Stories of Impact

Born in Belgium in 1934, Marika could never have imagined her translations would one day bring spiritual hope to thousands across the French-speaking world.

But today, at 91 years old, (yes, you read that right!) she’s still faithfully translating devotionals for Notre Pain Quotidien (Our Daily Bread in French).

“The more I worked in God’s Word, the more I loved it. I always say to Jesus that I want to do what You want me to do.”

That passion has carried her through many seasons. For starters, the tools have changed, from typewriters to computers.

“I had to learn to work on a computer.” she says. “Once I’m on my computer and working.

“I don’t even think of having to eat. I’m so busy… maybe a little piece of Belgian chocolate,” she says with a hearty laugh.

She is driven to continue her work by a passion for translation and the conviction that the French world needs God Word. Most importantly, her deep love of Jesus fuels the work she does today.

“She’s such a sweetheart. So gentle,” says Cynthia Martineau, Manager of French Language Ministries with Our Daily Bread Ministries Canada.

“She has been concerned if she is still making a valuable contribution. Like asking me, ‘Am I still enough?” says Cynthia, who has assured her that is indeed very much needed.

Marika is on a translation team of about 10 translators and revisers, who reside in France and in Canada. For decades, she was the first translator in the process. These days, she is tasked with revising the translations.

“Actually, it is even more important than the initial translation,” says Cynthia. “She has the original English text next to the translation, and she is ensuring that we capture the essence of the text.”

Cynthia adds that Marika is really like a gatekeeper and performs a role that artificial intelligence (AI) never could. The translations need to capture the nuances of language but Notre Pain Quotidien also uses an international French for its global ministry, so Marika needs to ensure that the translator is not using a word or expression that would not be understood outside their country and context.

“Our devotionals draw people closer to God and to the Bible. It’s already a culture jump from the time and place of the Bible to French. But French is a language used in multiple cultures around the world. Marika and the team need to be almost oversensitive to this, so they provide the best possible devotional experience for francophones everywhere,” adds Cynthia.

For Marika, it’s been quite a journey. It started when she and her husband moved to Canada in 1960.

“God brought us here,” she says. 

Spiritually searching at the time, Marika prayed, “If you are really God, I would like you to let me know.” 

She and her husband both came to know Jesus, and she began to learn how to see life differently and listen for God’s leading.

While working as a university secretary in Québec, she took evening classes to learn English. A friend saw her potential in translation and told her, “You have a gift for it.” 

God opened doors, and that encouragement led her to one of the first French translations for Our Daily Bread more than 40 years ago, by our records!

“I never thought that one day I would be doing this,” she says, smiling, remembering that time so long ago. “It’s a real passion for me…I just love it! It’s more than a profession—it’s a profession of faith.”

Marika has translated God’s Word for readers in Canada, Europe, Africa, and beyond. Reading her Bible each day, every devotional she works on is rooted in her deep love for God.

Marika’s translations carry the message of Christ across cultures and continents. Each devotion she completes is a gift to someone she may never meet, but who will be encouraged by the translated words.

She is hopeful that the next generation will carry on her work. 

“I hope that there will be young people interested in doing the work, that there will be more translators. I won’t live 200 years!” (Marika encourages the youth today to be enthusiastic about the work they do!)

As for retirement, it’s not in the plan.

Biblical geography. Maybe those words intrigue you … or make you shy away. No matter if you’ve ever considered what “land” has to do with Scripture, we know a man who may just pique your curiosity and “turn up the volume on the Bible” for you.

Dr. John A. Beck. Although he is seminary-trained with two master’s degrees and a PhD, he is more like a friend who will walk with you to ignite a passion for learning more about Scripture than you ever thought possible. And, he likes to be called Jack.

This friendliness and approachability makes Jack a unique fit to host Our Daily Bread Ministries’ video series The Holy Land: Connecting The Land With Its Stories. 

“If we are people of place, and place is very much a part of how we’re shaped and how we interact with one another, then there’s no way I can leave my understanding of place out of any literature, much less the Bible,” Jack said. 

