Since 1981, GTM Inc. has travelled the globe, empowering people to find faith in Christ. This has been done through music and mentoring. Over the years, they have planted 50+ churches and given out 430,000 Bibles in 13 languages. The team has done over 134 mission trips. As Jim says, "No wonder I’m so tired!"
Originally started to bring the gospel to communist nations, GTM smuggled thousands of Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, many by hiding them in their music gear – like their loud speakers. The team recalls the joy on the faces of people holding their own Bible for the first time. It drove the team to make an impact in secular venues throughout its history.
Through their concert outreach and work with the USO, the team opened up a division of GTM, “Tee Shirts 4 Troops,” to provide care and comfort to wounded troops. “It starts with a superhero T-Shirt and leads to a relationship where we offer help to repurpose their broken lives,” Debbie says. They have given over 19,000 T-Shirts to almost 11,500 wounded troops. And the work continues.
Late in 2014, the team suffered its greatest tragedy: Debbie Peters, wife and life partner of Jim Peters, died suddenly from a massive stroke in just four days. Since that date, the team has continued its work with wounded troops, but with a new touch. “I now identify with the wounded at a completely different level and they understand my loss in a way I never thought they would. It’s as though I’m now on the other side of the bed.”
Mission Plus 1 is the newest branch of GTM and lies under the Tee Shirts 4 Troops umbrella. There are 22 vets a day that choose to take their own lives. There are 2 million troops that have been in this war since '91 and the number of deaths is staggering. It’s what drives GTM to continue to pour their lives into these valuable ‘superheroes’. Jim says, “we can’t afford to lose even one life, much less 22 per day.”
As one of our wounded warriors says to us, “Never lack the courage to reach out.” That works both ways. We civilians must be the hand reaching out to them. Together we can, as the GTM mission statement says, “Take the gospel to where it’s desperately needed and hardest to find."