Early Years

Distant Call

I had been intensively studying Hebrew for several years and had read through the entire Hebrew Bible a couple times (not to mention several Hebrew translations of the New Testament) when in the fall of 2007 I sensed a calling to start teaching Hebrew classes across my home province of Saskatchewan. I was reminded of the story of how Saul of Tarsus had a dream in which he saw an anonymous man from Macedonia begging him to come help them and took that as a sign that he should go to Greece. I wondered how many people were out there who were hearing the same things I was in the spirit but were isolated and didn't know what to do next. 

Semitruck Confirmation

Around that time I was excitedly telling a close friend about my vision when a massive semitruck drove past us with the letters TNK bannered across it. As you may know, that's what Jewish people call the Hebrew Bible. I love big trucks so I took that as encouragement and proceeded to storm my province with the TANAKH! I prepared a ten-week Hebrew course and then drove to Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and North Battleford to introduce myself to pastors, put up posters, and reach out everywhere I could. 

Teaching Hebrew

Over the next couple years I taught several hundred students at a Nazarene church, a Charismatic Bible School, the office of a Member of Parliament, and in living rooms, helping people get closer to Yeshua through the language of the Bible that he read. I also taught at the old Baptist church that my Grandfather once pastored, and there in his old office late one night I found a treasure that would go on to become a centerpiece of the Hebrew Quest course I would one day produce...but that's a story for the next chapter. 

Why 'Holy Language'?

I wanted to put my lessons online and also needed a legal entity to run the financial side of my teaching activities through, and thus Holy Language Institute was born! Inspired by the great Christian Hebraists whose stories I tell in Hebrew Quest, I initially considered 'Hebraic Restoration' or 'Hebrew Renaissance' Institute but in the end chose 'Holy Language' as an expression of my core passion to help people encounter Messiah through the holy language of his Jewish people. I applied to the Canadian Government to found an Institute and was approved, which is no small task. Then, on February 14, 2012, Holy Language Institute Inc. was officially recognized by the CRA as a Canadian Charity, which is basically a US 501(c)3 with maple syrup on it. 

Membership

Financial Crisis

In the next story I'll tell you all about Hebrew Quest, our foundational course. When I first released Hebrew Quest back in 2010 I made the entire program available for free and simply asked for donations, but for reasons I still can't figure out most of my students gave back nothing. This was starting to put HLI in the red and was leaving me feeling increasingly hurt and resentful so, at the encouragement of many people, I reluctantly started charging a small one-time $40 donation for access to the course which, thankfully, was enough to pull us out of the nosedive. 

Subscriptions

Then, a couple years after that when I started offering weekly Hebrew Verses studies, we switched from a one-time donation to a small monthly subscription. Initially this was $10/month, which then grew to $25/month or $250/year when we began offering multiple new series. We also offered a reduced scholarship rate of $9/month or $90/year to ensure that finances wouldn't be an issue for students in difficult situations, and even dropped all our rates to only $9/month or $90/year for a couple years, but had to return to our previous rates when that too became financially non-viable. Now, for those who can't afford our standard rates, we offer the old scholarship rates as a promo once a year. 

My Dream

Initially I was deeply disappointed that giving everything away for free didn't work. And honestly, it's still my dream to teach for free, and I believe that one day God will turn this dream he has given me into a reality. In the meantime, requiring a minimal amount is enabling me to support my family and is also helping my students to value their studies more, which I'm told is actually for the best. This has even become one of the three things that Holy Language Institute is most famous for: not only are we passionately Messiah-centered and a real community, but we're also incredibly affordable!

Our Platform

Basic Website

Because we've always offered our quality learning experiences for free or at rock-bottom prices we've never made a lot of money, even though we've had thousands of students. For this reason I've had to learn many skills as we went because we couldn't afford to hire professionals - an approach that's sometimes called 'bootstrapping'. One example would be our website. At the beginning I created it with some very basic WYSIWYG software (short for 'what you see is what you get.') I would then upload lessons to YouTube and embed them on members-only pages which our students accessed with a PayPal subscription. But the software had limitations - I'll never forget how long it took just to make every page mobile-friendy! Then came 2020 when YouTube and PayPal both began censoring and deplatforming at an alarming level. I knew we had to switch platforms, but didn't know where to go. Then came the fall of 2022, and several things converged.

Exciting Discovery

Firstly, my oldest son was born. He wasn't sleeping through the night and my wife was exhausted, so I started getting up halfway through the night to take him and let her get some survival sleep. That gave me extra hours to work. Second, I had experimented with most of the popular website builders (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) but they were all too slow and complicated. Then one day I randomly checked out Google sites, and was surprised to discover that the new Google sites had everything I was looking for! I still remember sitting up late one Friday night, so excited I couldn't sleep, imagining the possibilities. 

Long Nights

The one limitation of Google sites was that I couldn't create a members-only video platform, so I would have to find a separate service for that. Again I scoured the internet and seriously considered Odysee (a censorship-proofed open source platform based on blockchain technology), but they were going through legal battles and I didn't feel right about putting all my financial eggs in that basket. So I kept searching and found Vimeo OTT, which was just right. I spent the rest of the winter of 2022-23 migrating my websites (including this one!), along with all our videos, to these new platforms, - mostly in the middle of the night, and often with my tiny son on my lap. 

Visit Us

Which brings us to the present! Now holylanguage.com is like the storefront showing you what we're got, and holylanguage.tv is the warehouse where you can get the goods. Why not check them both out and see what you think?