He may be blind now, but Kirk Sethman, aka Seth, has seen some life. A reformed drug addict, Seth spent his younger years as a renegade, dabbling in crime, running from the law, and even dodging bounty hunters. At one point, he was facing a life sentence for petty crime but had that sentence miraculously reduced to two years. In short, Seth is probably one of the last people you’d expect to be heading up his own Bible outreach ministry.
Yet here he is today, buying thousands of Bibles and giving them away for free to those in need of hope like he was. Giving them to those in jails, juvenile detention centers, urgent cares, hospitals, nursing homes, college campuses, and airports. Many of these people speak other languages, which is what drew him to CLC’s Multi-Language Media Ministry, a source of economic Bibles and Christian literature in over 120 languages.
Seth’s journey to this ministry has not been an easy one. A couple of years after he made a turn towards Christ in 1996, Seth went into children’s ministry, a happy change from his life of drugs and crime. Then came a fateful post under the charismatic but since disgraced pastor Ted Haggard, formerly of New Life in Colorado Springs. His experiences at New Life culminated in a particularly devastating discovery that shattered Seth, who had cared for some of the youth Haggard had preyed upon. Though Seth had intended to protect the youth and his church, the incident propelled his descent back into drugs and darkness. This deep, destructive depression was compounded by life-threatening infections, which left Seth blind and in a nursing home at age fifty-seven.
Then Seth had what he describes as a life-altering vision from God of being wholly cleansed from sin. He was a changed man, truly born again with a new and revolutionary desire to live for Christ. In his physical blindness and weakness, Seth learned what it meant to live out Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Since he was now blind, Seth began to listen to an audio Bible. He wanted others to experience this radical life change, so he bought seven copies of the NIV Live Audio Bible to give to others. Soon he was buying printed Bibles and praying that the Spirit would bring an audience to mind for them. And He did. Again, and again, and again. With a few key donors and the critical help of his eighty-eight-year-old mother, Marlene, Seth has been able to distribute over 17,000 Bibles since 2017.
And the work is far from over. Seth continues to seek new places of distribution through earnest prayer and follows up on ideas with phone calls. There is also the continued burden he feels for youth who are preyed upon and churches deceived by leaders like Haggard. This is a particularly acute spiritual battle that he recognizes is raging and he wants the larger church to be aware and prepared.
Seth is adamant that we can move forward rejoicing despite pain or inconveniences like blindness: “Don’t give up, keep your eyes on God and stay in the Word. He has a plan and purpose for each person, and we must be willing … and willing to suffer. He never said it’ll be easy, but it’s worth it.
