Tim Snyder, president of the non-profit Spoken Word Ministries, demonstrates how to use an eReader or Refreshable Braille Display. Volunteers are needed to prepare books to be loaded onto eReaders for use by the blind and visually impaired. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
The BrailleAudio arm of Spoken Word Ministries provides audio versions of Christian-themed books — both non-fiction and fiction — to be played on digital talking book players like this one. Volunteers are needed to record books. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Spoken Word Ministries is located at 205 W. John St. in Mount Olive. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Spoken Word Ministries is housed in an unassuming, one-story, brick building, under the shade of a couple of tall pines, on a quiet lot on John Street. Its modest presence belies the important work the Mount Olive non-profit is doing, providing free services, worldwide, to the blind and visually impaired.
Tim Snyder, 64, has spent most of his working life heading up the ministry, and it might seem as though this was a natural calling for him, given that he, himself, is blind. In fact, it was not.
During the summer of his junior year at the Governor Morehead School, a residential school in Raleigh for blind and visually impaired students, “I felt called to the ministry,” remembers Snyder, who was born prematurely and whose blindness resulted from high oxygen levels in his incubator. “I didn’t know what form or shape that would take. But two things I didn’t want to do: I didn’t want to work with blind people…because I wanted to demonstrate that, hey, you know what, I’m like everybody else, I don’t have to be pigeon-holed into that category. So, that was one thing I explained to the Lord. Another thing is, I didn’t want to do any kind of mission work. So, I had very clear understandings, I thought, with the Lord.”
Following his graduation from the Governor Morehead School, Snyder earned a B.A. in Speech Communications from UNC Chapel Hill and a Master of Divinity from Duke University. He then served a short stint as an assistant pastor in a Raleigh church, before feeling compelled to go to England to volunteer with a Christian ministry called The Torch Trust for the Blind. Snyder laughs now, as he recalls how quickly his directives to the Lord were dispensed with.
Eventually — after returning to the U.S. to again serve as an associate pastor in Raleigh and then making another brief trip to England — Snyder, with help from several other men (mostly ministers), launched Spoken Word Ministries in Raleigh on December 9, 1987. “Our goal,” he explains, “was to provide Christian literature and personal ministry to those who are blind and visually impaired. So we began to do that by producing an audio-tape magazine called The Spoken Word.” The magazine, on cassette, ran for 30 years.
“As far as personal ministry,” Snyder recalls, “we had fellowship meetings, where blind people would gather and have a meal and a speaker and so forth.”
The office for Spoken Word Ministries moved to Goldsboro, before relocating to Mount Olive in 2000.
The way in which the organization accomplishes its stated goal has evolved, so there are now two basic ministries under the Spoken Word umbrella: the Interactive Christian Community (ICC) and BrailleAudio.
ICC hosts online prayer times, Bible studies and other special programs via the platforms Zoom and TeamTalk. Anyone, anywhere in the world, with a computer and internet access can participate; in fact, Snyder points out, participation in the ICC isn’t limited to those who are blind or visually impaired. “We’re blind-friendly, not blind-focused,” he says of this program.
BrailleAudio, Snyder explains, “is a Christian resource library. It contains braille books and audio teachings,” which it currently distributes to its blind and visually impaired members throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand to other countries. “This is a growing ministry,” Snyder notes. Books in this program are always Christian-based, but include both fiction and nonfiction.
Participation in ICC and BrailleAudio is free.
Snyder, in addition to being the president of Spoken Word Ministries, is also the organization’s only employee, therefore he relies heavily on help from volunteers, which currently number 15 to 20. He welcomes and encourages involvement from locals, although proximity to Mount Olive isn’t a requirement; at this time, he has volunteers from as far away as California, Ohio, Georgia, and Canada.
Greg Thompson, of Barrie, Ontario (about 50 miles north of Toronto) retired from computer programming in 2005 and began trying various types of volunteer work, but, he says, “It was getting less and less meaningful.”
Around 2016, he heard about Spoken Word Ministries, reached out to Snyder, and volunteered to work on a project for the organization. One reason this ministry called out to him is that he has been blind his entire life. The project went very well, and Snyder asked if he’d consider doing more.
Thompson wasn’t sure. But, he says, “I am a Christian and a follower of Christ. God called my heart.”
Unlike previous groups with whom he volunteered, Thompson insists that with Spoken Word Ministries, “There’s no strife. We all choose to put Jesus first. We work together cooperatively.
“I’m so thankful for what I can do,” he continues. “I’ve been given the right mix of gifts to fit into this.”
Thompson’s expertise with computers has dictated his work with Spoken Word Ministries. He revamped the BrailleAudio website, has helped with streaming programs, and has become “a very popular support resource” for blind and visually impaired people who are experiencing problems with their personal computers.
It is not, however, necessary to have this level of expertise to volunteer with Spoken Word Ministries. Volunteer opportunities include: leading online programs through the ICC ministry; preparing books to be uploaded to braille e-readers (through a process that includes scanning the books and converting the results to RTF files); and reading books aloud to produce audio versions that can be listened to on digital talking book players (Snyder allows that synthesized voices could be used, but, he maintains, “People get tired of hearing a synthesized voice. There’s still nothing to replace a human being.”).
Whereas many organizations are set up such that volunteers must report to a specific place to perform their tasks, that isn’t the case with Spoken Word Ministries. Usually, volunteers work from their own homes, and they’re free, of course, to choose how often they want to volunteer. Snyder also encourages church groups to volunteer together, so members can support, help, and pray for one another.
Besides volunteering, Snyder notes that there are other ways in which people can offer support to Spoken Word Ministries — through financial contributions and through prayer.
Spoken Word Ministries is located at 205 W. John St. For more information, go to the organization’s Facebook page, call Tim Snyder at 919-635-1000, or go to ICCsite.org or brailleaudio.org.
