By staff, First Baptist Chalmette
“I am typing this email with my eyes.”
The writer of the email was Wesley Harville, a disabled pastor in Arkansas afflicted with ALS. The email was sent to John Dee Jeffries, long-term pastor of First Baptist Church in Chalmette, who recently launched a Christian book publishing house.
Jeffries shared that what began as a hobby quickly became a business then a ministry – Published By Parables, a full-service Christian publishing house that is printing Christian books for distribution around the world – for free.
“I have no use of my legs, my lung muscles are weak which greatly limits my speaking abilities and my arms and hands are almost useless. I cannot use a standard keyboard or phone. I am typing this with eye recognition technology. Yes sir, I am typing with my eyes.”
“Physically, Wesley may be knocked down,” related Jeffries, “but he’s standing up on the inside.”
Published By Parables is about to publish the first of a series of three books for Harville. All three were written with eye recognition technology.
“I asked God to extend and expand my ministry,” related Jeffries, “and He did.”
Published By Parables has published Christian books and books about Jesus for a ninety-year-old senior adult Richard Cortez, who resides in San Antonio, Texas. Jeffries has also published the first of a series of book by Grace Brooks, a popular Christian children’s author out of Canada.
Pastor Chester Harrison from Booneville, Miss., wrote a spiritual biography about his Vietnam experience. Judy Smith of Pearl River wrote a children’s book that focuses on adoption from a Christian perspective. Joan Kennedy, a retired Washington parish school teacher, has submitted a book of poetry for publication and Daniel Middlebrooks, a former chaplain and pastor from Plant City, Fla., is publishing several Christian books, the first is about marriage.
“I’m convinced that God is opening doors and blessing our ministry because we’re striving to get the right books into the right places at the right time for all the right reasons. Our Christian books are like missionaries sowing precious seed. God gives the increase.”
The open doors that Jeffries referred to have enabled Published By Parables to link with a host of Christian professionals across the United States, graphic designers, editors, and other resourceful believers who are engaged professionally in the industry. These relationships have enabled Published By Parables to utilized cutting edge technologies, revolutionary innovations in the industry, global publishing and world-wide distribution.
“Our global distribution partner,” related Jeffries, “has global print facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Christian books published through Published By Parables are available to 39,000+ wholesalers and retailers and 4000+ Christian book stores across the United States.”
If you’ve written a Christian book or a book about Jesus you can contact Jeffries through the Published by Parables website.
“Use our helpful ‘Tell Us’ button,” suggested Jeffries, “and tell us about yourself and your book. If God has called you to be a Christian author-writer and you’ve taken the steps to fulfilling that calling by writing a book, we want to do all that we can to help you publish your book. If our strategy can bless you, great. If not, we’re confident that it will bless others. Know this, God will open doors for you to walk through to enable you to fulfill your call and get your book published.”
