Telling the Story by Writing Letters

Some years ago, a young pastor began exploring ways to extend his ministry beyond his small church and the small city he lived in.

From his extensive experience with door-to-door evangelism, he was aware that in every community, there are sizable numbers of elderly, handicapped, and others who, for one reason or another, are more or less isolated in their homes.

Trying to reach them by TV or radio was not financially possible. Other methods, such as literature evangelism, were looked at and discarded as being too impersonal.

But one idea kept coming back - the idea of writing personal letters. Not mass-produced form letters that had personalized names, but genuine, one-on-one letters.

That young minister was me, a little over forty years ago.

I started out with letters to the Editor of a number of newspapers, inviting men to write me.

A major newspaper, sensing a possible story, sent a reporter to interview me, and in November 1967, ran a feature article in their Sunday paper.

That brought letters from all over Wisconsin, including one from a lady in Green Bay who had previously exchanged several letters about friendship ministries.

That particular correspondence went further, leading to a uniting of our lives and ministries. Lois, (who moved to her new home in Heaven this past August), carried on the correspondence ministry with me for over forty years, averaging ten letters a day.

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