Life Audio Welcome back to Words of Life. We have a very special and unique episode for you today.
I really hope you enjoyed our series with Dr. Craig Keener. We have more episodes like this planned for 2025, but before we continue, we wanted to pause in this episode and not only reminisce about where this show has come from and share some vision about where this ministry is headed, I wanted to also introduce you to the entire team who makes all five shows that we produce happen. The Salvation Army presents Wonderful Words of Life. Welcome to Wonderful Words of Life, the radio voice of The Salvation Army. Well, thanks for joining us on The Salvation Army's Wonderful Words of Life. Dr. Craig Keener So that little collage that you just heard, the first piece was actually from the very first episode ever recorded of what was then called Wonderful Words of Life and was released in 1955, which is crazy to think that The Salvation Army had been forward thinking about sharing the gospel through media, even back then, and the fact that they've invested to keep this ministry going this long.
It's just an honor to be a part of something historic that is now still really reaching lives today. Today, I am not in the studio alone. I actually have the entire team who makes not just Words of Life happen, but all five shows that we produce. To the left of me is the man who makes it possible for you to hear what we've created. This is our audio producer, Chris Hoffer.
And then we are joined by our Spanish program manager, Luciano Guecochea. And then this is the voice of Soundcast. If you've ever called our 1-800 number or reached out, if you had a question, if you're a radio station or a listener, you would have spoken to Mercy Cosme. And so I'm just going to go around and just kind of share a little bit about what you do and why you're passionate about the work that you do for this ministry.
Let's start with you, Chris. Chris Hoffer Yeah, as Chris said, I'm the audio engineer. So simply that just means I capture the recordings, edit, and then piece them together. So my goal is to just try and maintain the integrity of that entire conversation, but put it together in a way that really helps share people's stories and highlights, you know, the message they're trying to put forward.
So yeah, that's essentially what I do. Luciano Guecochea My name is Luciano Guecochea. I'm in charge of the Hispanic ministry.
I've been here since, what, 2007, 2008. I really enjoy what I do. I have a heart for this ministry, really passionate about sharing the gospel.
Message of hope. Mercy Cosme Hello, I am Mercy Cosme. I'm one of the voices of Latido. I write and edit the show, Latido, also Heartbeat, also Mensaje Desperanza. I love that we can spread the gospel of Jesus Christ through the media so we get to more people around the world.
I really simply love it. Chris Hoffer Ever since this ministry has been a thing within the Salvation Army, they clearly wanted to invest in sharing the gospel in as many languages as possible. And so as soon as they had the means to, they were already starting to create Spanish versions of the content that they were creating in Words of Life. And at the time, it was just a translated version of what the English show was.
But they already knew that that wasn't ideal and that, you know, we need specific content for Spanish listeners, even something as simple as just like a saying or an expression that you write in English may not even make sense in Spanish. And so since probably the late 90s, early 2000s, Palabras de Vida has been developing into what it is today. And if you don't know, my name is Chris Benjamin, and I'm the producer of Words of Life. I've been in this role for about seven or eight years. And it's been, you know, amazing to combine the art of recording and storytelling and be able to do this for an organization that exists to share hope and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So it's an honor. Narrator Caring for someone with dementia is one of the toughest journeys, but you don't have to do it alone. I'm Allison Schreier, and my experience caring for my husband inspired me to create Zinnia, a therapeutic streaming service designed to support people living with dementia and reduce caregiver stress. Zinnia offers research-backed videos intentionally created for people with dementia, engaging, calming and easy to follow. Whether you need to ease agitation, create moments of joy or make daily routines smoother, Zinnia is here to help. Family and professional caregivers use our content to turn challenges into opportunities for connection. Accessible by subscription on mobile devices and connected TVs, Zinnia is simple to use whenever you need it.
