One Tuesday, while fueling up at a truck stop, he saw a tattered flyer pinned under a payphone. It read: “Do you have questions about the Bible? No internet? No problem. Free Baptist Bible Courses by Mail. Lesson 1: ‘Where Do We Go When We Die?’ Write to: Elder Thomas Wade, Box 42, Liberty, KY.” Carlos ripped off the bottom tab. It felt old-fashioned, even silly. But that night, alone in his cab with the hum of the refrigerator, he wrote a short note: “I don’t know anything about the Bible. But I’m scared I’m going to the wrong place. Send the first lesson.” Two weeks later, in Liberty, Kentucky, 74-year-old Thomas Wade sorted through the day’s mail at his kitchen table. He had run this ministry for 22 years, ever since his eyesight got too poor to pastor a full church. He had 114 active students—inmates, nursing home residents, deployed soldiers, and people like Carlos.
He stamped it and walked it to the blue mailbox on the corner. That was his church now. That blue box. Carlos received the packet three days later. He sat in his trailer with a cup of black coffee. The first question made him pause: “According to Romans 3:23, have you sinned? Yes or No.” free baptist bible correspondence courses by mail
They never met. They never spoke on the phone. But Carlos began to notice changes. He stopped cursing at slow drivers. He started praying before his pre-trip inspection. The loneliness didn’t vanish, but it began to fill with something else—a quiet sense that someone, and Someone, was listening. The final lesson was Lesson 12: Assurance of Salvation. Carlos completed it, but added a postscript on a napkin: One Tuesday, while fueling up at a truck
Thomas Wade wiped his glasses and pinned the form to his corkboard. Then he took down the next packet—Lesson 1—and began to write. No problem