He believes that the Bible’s stories are so greatly impacted by location and setting, that it’s vital for us to truly understand how God communicated to His people in Scripture and to us today. Engaging with Scripture is “always a spirit-led process. Reading the Bible is different than reading another book.” 

Jack’s background in language and literature informed one way for him to view Scripture. But in grad school, he met a Bible geographer who sparked his interest in how the biblical authors and poets used geographical content to shape the learning—or faith—experience. Since then, incorporating geography as a tool in his multi-faceted toolbelt has allowed Jack to bring a whole new level of understanding to others.

As an adjunct professor at Jerusalem University College, he regularly travels to the Holy Land to teach and lead tours. These tours often cover over 100 miles of hiking in 10 to 12 days so people can experience the rugged outdoors and “feel” what the people on the pages of the Bible felt.

Jack is a scholar who has collaborated with Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) to write numerous books, teach online classes, and film four seasons of The Holy Land. His first book with ODBM, the Discovery House Bible Atlas, was published in 2015 and was well-received because it was more like a Bible commentary that married the land with the stories. (Fun fact: The French translation is soon to be released by the Our Daily Bread Ministries Canada and distributed around the world. It has taken more than 12 years to translate with two attempts because many of the concepts, places, and names have never been translated to French before.)

Ten years later, this work has being re-published as the Our Daily Bread Bible Atlas. Even if you have the first atlas, the new version is a great addition to your library. “The clarity within the essays has gotten stronger,” Jack said. “The visuals have gotten a big touch-up. It really is a new piece, reflecting both maturity in my own thinking of the topic and the communication of that and the illustrations.”

Season 4 of The Holy Land video series has now been released, so we can virtually travel with Jack to Samaria, the Southern Wilderness, and Jerusalem. His goal in every season of this series is “to take folks into the land and show them that there’s a connection between how things happened and where they happened.” He guides us to a region and tells the arc of stories that happened there, organizing the content by historical location rather than a chronological approach.

Although Jack treasures all his excursions on these production shoots, one of his most memorable times was in the Jezreel Valley at the spring where Gideon and his army drank (Judges 7). It happened to be a holiday, so many families with children were camping and enjoying themselves. When the kids invited Jack into the water, he immediately rolled up his pantlegs, took off his shoes, and joined them laughing and splashing in the cool water. 

Although the spontaneous moment led to the demise of the microphone he still wore, Jack heartily agreed, “I’m grateful for those moments that are unplanned, unscripted but absolutely spot on!”

Jack appreciates exploring in his personal life, too. He and his wife Marmy live in Germantown, Wisconsin but are often soaring around the country in the airplane they built themselves. “We’re always up for an adventure. We egg each other on and sometimes it takes us outside the bounds of what makes sense to do,” Jack chuckled.

Whether it’s snowshoeing in the Colorado Rockies with Marmy or leading an expedition of eager students in Israel, Jack loves being outdoors and bringing the stories of the Bible to life. “This is my passion . . . to turn the volume up on those things that maybe get less attention,” Jack said. “I hope you leave your time with me a more interested, informed, and engaged Bible reader.”

Adventure with Jack Beck:

• A Walking Tour of the Gospels
• Our Daily Bread Bible Atlas
• The Holy Land DVD series

Tucked inside the West Edmonton Mall, lives are being quietly changed—not with sales, but with compassion, conversation, and the power of the gospel. 

The Lovedmonton Chapel is a ministry planted right in the heart of West Edmonton Mall (WEM), a place visited by more than 30 million people each year!

“This is an outreach community,” Braden explains. “Our goal is to be a storefront to the gospel in WEM. We want to be a place where the gospel can be spread in the mall.”

From youth with nowhere else to go to curious tourists, the chapel ministers to a wide range of people. Open every day of the week and weekend, the team also offers coffee, prayer, and encouragement to employees who work in the mall. But this unique mission field also presents challenges—especially engaging passersby in meaningful, faith-centred conversations.

That’s where the Discovery Series display comes in.

The display has become an impactful ministry tool inside the chapel, serving as both a resource and a pulse check on the spiritual needs within the mall. Booklets on anxiety, depression, and anger are picked up the most—often restocked because they are snapped up quickly.

