About Family Times
Lou Nicholes
In July 1954, while in the United States Army and on a troop ship headed for Germany, a navy chaplain led him to Christ. Twenty-six hundred men were on board the ship, and ten came to a meeting, but Lou was the only one who responded to an invitation to receive Christ. Praise the Lord!
While attending Philadelphia Biblical University Lou met his wife Thelma who was also a farm girl from southern Illinois and they were married. At the end of Lou’s senior year in college, Paul Bubar, from Word of Life Fellowship, came to speak at a chapel service. He told how they were starting a Bible Club ministry for local churches and he was recruiting missionaries to go to different parts of the United States. Lou was very interested in youth work and knew this was his answer to prayer. He applied and was accepted to pioneer the new Bible Club program in Ohio.
It was a great experience for Lou to have a part in developing materials and programs for Bible Clubs in local churches. This included Bible studies, discipleship, evangelistic outreach and leadership training programs. In addition to pioneering several types of evangelistic outreaches, and starting a camp and Bible school scholarship program for those who wanted to excel in their spiritual growth, he also helped start a program called Teens Involved, which helps teen-age young people discover and develop their talents and abilities for the Lord.
Over the next 26 years God miraculously blessed with 262 Bible Clubs in local churches and approximately 1,200 laymen leading them. By this time a team of missionaries had been formed under Lou’s direction in the Midwest. He then left the Midwest to pioneer a short-term missions program for Word of Life called Youth Reachout. For twelve years Lou trained and took over two thousand young people to 42 countries around the world. The Lord worked through the lives of these young people as they ministered in churches, public schools, prisons, hospitals, orphanages, army bases, and many other types of evangelistic outreaches. It was exciting and a privilege to see over 40,000 people of all ages make public decisions for Jesus Christ.
In the year 2000 Lou was asked to become the representative for Word of Life in Asia, where over sixty percent of the world’s population is located. A high percentage of these are young people. In 1988 his two sons began pioneering Word of Life in South Korea and in 2003 his daughter and her husband joined the Asia team and began pioneering a new Word of Life ministry in Taiwan. It is very exciting for Lou and Thelma to be recruiting staff and helping to open new countries in that part of the world where all of their children and grandchildren are.
In 1967 Lou developed a devotional guide in his office called the Word of Life Quiet-Time Diary which is now used by thousands of young people and adults around the world. It takes you through the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse in a six year cycle. Over the years it has been his privilege and that of each member of his family to go through the Bible several times this way writing down thoughts and application. As a result he has written his own daily devotional commentary on the entire Word of God and so far published 10 books which can be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.christianbook.com/ or http://www.bn.com/
In July 1954, while in the United States Army and on a troop ship headed for Germany, a navy chaplain led him to Christ. Twenty-six hundred men were on board the ship, and ten came to a meeting, but Lou was the only one who responded to an invitation to receive Christ. Praise the Lord!
While attending Philadelphia Biblical University Lou met his wife Thelma who was also a farm girl from southern Illinois and they were married. At the end of Lou’s senior year in college, Paul Bubar, from Word of Life Fellowship, came to speak at a chapel service. He told how they were starting a Bible Club ministry for local churches and he was recruiting missionaries to go to different parts of the United States. Lou was very interested in youth work and knew this was his answer to prayer. He applied and was accepted to pioneer the new Bible Club program in Ohio.
It was a great experience for Lou to have a part in developing materials and programs for Bible Clubs in local churches. This included Bible studies, discipleship, evangelistic outreach and leadership training programs. In addition to pioneering several types of evangelistic outreaches, and starting a camp and Bible school scholarship program for those who wanted to excel in their spiritual growth, he also helped start a program called Teens Involved, which helps teen-age young people discover and develop their talents and abilities for the Lord.
Over the next 26 years God miraculously blessed with 262 Bible Clubs in local churches and approximately 1,200 laymen leading them. By this time a team of missionaries had been formed under Lou’s direction in the Midwest. He then left the Midwest to pioneer a short-term missions program for Word of Life called Youth Reachout. For twelve years Lou trained and took over two thousand young people to 42 countries around the world. The Lord worked through the lives of these young people as they ministered in churches, public schools, prisons, hospitals, orphanages, army bases, and many other types of evangelistic outreaches. It was exciting and a privilege to see over 40,000 people of all ages make public decisions for Jesus Christ.
In the year 2000 Lou was asked to become the representative for Word of Life in Asia, where over sixty percent of the world’s population is located. A high percentage of these are young people. In 1988 his two sons began pioneering Word of Life in South Korea and in 2003 his daughter and her husband joined the Asia team and began pioneering a new Word of Life ministry in Taiwan. It is very exciting for Lou and Thelma to be recruiting staff and helping to open new countries in that part of the world where all of their children and grandchildren are.
In 1967 Lou developed a devotional guide in his office called the Word of Life Quiet-Time Diary which is now used by thousands of young people and adults around the world. It takes you through the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse in a six year cycle. Over the years it has been his privilege and that of each member of his family to go through the Bible several times this way writing down thoughts and application. As a result he has written his own daily devotional commentary on the entire Word of God and so far published 10 books which can be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.christianbook.com/ or http://www.bn.com/