Because when caregiving feels easier, life feels better. Go to Zinniatv.com and sign up for a free trial today. Use the code RESOURCE for 15% off an annual Zinnia subscription. So when you're a part of a ministry that's been around since 1955, as you can imagine, it's gone through so many changes. We continue to just update in style and format and even just where we're making these shows available. Last year, the biggest change that happened is that we became a part of Salem Media's Life Audio podcast network. Honestly, it was night and day as far as just our audience reach to be a part of a growing network. That's just been such a blessing. And so, you know, even just that next month we tripled our listenership, which you may have noticed that you now hear ads in these shows and we pray that they're not too distracting and hopefully even helpful. And you go and support the people that are helping make this show possible, but it's not free to create content like this and get it out and let people know that it exists in the first place. So there is a marketing side that comes with it. The thing that we're creating is hope.
It's the gospel. And so what other thing is more worth investing financially in than that? Caring for someone with dementia is one of the toughest journeys, but you don't have to do it alone. I'm Allison Schreier and my experience caring for my husband inspired me to create Zinnia, a therapeutic streaming service designed to support people living with dementia and reduce caregiver stress. Zinnia offers research-backed videos intentionally created for people with dementia, engaging, calming, and easy to follow. Whether you need to ease agitation, create moments of joy, or make daily routines smoother, Zinnia is here to help. Family and professional caregivers use our content to turn challenges into opportunities for connection. Accessible by subscription on mobile devices and connected TVs, Zinnia is simple to use whenever you need it.
Because when caregiving feels easier, life feels better. Go to zinniatv.com and sign up for a free trial today. Use the code RESOURCE for 15% off an annual Zinnia subscription. So something that I wanted to spend a good bit of time sharing with our listeners today is that we love hearing from you guys and some of the stories that we have from lives that have been touched through something someone said on one of these shows. I can't even express to you what that means to us to know that the time and effort and sweat and blood that we put into these shows have really made a difference in someone's life.
Yeah, absolutely. I remember one letter, Chris, that was from India. It was a family in a great need and they reached out to us because they heard Words of Life, the Salvation Army there in India, they were able to get the help that they needed. So that was very fulfilling to me and that impacted my life, really.
Yeah. I mean, that's the amazing thing of having a ministry that's tied to an organization as large as the Salvation Army, that when someone reaches out from any part of the world, we're able to find that closest Salvation Army officer. And, you know, within a short amount of time, potentially a Salvation Army officer might be knocking on their door to say, how can we help?
One of the things that I love doing is interacting with our listeners. And it's funny because about two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, you know, like kind of wondering if our work is really reaching not only the people, but their hearts and lives and families. It felt like kind of an answer of God, like, don't worry about it. You're doing good.
You're doing right. I got this text through WhatsApp from a friend, a brother from Honduras, saying that he was going through a difficult time in his life. Everything since he became a Christian, he was losing everything. He lost his family.
He lost his wife. And he even was about to, you know, tell himself, I mean, if I could say it that way. So basically he gave up and in his text, he mentioned that message. He got it at the right time.
He got it at the right time because he was losing hope. Messages like this really help you to do better, to love more what you do, to go even more, you know, like go further. And one of the special parts of our job, so much of it is an act of faith. You know, you prepare the content with hope that it's just going to touch somebody. It's going to speak to somebody. And a lot of times we don't necessarily see the fruit of that. We just release it in faith, praying that God will use that. I can never hear that stuff enough because it is strength for us, you know, to keep creating, to keep trying to improve what we do.
But then also just a reminder that it is an act of faith and that God will bless our efforts, you know, as long as we surrender those to him. So I wanted to go around the room, kind of ask you guys what some of your favorite moments with any of these shows have been in recent years. For me, one of the things that really stands out is when we had Natalie Runyon on our show. She is the founder of Raised to Stay. She was a worship leader, kind of felt that she had just like made it, found her calling, she was doing her thing. And then just through circumstances, church leadership at the time, she basically lost that platform. She really struggled with that with like, God, I thought you gave me this gift to share it in this way.