“It’s really helpful for tracking what the mall is sensing at the time,” Braden notes. “I can even tailor our youth lessons to what people are gravitating toward.”

The chapel space, which resembles a coffee shop, offers a space for youth who come to the mall simply because they have nowhere else to go. Music, games, snacks, Bible studies, and genuine conversations pave the way for gospel encounters. 

Braden’s vision is simple: to meet people where they’re at. “Because it’s not a big pressure thing, you can say, ‘Do any of these interest you?’  instead of saying ‘you really need this one.’” He trusts the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

In a place where faith isn’t expected, Lovedmonton Chapel is making the hope of Jesus not just visible—but accessible, one visitor at a time.

Braden from the Lovedmonton Chapel is a volunteer Ministry Ambassador for Our Daily Bread Ministries Canada. That means he is approved by the chapel leadership to serve as a connection point between his ministry and ours. It helps Lovedmonton figure out what resources we have and how we can help.

Consider becoming an Ambassador for your church or organization today!

November 2025 | It was new territory for our ministry—hanging out with 3,000 young people from all over Ontario.

But we know it’s where God wants us, partnering with churches and organizations to meet the needs of today’s youth.

What a blessing it was for all involved this fall!

Last month, three team members from Our Daily Bread Ministries Canada hosted a booth at the Change Conference in Toronto. This annual event is held in several big Canadian cities, hosted by Youth for Christ, an organization that dates back to the 1940s.

[Fun fact: Evangelist Billy Graham was Youth for Christ’s first full-time staff member in the U.S.!]

We weren’t sure what to expect. We had 600 hand-made buttons promoting Bible engagement at the table, and we hoped they would open the door to conversation.

Turns out, those buttons were a hit and, giving one per person who requested it, we quickly ran out!

It was a great opportunity to offer the young people copies of Our Daily Bread and Discovery Series booklets, which are always free. We also had a chance to explain the meaning of a devotional and why the spiritual practice helps draw you into Scripture daily.

We distributed hundreds of materials, and many people scanned the QR code to find out about Reclaim Today, a brand of Our Daily Bread Ministries for young people under 30.

We also brought a social media influencer from Windsor, ON with us. Rheema loves the Lord and regularly gives Our Daily Bread to people in the community, boldly sharing stories on Instagram.

This is all possible because of our donors. We’re so thankful they share our mission of making the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all, and they trust that we’ll follow the Lord’s leading to make that happen.

“Witnessing the passion of the next generation reminded me that God is still changing lives and writing new stories through our ministry,” says Andrea, Ministry Services Supervisor.

“Seeing them worship affirmed that Christ Himself is building His church. Every seed we plant through Our Daily Bread Ministries Canada is a seed He can use to grow tomorrow’s legacy of faith, hope, and unshakable trust in Christ. The same God who was faithful to the last generation is shining just as brightly in the next,” she adds.

Be encouraged—the youth of today are hungry for truth and willing to hear from Bible-based ministries on how to find that truth. In our case, we direct them to Scripture through our devotionals, social media, podcasts, and the Discovery Series (Bible-based booklets with answers to topical issues).

We can’t wait to see the fruit from these seeds. And we can’t wait to sow more seeds. Please consider partnering with us so we can reach younger generations.

*Content Warning: This written feature and accompanying video mention drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, and suicide.

September 5, 2024

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). At the most crucial turning point in Niki Schlottman’s life, these words rang true. She had lived through childhood trauma, decades of drug and alcohol abuse, and the nagging feeling of never being enough. And she was done.

“I was beyond desperate,” Niki recalled. “When you get that desperate, you commit suicide.” What kept her from taking her own life was the thought of leaving her three children with that anguish—something she had dealt with ever since her father committed suicide when she was a child.

Niki grew up going to church and learning about God. But when her childhood started to unravel, she couldn’t make sense of a good God who would allow awful things to happen. Her parents went through a divorce. Her dad was a closet alcoholic. Once when he was drunk, he sexually abused her. When he couldn’t live with the guilt, he shot himself in the living room.

“I knew there was a God,” Niki explained. “I just didn’t know how to reconcile who people said God was with what was happening in my life.”

