I would like to introduce you to Bro. Sam Caudill, my friend and colaborer for many years. Whether it is the steady drum of the Heidelberg Harris press or the roar of a diesel truck leaving with another Scripture-filled container, such are the background sounds heard by printer/pressman, Sam Caudill, on any given day at Bearing Precious Seed in Milford, Ohio. Bro. Caudill has told me that he was an unlikely candidate to have seen this phenomenal work of God grow from the early days of manually binding individual Scripture portions with a soda bottle to producing a semi-truck load of Scriptures in a mere four days. The humble man maintains, “To God be the glory, great things He has done.”
Sam and Betty Caudill came to know the Lord in a revival service in a small church in southern Ohio. I met them six years later in 1969 when they visited First Baptist Church of Milford where I was pastor. They soon became members, beginning a lifetime of selfless service and surrender. That same year, our church held its first missions conference, initiating a flourish of member-missionary activity that would continue for decades. Under the preaching of Bob Hayes, missionary to Ghana, West Africa, Bro. Caudill, a southern Ohio dairy farmer, surrendered his life to missions. He could not have known at that time of the tremendous impact that his obedience and sensitivity to the call of missions would have upon multiple mission fields.
After graduation from Bible college in 1973, Sam and Betty began to raise support to go to Mexico as missionaries. Meanwhile, the Lord impressed upon my heart the need for the local church to be involved in Bible publishing. It was pioneer work without a pattern to follow; however, the command of the Lord was clear as I began to forge a path into this unknown terrain. While on visitation one evening, I shared my burden with Bro. Caudill and my need for a pressman. He agreed that printing the Bible would be a great endeavor but that he would not be able to help me. He confessed that he did not even know what a press looked like. I reminded him that our church secretary printed a bulletin on a copier in the church basement. Bro. Sam subsequently agreed that if I would get the supplies, he would learn to print in order to train someone else, since he was on his way to Mexico. I obtained the supplies, and he began to learn the skill of printing. Shortly after beginning to print the Bible, the Lord clearly used a Sunday sermon to call Bro. Caudill into the ministry of Bible printing.
Excitedly, the little girl exclaimed, “Oh! Now I see! Now I see!”
The vision began to take shape in a basement closet of the church with a 1250 Multigraph press and a small plate maker. Bro. Sam labored hour after hour burning plates and printing Scripture portions. One day a little girl wandered into the room where Bro. Sam was printing plates. In wide-eyed curiosity, she asked, “What are you doing?” Bro. Sam explained that he was burning words onto a plate. The child strained to make sense of the red lacquer as it poured over the smooth surface. She announced resolutely, “I don’t see anything.” But as Bro. Sam patiently moved the lacquer all over the plate, bright red letters began to appear. Excitedly, the little girl exclaimed, “Oh! Now I see! Now I see!” As he placed the plate on the press, the Word of God came through on the paper. It was a confirming moment as he was assured that day that this Word of God would go around the world to men and women and boys and girls who would exclaim, “I once was blind, but now I see!”
As evidenced by Bro. Caudill’s past as a dairy farmer and later a printer of Scriptures at Bearing Precious Seed, he has always taken quiet satisfaction in watching things grow. BPS has progressively expanded to house a three-web Heidelberg Harris press, which at the time of its purchase was the largest press owned by a religious entity. Bro. Caudill is the first local church printer in history, and his gifts have uniquely qualified him for the work as manager of the day-to-day operations at Bearing Precious Seed. Since the founding of BPS in 1973, Sam Caudill has maintained pioneer status in a ministry that today produces approximately one million Scripture portions each month.
Over the years, I have come to appreciate the real attributes of my friend, Sam Caudill. He has an untiring interest in people and has always understood that Bearing Precious Seed is more than paper and ink! He is respected for his affable manner with businessmen, while at the same time maintaining quality control management within the shop. Those who know him best understand his real passion, his genuine heartfelt compassion for those who do not have a copy of God’s Word! As the chatter of a diesel engine leaving the loading dock at BPS marks the end of another project, Bro. Caudill, along with the shop hands, who many times labor anonymously, are filled with a quiet contentment at the close of another project and another day at Bearing Precious Seed. Bro. Caudill often shares that he has been privileged to be a part of one of the greatest ministries in the world, the local church printing the Word of God.
