get you on another list. You will simply get that prayer prompt every week, every day, Monday through Friday for the world prayer team. All you got to do is go to ttb.org forward slash pray. So through the Bible, ttb.org forward slash pray and sign up. And I just encourage you to do that. And it’s also an encouragement because, you know, hopefully you’re involved in a church if you’re listening, and hopefully your church has a missions outreach program. But you don’t hear that much. Even if you have a big missions program, you don’t hear about all the stuff that’s going on. There’s so much… with the limited scope of missionaries that you have. There’s so much going on around the world. God is moving in such significant ways through the Bible, and it’s such an encouragement to know that, you know, sometimes we lose our perspective being in our own little bubbles that we live, that there are significant things happening all around the world for the glory of God and for the saving of people’s lives through the gospel.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:41

Steve, I love that you mentioned our bubbles because we do. We get isolated. It’s getting to work. It’s getting through traffic. It’s getting the kids out the door. It’s all these different things you have to do. And we lose sight sometimes of, wow, what’s going on halfway across or clear across the world that I need to be praying for because God’s working there. God, you know, there’s the opportunity, but we just don’t take it.

SPEAKER 02 : 13:09

Yeah, and we get so many letters that people that write in through the Bible that are a part of the World Prayer Team, and they say, you know, you have really changed my prayer life. But there are two things that kind of themes that get weaved through these stories. One is, you know, their hearts change. for brothers and sisters in christ that we will not see until eternity they really connect with their stories and they can pray fervently for them in a unique way and just the opportunity that several people references the opportunity to be able to meet these people in glory and i think we are going to have Eternity is a long time. But just think about the number of people that you’re going to be able to have an interaction with. And you will hear the other side of the story. You will hear how your prayers impacted them and how the Lord used them for his glory and for their good. And that’s going to be a wonderful time.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:01

That’s really good. And just having that reminder, it’s ttb.org forward slash pray. So ttb.org forward slash pray. Hey, Steve, thanks for taking the time with us. I know it goes fast, but it’s so good to have these insights as to what Through the Bible is doing across the world.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:18

Yeah, thank you so much, Mike. We appreciate the time and the opportunity to be on KLTT as well.