Gripped by anxiety, Niki was prescribed Xanax and Vicodin at 16 years old. The medication numbed the emotional pain, but it took more and more pills to keep silencing the voices in her head. This led to years of drug abuse and desperate measures to ensure she had the fix she needed.

It took several rehabs before Niki was able to get clean from all the illegal drugs she was taking. Niki said, “I always knew I shouldn’t drink because my dad was an alcoholic, but once they took all the pills away, I had nowhere to turn, so I turned to alcohol.”

Eventually, the alcohol abuse caught up with her too. Three separate times she nearly died from alcohol poisoning. She got cirrhosis. She even woke up on a ventilator in the hospital because her heart stopped working. Niki was still clinging to the fact that she knew there was a God and considered herself a Christian, but she couldn’t see a way to be freed from what she was experiencing.

One day as she sat on her porch, she reached the breaking point. She had regularly been begging God to let her die. Niki couldn’t justify suicide in her mind, but she didn’t know how to live with the weight of the emotional pain she’d been stuffing down for decades.

“So, I finally surrendered and just cried out, ‘Lord, I know you’re the answer, but I don’t know how you’re the answer,’” Niki confessed. At that moment, everything changed. The Holy Spirit nudged her with the verse from Jeremiah . . . seek and you will find. And suddenly, God—Abba Father—became very personal to her.

“I realized that I never truly knew God,” Niki said. After her encounter on the porch, she eagerly began reading the Scriptures to understand who God said He was. She found a loving Father who had been with her all along and who revealed Himself in the pages of her Bible. He also led her to a team of Christian doctors and counsellors who were able to provide her with the tools she needed to get healthy mentally and spiritually.

“I realized that what was holding me back was me not being able to forgive myself and not being able to forgive my dad,” Niki said. Once she fully understood how Jesus extended grace to her, she could extend grace to her father. “I wish now that my dad could have forgiven himself. He was in Vietnam, and it did awful things to him. I wish he could have met the God I met through the struggle.”

Once God freed Niki from her emotional burdens, He also removed her desire to drink and smoke and replaced those crutches with a hunger for Scripture. “The Bible isn’t just a book. God opens the eyes of your heart, and the Bible becomes real,” Niki said. “Jesus is who He says He is. It’s nothing that I did. Jesus changed something in me, and He made me a new creation.”

Just a few weeks after Niki’s encounter, God opened the door for her to work at Our Daily Bread Ministries. “God planted me here,” Niki said with a huge smile. “It’s an amazing place to work. Since I’ve been here, I’ve read devotional after devotional. I’ve been consuming a lot more of the Word of God.”

As Niki nurtures her faith, she is truly experiencing the comforting peace that God gives her. He has proven Himself trustworthy, and Niki explained, “I’m trying to learn to be obedient to Christ. I’m trying to model for my kids what following God is. God can redeem you no matter where you’ve been. There is hope for everyone.”

Hear more from Niki about how Scripture transformed her life in the video below.

Do you need hope?

How can I go on living when I feel like I want to die?

Is it possible for a believer to be overwhelmed with fear and despair?

When people think of Our Daily Bread Ministries, they usually think of our pocket-sized devotionals. People all over the world have personally encountered Jesus by stumbling upon a printed copy of Our Daily Bread in coffee shops, churches, hospitals, and prisons. 

Many people know that the long-lasting devotional originates from Grand Rapids, Michigan, with contributing writers from the US, Canada and around the world. But do they know how these booklets end up where they do here in Canada and elsewhere?

Our Daily Bread Ministries in the US wants to share a story with us to help answer that question.

Staff there say they are “overwhelmingly grateful to partner with 145,000 Our Daily Bread Ambassadors.”

Just like in Canada where we have more than 10,000 Our Daily Bread Ambassadors, these are people who are committed to spreading the gospel by ordering a self-selected number of devotionals and distributing them to their neighbours, local businesses, churches, and various other people encountered in daily life. It’s because of our Ambassadors that the Our Daily Bread devotional is reaching nearly every corner of the globe. 

The US staff are introducing us to one such Ambassador: Bob Morris.

