About Us
The History And Purpose of This Ministry:
In February 1952, Fred Wittman, an ordained pastor, founded the ministry of Happy Heralds. Although this name may sound unusual, it made perfect sense to Fred Wittman, and here’s why.
Webster’s defines a “Herald” as an “official messenger that conveys news”. The founders of Happy Heralds were indeed happy to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in spreading the gospel through the spoken and printed Word.
Happy Heralds started out with tent evangelistic meetings, radio broadcasts, and printed tracts as a means of contacting and reaching people for Christ.
In November 30, 1954 Happy Heralds was incorporated under the State of Delaware and recognized as a tax-exempt by the United States Government and the IRS and authorized to issue tax-deductible receipts for contributions received.
In the 1960 and 1970’s, the work continued. Fred pulled the entire Wittman family together to help with the mission, where the family traveled as “The Musical Wittmans”.
He also spread the Gospel through the medium of radio with fifteen-minute weekly Gospel broadcasts in addition to printing and distributing hundreds of thousands of Gospel tracts (multiple titles) in addition to tens of thousands of copies of These Last Days, which is still the most circulated of all publications to date.
Australian Bible Seminary Founded By Dr. Fred Wittman
In the 1980’s, Fred Wittman went back to seminary and earned his Master’s and Doctorate degrees. With the additional education, the Lord called his to the mission field in Australia, where he founded the Australian Bible Seminary.
It became evident that many pastors were not trained to fulfill the final command of Christ before He ascended into Heaven – “Make Disciples”. The ministry of Happy Heralds continued to focus on evangelism, but, it became evident that the Element Of Spiritual Growth Was Essential.
Creating Resources for Your Personal Spiritual Journey
So, Dr. Wittman embarked on Developing Resources for pastors and lay teachers to close the ever-widening gap between bringing people to Christ the Savior, and helping those along their spiritual journey of being imitators of Christ (I Cor 11:1).
It was during this time, Dr. Wittman wrote the Babes and Children books, specifically for pastors & lay teachers to help them equip the church with tools of spiritual growth.
A Precise Translation of The Bible
In The Original 1st Century Koine Greek As it was Written
In the 1990’s, Dr. Wittman continued studying The Word of God and discovered that most of our translations came from the third century Greek and not necessarily the Koine Greek of the first century when Christ walked on the earth. Once again to aid in study, Dr. Wittman began the journey of precisely translating from the original koine Greek the entire New Testament, which he completed just weeks before the Lord called him home in June of 2020.
While Dr. Wittman was hard at work with the APT (A Precise Translation), the leadership of Happy Heralds changed to accommodate the massive undertaking of the APT project. They continued the work of spreading the Word of God through the medium of the internet, where it continues today – spreading the Gospel and providing tools for spiritual growth for the journey. There are digital copies of the tools available on the website and we continue to send printed copies upon request.
Throughout the years, Happy Heralds has fulfilled this ministry through the prayers from those who have been passionate about spreading the Gospel, but also those passionate about the crucial ministry of continued spiritual growth, and generous gifts of those that the Holy Spirit has moved in their hearts to give.
The Mission Carries On Through The Wittman Family
In 2021, the reins of leadership was given back to the Wittman family, where Pete Wittman (the youngest of the Wittman’s children) was voted as President to spearhead the next phase. Pete has been trained by his father for 45 years, and has led others to Christ through his ministry of teaching.
In addition Dr. Wittman’s daughters, Faith and Gayle are Board Members to help with the task of providing a spiritual path forward for those who wish to get closer to Christ and fulfill his commands to us.
The mission remains the same, but you may have noticed that “Spread the Word” has been mentioned many times and capsulizes what the ministry is all about and will continue with that same mission under the name www.SpreadtheWord.Life.
We have been hard at work on the website to bring you the Gospel and the tools to help you on your spiritual journey as each day we pressed on to become more like Christ. If you find your heart being touched and the Holy Spirit lays it on your heart to help us help others along “The Way”, please give a gift or contact us if you have ideas on how we might have a bigger impact for Christ.