So How Many People Listen?

And a chance to change the world

Hello and welcome to a quick end-of-2023 edition of The Latest. I have news to celebrate with you: this month, Holy Ghost Stories crossed the 400,000 total downloads mark.

🎉🎉🎉

So many of those downloads were listened to in cars or homes by couples or families, but if every one of them represented just a single person listening, that would equate to twelve million minutes spent with the God-soaked stories of Scripture. That’s 200,000 hours of people around the world encountering Yahweh in faith-shaping ways.

And every single minute was given away for free.

That’s the deal around here. Holy Ghost Stories is an ever-expanding free resource for individuals, families, small groups, Bible classes, and recovery groups across (and beyond) the USA. Researching, writing, recording, and scoring 15-17 episodes every year is a full-time job, so how can I devote all of my time to creating Holy Ghost Stories and then give it away?

You’re how.

I share what I have with you, and then you share what you have with me. Some of you give $10 a month, some of you give $25 every once in a while, some of you have given $10,000 or $12,000 at a time, and others have given even more. This year, all of that added up to a budget that enabled me to create HGS and partner with Kendall Ramseur to create the Exodus series with an incredible original score. Praise God, and thank you.

And 2024? Well, so far I’ve got 63% of my salary squared away. Which means, of course, there’s 37% to go. Is my heart beating quickly as we enter this new year? Why yes. But I’m praying and trusting that God will enable me to do the work to which He’s called. My vision for HGS, though, goes far beyond what’s happening now. I want to be able to devote manpower to marketing so that these stories find themselves into more ears and hearts. I want to partner with a composer to create more series like the Exodus. I want to be able to take Holy Ghost Stories Live into more cities, schools, and churches—and even into prisons around the country. I’ll stop there, but suffice it to say: so much is possible—so many moments of life-changing encounter with the God who dwells in His stories, but we have to make it happen together.

If every person who regularly listens to Holy Ghost Stories pitched in with a monthly gift of $7, Hazefire Studios would have an annual budget of over $700,000. We could do so many amazing things with that.

Of course, every listener won’t give $7.

Most—even the people who never miss an episode of HGS and are brought to tears as they listen—won’t give anything at all.

But some will.

If that’s you, here’s where to give a tax-deductible year-end gift right and join the tribe of saints changing the world through Story:

Thanks for listening, thanks for sharing, and thanks for giving.

Happy New Year,
Justin