After serving 26 years in the US Air Force, including a tour in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era and later supporting Desert Storm and Desert Shield in Iraq, he retired as a full colonel. After investing 31 years so far at the Salvation Army, Bob has also served as a loyal Our Daily Bread Ambassador for 30 years, distributing and placing somewhere between 50,000 to 60,000 devotionals. 

“My favourite aspect is being used by God to distribute His Word through a nondenominational devotional. I also love witnessing the joy and excitement people have when they’re presented with an Our Daily Bread devotional. In the 30 years I’ve distributed the devotional, I can think of only four people who declined a copy.” 

Bob receives 500 devotionals every three months and places them in colleges, universities, hotels, motels, airports, doctor’s offices, copy centers, banks, transportation centers, museums, and wherever else he can. 

Over the years, Bob has accepted the help of six friends, all with varying backgrounds, to hand out and place the Our Daily Bread devotional all over the Illinois and Missouri area. 

His favourite experience of placing the devotionals is seeing young people pick them up. Another meaningful experience was when he used to be able to go to airport boarding areas and leave the devotionals on seats for passengers. “I saw the Our Daily Bread taken by passengers to read as they flew to their destinations sometimes overseas,” Bob shared. “I don’t know the impact my personal distributions have made, but I know I’ll find out someday in heaven.” 

Sometimes Bob gets to speak directly with the devotional recipient. While he usually leaves printed copies in public places for people to pick up, Bob has also had the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus by getting to listen to various people’s stories. He says, “I’ve had the privilege of discussing spiritual matters with people from all walks of life using the Our Daily Bread devotional and other Christian material.” 

While Bob acts as a humble servant of Christ, willing to listen to anyone’s story, he made it clear that none of it was by his own doing. “The people who talk to me do so because of the Holy Spirit, not because of me. . . . I get the publication into the hands of the public and God does the rest. I just plant the seeds.” 

When asked why he likes to read Our Daily Bread, he said, “It provides spiritual insight and even application to situations and circumstances that readers relate to in their everyday lives.” 

Similarly, when asked about the importance of digging into God’s Word daily, Bob also shared this passage: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV). 

Today, Bob resides in Saint Louis, Missouri, with his wife of 55 years, enjoying time with their eight grandchildren, and serving as members of their local church. He’s still a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association, and the Greenville Pilots Association, and while he no longer is a command pilot, he is still a licensed pilot. 

Our Daily Bread Ministries is so grateful for the devoted partnership with Ambassadors. If Bob’s story inspired you to join our Ambassador Program, he recommends praying about it first and asking God if He wants you to do this.

In Canada, we have two levels of commitment for Ambassadors: 1) Our Daily Bread Ambassadors order and hand out the devotionals every three months; and 2) Ministry Ambassadors connect with us more regularly so they are aware of our wide variety of ministry materials and can equip their church or organization as needed.

If YOU are an Ambassador in Canada already, please consider sharing your story with us so we can showcase what God is doing through you here in Canada! Just email info@odbm.ca and let us know the best time to connect with you!

Reading Bible stories is an important part of childhood in Christian homes. Whether we read stories like David and Goliath during Sunday school or with our parents before bedtime, these moments with our children’s Bibles shaped who we are today and taught us about Jesus’ love for us.

In Africa, many Christian adults also recognize how Scripture can impact their children.

“My friend Dan had heard from Africans for over a decade that they need an affordable, accessible, easy-to-read children’s Bible for kids,” said Ashlie Head, a nurse practitioner living in Michigan.

Ashlie’s spiritual outreach was once limited to her community in the U.S., but in 2020, her long-time family friend Dan Kramer invited her into a project that would touch hearts across the Atlantic Ocean.

Dan is Our Daily Bread Ministries’ Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, creating a children’s Bible for kids in Africa using simplified English.

At first, this project seemed daunting, but Ashlie trusted the Lord. “God had very much been prompting something bigger in me, so when Dan presented this project idea, my friends and I decided we wanted to do something that we could not do in our own power.”

This consisted of Ashlie and two other friends jumping into the world of children’s Bible literacy. First, they studied different children’s Bibles to see the kinds of paraphrasing and pictures one can often find in the market. Then, Dan, a veteran of the Bible translating industry, trained them to take English Scripture and modify it for lower reading levels.

