In 1904, Helen married evangelist Charles Alexander,  who officially organized The League with Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman in Philadelphia, PA in March 1908. Alexander had been associated with the prominent evangelist Dwight L. Moody. His experience in worldwide evangelism gave huge impetus to The League. 

In 1914, The Pocket Testament League opened an office in London, and began sharing Gospels as part of its WWI outreach. In October of that year, an evangelism campaign gave out 400,000 New Testaments to soldiers on Salisbury Plain. 

Throughout the roaring twenties, Members of The Pocket Testament League formed teams of ministry workers in factories and offices, sharing Christ with their co-workers by handing out Gospels and organizing Bible Studies. During the bleak period of the 1930’s known as the Great Depression, Members of The League shared Gospels through the Civilian Conservation Corps in the South and throughout New England. The Corps was a government-organized effort to put jobless men to work on public projects.

As WW2 roared across Europe, its impact was felt by The League. On December 29, 1941 The League’s International Headquarters in Birmingham, England was destroyed by bombs. Throughout the war, League teams visited military camps around the US sharing special editions of the New Testament. 

From humble beginnings, The League has brought the truth of God’s Word to millions for more than 100 years.

As the war came to a close, The League extended its reach overseas. After a year of careful planning and prayer, an overseas Scripture sharing effort was launched in China using a special Chinese edition of the Gospel of John. A few years later, The League began providing Gospels and New Testaments to Formosa and Japan. General MacArthur asked The League for 10 million copies of God’s Word. Members of The Pocket Testament League actually contributed a stunning 11 million Gospels to the nation of Japan through gracious giving and prayer. This is especially remarkable because Gospels in those days were considerably more expensive than they are today, and Members paid for them.

Aa result of these Gospels shared in Japan, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, who had once led the attack on Pearl Harbor, accepted Christ as his Savior. He even worked for The League! Scriptures were also shared in South Korea after the Korean War. Syngman Rhee, president of the Republic of Korea, said “realizing the power of the inspired Word of God as I do, I eagerly welcome the plan of The Pocket Testament League to distribute millions of copies of the Holy Scriptures in our country.” 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower knew the importance of sharing God’s Word. He said “In the highest sense the Bible is…the ultimate and indispensable source of inspiration for America’s life in freedom.” He publicly acknowledged the efforts of The League, saying that “The Pocket Testament League, and all others engaged in distributing the Bible, have dedicated themselves to a noble work.”

During the 1950’s, The League’s foreign secretary, a man named Glenn Wagner, traveled extensively to encourage leaders to bring their people back to the Bible. Through his influence, many initiatives were developed around the world, and many people came to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by reading God’s Word. In Africa alone, more than 5 million Gospels were shared in a number of languages during the 1950’s. In 1962, at the height of the Cold War, a youth outreach initiative shared the Gospel in communist areas through 18,000 young people from 137 countries. By the time the cold war ended in 1988, The League had managed to get 100,000 Gospels of John and 15,000 Russian-language Bibles into the Soviet Union. 

A radio show called “News in a Different Dimension” featuring Victor Beattie aired in 1963, bringing awareness of The League through 200 radio stations reaching 39 states and 15 foreign countries. Reporting news of “spiritual significance,” Beattie would often deliver on-the-scene action accounts of League activities.  

The Cold War and Vietnam years con’t 

Billy Graham was a great encouragement to The League, commenting that “I am completely sold on the work of The Pocket Testament League, and continue to pray for those associated with it.” 

During the Vietnam War, two and a half million Gospels were shared with servicemen and Vietnamese. Bi-centennial Gospels were shared with all the members of Congress in 1976. Hundreds of thousands of special Olympic covers were shared at a number of Olympic games. 

Honesty compels a true telling of The League’s story. In the tumult of the late 20th century, The League faced several challenges. 

• The theology of missions and evangelism were changing. The move to indigenous missionaries was underway, and the crusades across continents that marked 50 years of The League’s methodology were sunsetting. Further, Glen Wagner, our main evangelist needed to retire. 

•  The Five Decade history of crusades through the world left small groups of League Evangelists across the globe that needed monetary support. While it took time for the financial demands to grow, it seemed that in an instant, the pull felt by the League’s financial resources had not been earlier present. 

• An approach to globalization empowered each evangelist to choose the best method to reach their people – this decision, when combined with the above factors – led The League to largely no longer “lead with the Word of God”. Godly evangelists, laboring in very difficult situations, had lost the essence of The League. 

As The League and the world, were turning into the 21st century, God, in his mercy, had The League’s leadership awaken to the situation. The League did the hard work of returning itself to its purpose–inviting people to meet Jesus, simply with the powerful Word of God. 

In 2018, 125 years after Helen first speaking with her friend, 130 million people had been invited to meet Jesus with the living Word of God.  

In late 2020, to keep pace with global connection and digital trends, The Pocket Testament League launched its mobile app READ CARRY SHARE®. It was created to equip believers in North America to share the Gospel straight from their phones—anytime, anywhere. 

But God had bigger plans. 

What began as a tool for one region quickly expanded across borders. The app found its way into the hands of seekers around the world. In just five years, it’s estimated that 20 million people will have read the Gospel of John in their own language through the app. 

The mobile app rapidly multiplied our Gospel reach, opening digital doors into places we can’t easily go to with printed Gospels, especially in the 10/40 Window. There, where restrictions are high and access to Scripture is limited, the demand for the app continues to grow. 

Today our purpose to invite everyone to meet Jesus—happens both in digital and printed pocket-sized Gospels of John.