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In the last three months we have shipped almost 60,000 copies of An Anchor for the Soul from our Book Depot in Chicago. From the beginning of this ministry in 2001, we have always put a priority on donating copies for the men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces. Thousands of copies have ended up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How do those books get there? Here’s one answer we received from a military wife who received a box of Anchors from our ministry:

My husband has been in Afghanistan for past year working on a military base. I have mailed these books to him in small batches that he has given away to chaplains to pass on to others. My husband comes home March 3rd. God bless your ministry.

So the word of the Lord spreads one book at a time, one person at a time. We feel blessed to be a small link in the big chain of God’s purposes. May God bless this wife and her husband and the chaplains who pass along the books.

As part of our ministry, we donate copies of An Anchor for the Soul to military ministries that reach out to the men and women serving in the U.S. Armed Forces around the world. Recently we received a note from a soldier serving in Kabul, Afghanistan. As you read it, I think you’ll appreciate his sense of humor.

Dear Pastor Ray,

I know you like to tell stories, I have one for you. I am currently in Kabul doing my army thing. By the way English is not my best subject so stay sharp ya never know. So I go to guard duty one night, 6 HR of pure boredom, and as I watch the dust float by through my two thousand dollar high power scope and my three thousand rifle that could probably shoot the common house fly a mile away, I understand you don’t really care about any of this part of the story just setting the stage. So I sit and then I sit some more. Then I see it under ten pounds of dust, A book not a very big book. But I could tell because it had words and everything. I heard about these things you look at pictures. I had a problem the guy that wrote it forgot the pictures. So I was gonna have to do some reading, anyway on the front it said something about an Anchor so I figured Navy gonna be easy to read probably written in crayon, but then as I read further I saw it the word soul. OK I said to myself I am stuck in a guard tower with a book the first word says Anchor witch is Navy and Soul that’s boots. OK I am pretty smart Navy Boot care manual righttttttttt noooooooooo. I hope you smiled.

Thank you. I haven’t read a book in years. I am glad your book found me in a time such as this, I was having a hard time over here, Put another check mark in your book one more you helped. I understand now that good deeds don’t open the door But they make your heart happy when your working on getting the keys.

Thanks again.

I did smile when I read his note, and I thanked God for the privilege of providing a little “gospel book” that was hidden under a pile of dust in Afghanistan so that a soldier who was on guard duty would find it, blow the dust off, and read it. When I wrote to thank this soldier for his note, he wrote back, “No. Thank you. Your book has really hit home more than you could ever know."

We are glad to make copies of An Anchor for the Soul available free of charge to military ministries, prison ministries, for disaster relief, and for compassion ministries, such as crisis pregnancy centers, homeless shelters and rescue missions. We currently have around 32,000 copies at our Book Depot in Chicago.

It occurred to me that I’m not sure exactly how this particular copy of Anchor found its way to Afghanistan. It doesn’t matter because the Lord knows, and he knew exactly how to place that book under all that dust so that it would be found at exactly the right moment. We are glad that we could encourage this soldier, and we’re grateful to the gifts of God’s people that make it possible to give this book away.

10:06 AM A year ago we donated several thousand copies of An Anchor for the Soul to be used in a Quiet Time Pack that Word of Life was sending to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We just received the following report from Chaplain Gerry Benard stationed at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan:

I am on the ground here. We received the Soldier Packs. They are brought to the Enduring Freedom Chapel here on Bagram Air Field. Most soldiers coming into country pass through here, or at least many of their chaplains and other leaders. I am the chaplain for the Protestant service–actually more of a Sunday evening Baptist-Evangelical Christian service- -with a lot of praise music and folks who are obviously on fire for the Lord. What a blessing to be in the heart of Muslim territory surrounded by strong Christian men and women. Praise God.
I thank you for sharing with us. I am using a prayer journal myself. I will pass the Bible off and the book was an excellent read. If Mr. Ray Pritchard donated them to the cause of reaching our soldiers, he deserves a shout out! Either way he deserves a thank you for caring enough to share wisdom and experiences God has brought him through.
If more soldier packs are available, there are plenty of soldiers who would benefit. I Believe 50 or so a month could easily be distributed. I am sure Chaplains themselves are passing them along to soldiers in other forward bases throughout the country.
Praise God for His provision of protection, grace, and mercy.

10:04 AM I’m doing an interview with Kim Jeffries on KTIS in Minneapolis today from 1:15-2 PM Central Time.
9:58 AM The rest of the Elijah sermons are now online:
Obadiah: A Good Man in a Hard Place
Baal Buster
Prophet on the Run
How to Help a Caveman
Burning the Plow
Payday Someday
Is There No God?
Chariots of Fire