“We weren’t interpreting Scripture,” Ashlie said. “Just seeing how it can be simplified. Like, maybe a verse has a long difficult word that could be broken down into three easier words.”

Ashlie and her small team of Bible “simplifiers” started with the book of Mark, pulling Scripture from the Unlocked Literal Bible so there wouldn’t be any copyright issues. After three months of hard work—plus help from members of their church—they simplified their first book of the Bible.

“We were proud, but God quickly showed us that this process would take forever if it were just the three of us working.”

An unexpected blessing came soon after. When a trip to Ethiopia was abruptly canceled, Ashlie’s team and Dan looked for something else productive to do with their planned time off.

“We had a last-minute shift, and we took a long road trip,” said Ashlie. “We visited churches in Virginia and Pennsylvania that we had connections with and trained more people on how to do this. Once we started utilizing more of the body of Christ, everything moved much faster.”

With the help of these newly trained Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) volunteers, plus more church partners in Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee, Ashlie and Dan’s team were able to simplify the entire New Testament in a year and a half. They tested their first modified book—Mark—with young Nigerian readers.

“Our readers ranged from age 5 to 12, and we observed them reading but also asked them questions to see if they actually understood what they were reading,” said Ashlie. “It went super well, and seeing the book I worked on in kids’ hands for the first time was so special.”

But this children’s Bible project isn’t over. Ashlie explained the importance of “checking” each simplified book before officially marking it complete.

“We have volunteers compare our simplified English versions to the original Hebrew to make extra sure that we didn’t unintentionally change any meanings of Scripture,” she said. “We also have African churches that go through each book with a fine-toothed comb too.”

So far, 14 New Testament books have been marked approved, and as Ashlie’s team continues to send more books to these “checkers,” they’re also busy with the Old Testament.

“We’ve officially translated about 66% of the Old Testament, so we’ve got a ways to go,” Ashlie said. “But it’s our big prayer to complete the entire Old Testament by the end of the year.”

There are more goals, too, like creating study questions to go along with each book of the Bible and translating it into more languages for African readers.

“Our plan is that once our children’s Bible is finished, we can distribute [it] all across Africa,” Ashlie said. “We want this to be a children’s Bible that’s marketed to everyone and anyone who wants it.”

What to explore the Christian faith more? Try our Discovery Series booklets – Biblical answers to topical questions!

For example: Is the Bible Reliable? | Making Decisions God’s Way

When we read our Bibles, we see how God provided for people’s needs in those ancient days.

It’s actually part of His character – He is the Provider.

Thousands of years ago, when the Israelites are hungry in the wilderness, they’re sent manna (AKA bread) from the sky by the Lord to eat (Exodus 16). When the prophet Elijah is hiding and hungry during a drought, he’s given meat and bread from ravens sent by God (1 Kings 17:6). And in the New Testament, Jesus multiplies five loaves of bread and two fish to feed a crowd of more than 5,000 (Matthew 14:20–21). 

Our God knows just how to provide us with what we need … even when all hope seems lost.

The staff at Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) experienced this very blessing with the purchase of our newest printing press. 

For nearly the last 30 years, our Harris Printing Press has been something of a faithful helper, printing more than a billion copies of Our Daily Bread devotionals that have been shared around the world. But as our audience grows, so has the demand for newer equipment.

“The press is fine, but we needed to start looking for a replacement before it isn’t fine anymore,” said Mike King, ODBM’s Vice President of Print Services & Supply Chain. 

The biggest obstacle, though, in searching for a replacement press had to do with the paper cutting size. 

“Our press is a little unique. Most presses in the United States cut a traditional size of 8.5 by 11 inches,” said Mike. “We cut a larger size, though. It’s technically called a ‘European cut-off,’ and it gives us a perfect layout for our devotionals.” 

Therefore, when Mike and the rest of the ODBM staff started thinking about getting a new printing press, they assumed they’d only be able to find what they needed in Europe.  

A myriad of questions followed: How would they find it? How would they ship it overseas? How would they afford it? 

But then, God provided. 