Why is it being taken away? You know, if you're in full-time ministry, there are parts of just dealing with fellow humans. It's in a church, but a church family is still made up of just imperfect people.
It can really get to you. And she had to kind of take a pause and she heard God say to her while she was on a walk, this phrase Raised to Stay. She basically started this ministry talking to people who've been hurt by a church family or a church body or church leadership in the past, giving them the encouragement to not give up on the body of Christ as a whole. I love her mission, her spirit, and I love seeing people that aren't afraid to tackle the hard questions for us to actually start finding some solutions and let people know they're not alone. One of my favorite moments on our show has to be when Carlos Solis came to Palabras de Vida. His energy, it was great. He's so young and his message is so profound. He speaks to his generation, but also to the older generations.
It was great for me, a breakthrough in my life here in PDB. My favorite part of the recording would be preachers. I really enjoy listening to their testimonies. It really shows that they're humble. They're not above everybody.
They're no more people like you and me. And it makes you think about, man, his life was really bad. I mean, talking about having a place to live and then taking your father like Lieutenant Colonel Gerardo Golshid was talking about, you know, when he was a kid with his mom, taking his dad to a rehabilitation center. And that moment becoming like an experience for him to become a preacher, to become a Salvation Army officer, you know, like moments like this, testimonies really, really, really love doing in the recording. Back in December, we released a series with April Farmer and there's a particular episode, I think it's episode three, that Bernie and her kind of get real below the surface on Bernie's testimony. And over the years, I've watched Bernie as a host, you know, pull out stories from our guests and yeah, he just invests in everybody that he is in contact with. And there was this moment where kind of the roles reversed and our guest, April, who is a friend of Bernie's really kind of poured into him in that moment. That just did my soul good because Bernie just gives and gives and gives.
That was really special having April minister specifically to Bernie. And that episode had so much response because there's just something about hearing the person who ministers to me usually just be like, yeah, I sometimes have doubts too. Yeah. We're just people.
We're just wrestling with that question. Why does bad stuff happen to good people? You know, I can kind of see why bad stuff happens to people who make poor choices, but to good people, that's so hard to wrap your mind around a lot of the content that we hear from our guests and that we help produce is just point back to God and God's ultimate purposes for our life, for, you know, his people, for our world.
Last thing, a series that isn't necessarily a regular fixture in our lineup is the storytellers series. But occasionally every few years or so, we release a book of the Bible and try to bring it to life with some sound design and going through all 40 chapters, I think 40 chapters of Exodus. Yeah, that was a labor of love. And for me, my first real study in depth of the Old Testament, I think it, for me, has traditionally been real easy to, you know, read the words of Jesus and, okay, that's cool. But the Old Testament's kind of like, you know, there's a lot of stuff in there I don't really understand. You know, I kind of wrestle with that content more. So that was cool to really delve into the book of Exodus in that way with sound design, which is essentially just sound effects that just bring the story to life.
It was really cool. You know, we were talking about just testimonies in general and just hearing Bernie share his, you know, the act of recording. We're making a record of something and we're making a record of small little snapshot of everyone's life, whoever shares their heart on these shows.
The fact that we opened this whole segment with a clip from the first episode in 1955 and those announcers, most of those people have since gone to be with the Father. There are several times now that we've been able to be a part of recording someone's life, sharing their testimony, sharing a piece of wisdom, and then able to play that back after they've moved on. Capturing testimonies, just having conversations with people, knowing that we're just kind of living in the moment, but able to hang on to something. That's an honor to just be able to share.
To bring it back to what I was saying about the Old Testament, you know, like the practice of building altars to remember God's faithfulness. I think of these testimonies as that. These are snapshots of God's faithfulness in these people's lives that we can look back and remember God's goodness, his mercy, his faithfulness, all that. And I just love that we get to be a part of that. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more. Thanks again for listening.
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