In a hotel room in São Paulo, God spoke to Bill Loveless. A commercial airline pilot two years shy of retirement, Bill had already begun a second full-time career in ministry. But that evening in Brazil, God impressed upon his heart that it was time for him to hang up his wings for good. “I gave Him a few lame excuses,” Bill says, “but before I went to bed that night, I was thoroughly convinced.”
Early retirement freed Bill and his wife Tammy to devote themselves fully to evangelism and discipleship efforts. And Bill’s airline career has given the couple a unique advantage: the ability to fly anywhere in the world for free. Together, they run Go Ministries, Inc., a multiplying and equipping ministry that trains indigenous leaders in gospel essentials and teaches them how to disciple others. The work takes Bill and Tammy many places but most often to Africa.
And it was to Africa that Bill brought his first In Touch Messengers five years ago. Since that time, he and his wife have distributed hundreds more, taking the devices with them wherever they go. Early on, Bill was inspired to do more than leave people to learn on their own; he wanted to play a larger role in discipling them. So he began teaching a course on Dr. Stanley’s 30 Life Principles.
“The Principles are powerful,” Bill says. Faculty members at the Uganda Baptist Seminary, where he has taught the 30 Life Principles course, explain: “As professors, we get so zoned in on our curriculum that our relationship [with God] suffers. This has been a retreat to bring us back into relationship with God.”
Bill never wanted the impact of his teaching to stop with the students in his classes. And so for years he would bring large folders filled with notes for each student to keep as a reference.
The Messenger project began as an innovative solution for gospel ministry. Now with the In Touch Messenger Lab, we’ve expanded that vision beyond a single device. This past April, Bill was able to evaluate the Slate, an electronic tablet that contains the original Messenger content as well as a host of books essential to a pastor’s library, such as dictionaries, commentaries, and Bible studies. Each student was given one of these devices, which can be used to teach God’s Word more effectively.
