Harry and Millie’s Incredible Journey

August 1, 2011


Marlene, me, Millie, Harry

Pictured above is a brand-new book that you can’t buy online.
And you can’t order it in a bookstore.
You can’t order it anywhere.

Yet.

You have to buy it in person at Word of Life when Harry Bollback speaks.

With that said, I hope every person reading these words will find a way to buy a copy of Our Incredible Journey, the Harry and Millie Bollback story.

In 1941 when Harry was a teenager, he joined with a young evangelist named Jack Wyrtzen who was making a name for himself as a preacher in New York City. Together they formed a powerful evangelistic team. Jack preached, Harry played the piano, and thousands of people came to Christ. When Jack started the ministry called Word of Life, Harry joined with him. Later Harry served in the Marines in the South Pacific where he fought on Peleliu Island and on Okinawa . After the war he met and married his beloved Millie, went to Bible school, and together they set off for South America were he founded Word of Life’s first overseas work. Years after that he came home to start the Overseas Ministry of Word of Life. Then came the musicals and the tours across America. Then he started Word of Life Florida. Today he and Millie divide their time between Word of Life Florida and Word of Life New York.

I write about this book with enthusiasm because Harry and Millie’s story forms one of the great missionary biographies of our generation. I also write this way because I prodded Harry to write the book, did some early editing of the manuscript (taken from oral recordings), suggested the title, and gave him the chapter titles.

But the book is entirely his, except for the part that Millie wrote, which is charming and fun to read.

Their journey has been incredible and amazing. I heard Harry preach last Tuesday night at the Word of Life Inn, and I can testify that although he is 86 years old, he’s a “young 86.”

As I said, you can’t order this book anywhere, but I’m hoping the folks at Word of Life will add it to their website to make it easier to get copies.

After the service on Tuesday night Harry and Millie asked me to join them in signing the book. It’s the only book signing I’ve been to where there were so many people in line that I felt like a rock star. Only they weren’t standing in line to get my signature. I knew that but it was still fun, as it was also fun to do my little part to bring Harry and Millie’s incredible journey to print.

Do you have any thoughts or questions about this post?