One Year Anniversary
We here at Lifeline Gospel Tracts are happy to celebrate our one year anniversary. On October 14, 2017, lifelinegospeltracts.com went live on the world wide web. It was the result of nearly a year of planning and work on the part of myself, my wife Marilyn, and Michael Simpson.
I met Michael Simpson through email many years before that. Michael runs a tract ministry to the UK and Europe from his home in Birmingham, England. He had many tracts that he had written and designed himself. He had become aware of my work through my Joyful ‘toons cartoons, and he asked me if I would consider contributing to his work by redesigning one of his tracts titled Enough is Enough, which used the example of Noah and the ark to make people aware that another judgment day is coming. I accepted the offer, and over the years I have been privileged to work on many of Michael’s tracts.
From Michael Simpson’s tract “Enough is Enough”
In November 2016, Michael approached me about starting and running a branch of his tract ministry here in America. He had received some interest from Americans regarding his tracts, but the cost to ship from the UK made it impractical. What was needed was for the tracts to be printed, stored, and shipped from inside the US. My initial reaction to Michael’s offer was “Thanks, but no thanks”. I didn’t think I wanted to get involved in running a business. But, almost immediately, I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit, telling me not to make a hasty decision. So, I thought it over, prayed about it, and consulted my wife. I soon found myself embracing the idea wholeheartedly.
Once we agreed to do it, we had a lot of work ahead of us. My wife and I knew nothing about how to set up a business. We had to do some research to make sure we did it according to the law. Then, we had to find out all about running a web based business. We had a lot of help in doing that from the folks at The GraceNet, and they designed our website for us. Next, we had to select 32 tracts for the initial American offering. The tracts had to be redesigned slightly, since we were going from a European Metric paper size to an American paper size. It was also necessary to do some rewriting of the tracts for American readers. Some changes from British spelling to American spelling were needed: Savior instead of Saviour, for example. There were a few British slang words that had to replaced, and some specific references had to be changed: Dollars replaced Pounds for example. Once the tracts had all been Americanized, they were ready to be printed. Fortunately, I work at a printing company, so I was able to oversee that whole process.
With our stock and our website ready, we opened for business, but there was still more work to be done. We have revised our pricing and shipping rates several times since the website went live. Our goal is to make these evangelistic tools easily available to the church in America, for as little cost as possible. We want to get these tracts into the hands of God’s people, so that they can then get them into the hands, homes, cars, businesses, etc. of the people who need to read them.
Although there are already many evangelistic tract ministries operating here in the US, we are convinced there is room for another. We think our tracts are different than most – printed on quality paper, larger in size, and illustrated with original art work. And, we believe Michael Simpson has a unique gift for presenting the Good News of Jesus to the world. Michael’s writings offer the reader a complete and concise explanation of what Jesus accomplished for them on the cross, and they invite the reader to accept, by faith, a new life in HIm.
So, our first year is over. By God’s grace, it will be the first of many years to come. Marilyn and I look forward to serving you.
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