Ablaze! in the Northern Illinois District

Phadi is a pharmacist. She is very good with her patients and very caring. She tries to help her customers feel as well as they can, and they have learned to trust her and count on her to tell them the truth. Phadi was introduced to spiritual vitamin jars at her church. Almost right away she envisioned a jar on the counter where patients come to get their medicine. It was a big hit; many times patients would come in just to get their spiritual vitamin as they learned more about the Lord and his care for them.

The manager of the drug store was Muslim but saw the value in giving his customers that extra assurance. He even paid for the "vitamin" refills.

One day a teenage girl came in to get medicine for her grandmother, and she took a spiritual vitamin from the counter. Each time she came to get the medicine she took another vitamin. After a few months she told Phadi that she had been on drugs when she first started coming in. The Word of God in the vitamin jar spoke to her, however, and she got off of drugs and now wants to help others get off them too. God's Word brings forth fruit.

This ministry at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Joliet, Illinois, was first started by Nancy Schlote, church member and pastor's wife. She was in the habit of giving out decorated jars that held cards printed with the promise verses from Scripture. After receiving one of these jars as a baptism gift, a friend (a new Christian) showed the "spiritual vitamins" to her friends in an AA recovery group. They found the verses very encouraging and wanted more. Most of the people in that group had thought of God's Word only as a list of "thou shalt nots" telling them how their sins would send them to hell; in their eyes they had no hope. When they discovered that the Bible was filled with a lot of promises for them, including forgiveness of sins and that God's Holy Spirit would give them strength to stay sober, they all wanted a jar. Nancy tells where it went from there: "My friend came to me and said, Nancy, we have to go into business. There are a lot of hurting people out there who need to know about this Jesus."

The rest is a story of the rapid growth and interest in of a witnessing and outreach tool that shares God's promises through printed cards called "spiritual vitamins." A modest price was charged to cover the cost of jars and printing, and people began buying them to give out as gifts, including sharing them with friends and family in other countries.

"To date we have jars in 18 countries and in English, Spanish, Tamil and Malayalam (both in India) plus a recent request for jars in Haitian Kreol," Nancy says.

The jars also are now being made in India by a friend of Nancy's, a native of India. This friend has already made and given out many hundreds of jars, despite the fact that being a Christian in that locale still brings much prejudice and being caught with a Bible can lead to punishment. "These jars can be carried or kept in the open because no one will know they contain the Word of God, which they need for faith and encouragement," Nancy adds.

Money from the sale of spiritual vitamin jars at Our Savior now helps to support an orphanage in India and an orphan home in Haiti.

Jars of spiritual vitamins sell for $8 each. If you'd like to know more about them contact Nancy Schlote at the church office. People desiring to buy them can send a check for $8 per jar to Our Savior Lutheran Church, 1910 Black Road, Joliet, IL 60435; phone 815-725-1606. (Be sure to note in the check memo that it's for "vitamin jars.")