“We got word that there was one printing press available with our specific cut-off size in the States. We were able to purchase it for a much lower price than we expected,” Mike explained. “It was truly a needle in a haystack.” 

If it weren’t already obvious that God’s hand was in this find, the new press is technically called a “Sunday Press.” 

Mike also said that he sees the Lord in his work and his team often. “Before I was here at ODBM, I had stopped working, but God fired me from retirement, and now I’m running this place. We see God’s hand all the time. Every day. Especially during the COVID pandemic. And now in this.” 

This provision from the Lord comes at a time when ODBM prints on average more than 60 million Our Daily Bread devotionals every year. In Canada, we distribute Our Daily Bread in nine languages, including English and French. In fact, Canada has responsibility for the French language for the global ministry. Around the world, ODBM is working hard to translate our materials into and make resources available in 10 (non-English) languages to reach even more people with God’s Word. 

But Mike and his team know that it’s not a machine that makes all of this happen; it’s the Lord working through the employees, donors, ambassadors, service partners, authors, and everyone else who supports ODBM. 

On a whiteboard near the printing press, one of the Printing Services team members has written, “We are RESURRECTION people — sending the WORD of LIFE that RAISES souls from death and people from despair.” Underneath it, another employee has chimed in with a written, “Yes!” 

No matter how you support us, thank you for being a part of God’s glorious provision in our mission. It’s a privilege to be resurrection people with you. 

Consider partnering with us by being a Ministry Ambassador!

Churches and ministries in Canada are hungry for good, solid Bible-based materials. We have them. You can help make that connection … and be part of a growing Bible engagement movement around the world!

Ministry Ambassador Program

The odds of Ernest meeting both Jesus and his wife weren’t in his favour, but it’s in the most unlikely circumstances where God does His best work.

Ernest grew up with a very “religious” background—seldom reading the Bible but consistently attending mass thanks to his mother. He went to religious classes and was even “confirmed” (a ceremony in some churches that “confirms” an earlier baptism). However, like many who must discover the difference between “religion” and “relationship,” he still had not experienced knowing Jesus on a personal level. At age 17, Ernest enlisted in the U.S. National Guard, and at 19, he went into full-time active duty.

Meanwhile, his future wife Beth was growing up in a Christian household in Manchester, Connecticut, where her family read Our Daily Bread every morning at breakfast.

While in basic training, everyone received a Bible—provided by the Gideons—which Ernest started reading during downtimes. As he went through the Bible for the first time, he kept stumbling upon passages that made him question certain beliefs from his upbringing. “At the back of the Bible was an invitation to accept Christ as my Saviour, and Romans 10:9 was written underneath,” he shared.

On September 6, 1992, Ernest accepted Jesus as his Saviour, but it was only the beginning. While enlisted, he attended church services and spoke respectfully about his faith to others.

After returning home from Germany, he was thrilled to learn that one of his sisters had also accepted Christ while he was serving active duty. During a visit to her church, he noticed some printed copies of Our Daily Bread laying on a table and decided to pick one up. Having just started a new assignment as a recruiter in Manchester, with 14-hour work days, he “always liked that Our Daily Bread took no time at all to read.” He reflects now, “The story and Scripture . . . that’s what I needed. There was no way I could handle a traditional Bible study at the time.”

With the long hours, Ernest believed his chances of meeting someone, let alone a Christian, were nearly impossible. He also wanted everyone to know about the faith he had in Jesus, but the Army had strict rules about what could be displayed on their desks. The only personal items allowed were a family photo or something related to their experience in the Army, but Ernest left a copy of Our Daily Bread out on his desk.

Beth worked two jobs at the time, one of which handled medical records at the local hospital, which occasionally brought her to the office where Ernest worked. After noticing his copy of Our Daily Bread laying on his desk, she came back another time to ask if he wanted to play a game of pool after work—and the rest is history.

Today, Ernest still carries the Bible he was given that led him to Christ, as well as the current Our Daily Bread. Every morning, he reads or listens to Our Daily Bread and when asked about his favorite verse, he said, “I am studying Proverbs . . . and chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 really inspired me.”

Want to understand the transformational power of accepting Christ as your Lord and Saviour?

Read: Personal Relationship with God

Order: The Journey