The United States Census Bureau recently reported that there are approximately 67.8 million people in the US that speak a language other than English at home. This works out to about one person in five who prefers a language different than English. Although America has always been a melting pot, the number of people moving here from foreign countries dropped steadily during the 20th century to somewhat less than 5%. However, that began to change around 1970, building back up to the present heavy mix of foreign speakers.

That is the reason why Chick Publications is so pleased to be able to offer gospel tracts in more than 140 languages. The translations originally were made so that the tracts would be a powerful witness in the home countries of these people who have come to the US. And Chick Publications has shipped millions of those foreign language tracts overseas to missionaries.

But since we started supplying the missionaries with those translations, an entire foreign mission field has developed right in our own backyard. While some of these people have gathered in enclaves for common culture, many have dispersed into the neighborhoods where you and I live. A few minutes standing outside of a Walmart watching the crowd come and go will tell you a lot about the language mix in your community.

Because Spanish is by far the largest group in the US, almost all of the titles that we supply are available in Spanish. Whenever we produce a new tract, we always publish it in both English and Spanish. Many Bible-believing churches have sponsored Spanish language services in their churches and find that Chick tracts are very effective in attracting Spanish speakers to those services.

The most difficult part of approaching this diverse field is knowing which language an individual is going to prefer when you go to offer them a tract. Sometimes you can guess from their appearance, but it is difficult to carry enough variety to work for everyone.

Some enterprising tract passers have gotten permission to man a book table in a high traffic area. This is a huge advantage when you have a variety of language groups. Those passing by can review the table and will usually get excited when they see something in their original language. You know when they take it that it will surely get read, probably by several other family members.

When you determine which foreign speakers are  in your community, we often have more than one title in that language so you can rotate your display as needed.

As with any street witnessing effort, you will be asked questions about the gospel. This will help you discover the kind of answers that you need to learn. Because many foreign language speakers will have a background in Catholicism or Islam, Chick Publications has paperbacks outlining the teachings of these two major religions. We also have material on the worldviews of Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Most of the major language groups also have large communities here of people who speak that language. But many minor language groups also live in our neighborhoods. For example, there are over 300 000 Thailanders in the US. Over 2 million sub-Saharan African immigrants reside in the U.S. They speak a wide variety of languages, but over the years, missionaries there have helped us publish many of those languages.

When you happen to live where there is a significant concentration of one language, your church evangelism team can take advantage of our deep quantity discounts. When you purchase a complete press run of 10,000 copies of a title, we can supply them at 50% discount from retail and print your message on the back cover at no extra charge.

Gospel tracts are one of the best ways to reach a large number of people at minimal cost.

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