Promise Box Audio

Credits

LIsten

All credit belongs to the Lord for everything on this site.
However, we would like to acknowledge the work of His servants.

 

Des & Dorothy Baird

Were born, grew up, were married and had their two children in East Belfast County Down, Northern Ireland. In August 1963, Ivan Stafford of International Tape Evangelism Fellowship was instrumental in getting them involved in a ‘shut-in’ visitation tape ministry. Des along with co-worker Alan Roy would cart the extra heavy reel-to-reel tape players to people who were housebound, so they could listen to ministry. A regular weekly ‘shut-in’ Ministry commenced with six visits each Monday evening. The last visit of the evening meant leaving the tape player with one of the ‘shut-ins’ overnight, the following morning Dorothy would collect the machine with a one year old baby in arms, and a three year old trailing at her feet, the tape recorder got to ride in the pram.

By then Des caught the vision of not only a ‘shut-in’, but the need to build up a library of good ‘Sound’ teaching tapes. November 1963, Des had the joy and pleasure of recording Evangelist Stan Ford from Dorset (UK). Stan was having an Evangelistic Campaign in the Old Victoria Hall Belfast, the climax of that series of meetings was an after Church Rally. The Old Victoria Hall was filled to capacity, Stan rose to his feet and made an announcement that electrified the meeting, “President Kennedy of United States of America, has been assassinated”. A hush came over that meeting, Stan then gave his testimony, what a night that was! Keep an eye open for the MP3 of that meeting, soon to be available for downloading.

Only nine months after getting involved in the tape ministry in Northern Ireland, Des & Dorothy migrated to Australia, settling in Brisbane. Before departing they shared their sadness about leaving with one of the ‘shut-ins’ who said, “Dessie, how do you know that the Lord isn’t preparing you to commence a shut-in visitation work in Australia”, then they had peace.

1964, folk discovered that Des had quite a collection of reel-to-reel teaching tapes as well as testimonies, so instead of commencing a ‘shut-in’ ministry a ‘Tapes Duplication Ministry’ began followed by an ‘on site’ recording of Conferences and ‘Special Ministry meetings’ of visiting speakers. No such a thing as fast copiers in those days, copying reel-to-reel was chip-monk style, double speed. Then came the ‘Compact Cassette’ a new era began and High Speed Copiers came into play a big role in providing the ‘on the spot’ copy at the end of a meeting. The name ‘Sound-Words Tape Ministry Queensland’ was chosen based on Paul’s Letter to Timothy, ‘Hold fast the form of ‘Sound Words’. Life indeed was ‘full’ with never a dull moment, evenings, weekends, holidays all taken up recording and copying tapes, all while Des was still in full time secular employment. However it all became too much and Des cried to the Lord for a way out. He decided it had to be one or the other, so in March 1980 he resigned from his job, with no guarantee of income (and no money in the bank) they went ‘full time’ in the Tape Ministry.

Most of their recordings were made at Christian Brethren Assemblies throughout Brisbane and the South East Corner of Queensland, including Bible Studies at various Christian Youth Camps. Likewise they had the privilege of recording the annual Baptist conferences. They made over 300 recordings of Peter Brandon during his nine visits from 1980 – 2006. Des & Dorothy then retired as Dorothy’s health declined.

Des also digitised about 2,000 of his recordings and donated a computer and 8 cassette deck system which digitised 8 cassettes at a time.

Des & Dorothy’s recordings are identifiable by codes like 0008 or 2125. When edited the codes will have an S placed before them ie. S0008 and S2125. ‘S’ standing for ‘Sound Words Tape Ministry Queensland’.

Hugh & Marie Fletcher

Ran Outreach Tape Ministry and are now in association with the NSW Assemblies Evangelistic Mission. They recorded in Christian Brethren assemblies in Sydney from 1953 – 1995. Hugh did this while holding down a fulltime job and all profits from Outreach Tape Ministry went to the NSW Home Workers Fund. This fund supported ‘full time’ Christian workers based in NSW.

Outreach Tape Ministry recorded speakers at various assembly events, such as the Easter Conference in Sydney, AMT Missionary Conventions, Mens and Ladies Houseparties (Sydney, Northern Districts, Blue Mountains, South Coast & Southern Highlands), Emmaus Winter School, NSW Home Workers Conference, Christian Camping Conferences etc. In later years, recordings were done for Christian Womens Convention International ‘Know Your Bible’ courses for the print handicapped. With CDs taking over from cassettes, it was time to retire in 1995. The recording equipment was donated to Julie Loudon, who continues cassette ministry among non readers in Congo, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and other countries.

Hugh & Marie’s recordings are identifiable by codes like A56 or F12. When edited the codes will have another F placed before them ie. FA56 and FF12. ‘F’ standing for ‘Fletcher’.

Des & Dorothy Baird and Hugh & Marie Fletcher recorded the vast majority of the ministry recordings available on this site, others have been provided from other sources.

Hugh has digitised all of his cassettes and they are already on this site.

Others to be thanked

Barbara Feehely who is now digitising thousands of cassettes, making them ready for this website.

Maurice Helwig, of Acacia Ridge Gospel Hall, who also works with the Queensland Mailbox Bible Club, for his ongoing help in setting up this website, hardware and with coding problems.

Jason Dorsett who is helping rebuild the website so it looks better and is easier to search.

Dale Helwig for setting up and continuing support in running the server from which this website runs.

Tim Akehurst, our son, for helping with artwork and coding.

Colin Winrow who runs the NSW Christian Brethren website, for editing recordings, technical and coding advice.

Melissa Marianciuc for editing recordings.

Dwight Beavers and Mike Flester from the Voices For Christ website.

Peter Chamberlain for doing the initial digitising of Hugh & Marie Fletcher’s recordings and encouraging Hugh to continue with the others.

Heather and Ian Fletcher for helping their father (Hugh) while digitising.

Many others not mentioned, yet their help is much appreciated. This includes assemblies and individuals who have provided their collections of cassettes for digitising.