Thru the Bible Transforming Lives

During a trip across Europe, Harry Bettig found, to his joy and surprise, that new and old fields are ripe for a gospel harvest. (Harry Bettig meeting a staff member of Ikonos Media, TWR's partner in Serbia)

Thousands of lives have been transformed by the impact of the Thru The Bible (TTB) series. During a trip across Europe, Harry Bettig found, to his joy and surprise, that new and old fields are ripe for a gospel harvest.

Bettig, the TTB liaison with TWR (Trans World Radio), started his travels in Bratislava, Slovakia, and continued to Serbia, Greece and Cyprus. He was greatly encouraged, Bettig said, by those using the biblical teaching series created by Vernon McGee.

While methods have changed, with much of Europe moving away from shortwave and medium-wave to an online presence, the power of Scripture remains. During his time in Serbia, in particular, Bettig saw the impact of TTB programmes:

“I remember a young guy, Marko, came to the restaurant and met with us, and he said, ‘You know, when you're born, when you're a Serb born in Serbia, you're automatically a Christian. You go to the Orthodox Church, you're a Christian.’ And then he discovered TWR’s Thru The Bible programming. Eventually the guy realized and said to himself, ‘I'm a Christian on paper only. I'm no different than non-Christians.’ He realised he needed to be walking with Jesus, and now he is someone who is truly following Jesus and is part of a Bible Club.”

Two new online projects have begun in recent years in Bosnia and North Macedonia, and there has been substantial growth in the number of listeners. The team in Bosnia are reporting that they now have 13,000 followers on Facebook alone.

Ikonos Media, TWR's partner in Serbia also is developing their TTB output with six derivatives from the original programming. Besides the already completed 30-minute programme, there is a 10-minute version, a one-minute programme to grab the attention of people online, one-hour video documentaries on several books of the Bible, a weekend TTB summary, and additional short promotional spots for social media.

The trip to Serbia came on the back of Bettig starting his journey in Bratislava, where he presented a plaque of appreciation to Peter Kolarovsky for completing the voicing of the entire five-year TTB series in the Slovak language, and for the Slovakia team’s five years of dedicated service to broadcasting TTB programming.

The Slovak TTB programmes are aired on Radio Lumen, covering all of Slovakia. They are also distributed via social media platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram) and on podcast platforms such as Spotify and Apple. Altogether, for the last quarter of 2025, there were 64,470 online views/listens of the Slovak TTB programme – and that doesn’t include radio listeners.

As well as encouraging the team in Greece with their TTB output, he also had the joy of meeting the Russian ministry friends team while on this trip and getting an insight into the work in Algeria. Bettig commented: 

“Overall, it was a very encouraging trip to Europe, and it was great to be able to return to the States and tell everyone how Thru The Bible continues to make such an impact on more and more lives.”