Background to Joe Skelly and Tape Teaching in his own words
My first ever tape recording took place at the 1962 Windsor Gospel Hall Missionary Conference. I was an apprentice electircian in Belfast and I thought my parents, who lived eighty miles away in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, would like to hear some of the missionary speakers. Using an open reel tape recorder with a microphone hidden behind the platform, I recorded the meetings. My parents were very pleased and from time to time I recorded others for them at various Gospel Halls.
In 1964 I recorded my first Easter conference, hidden underneath the Governor Hall’s large platform with our brother David Saunders and Mr Joe Hodgett of Ballyhackamore. The sound quality in those days wasn't the best, but nonetheless, people began asking me for copies of recorded reels. The tape ministry was born with many people helping me over the years.
Gordon Bronte was a member of Windsor Assembly. He had MS and could not work. I asked him if he would go through the reels to give me titles for the ministry, as I only had a note of the speakers. He not only suggested titles, he timed the length of the messages and gave the bible references. In fact, this was Gordon’s work for the next 20 years. During that time, he catalogued over 800 reels for me and I still treasure these 4 large files.
A message by Mr. Robert McLuckie at the 1966 Easter Conference challenged me. He spoke on the subject of 'Others' from Philippians 2, and in particular about the importance of esteeming others more highly than yourself. I felt called by the Lord to use tape recordings to minister to people who didn't have the privilege of being able to attend the meetings.
Two years previously, my mother wrote to me about her neighbour, Richard, who was in Musgrave Park Hospital. One Saturday evening I was listening to a testimony of Mr McManus. Since Richard had no visitors I went to see him and took the tape in with me. While it was playing on the open reel recorder, a staff nurse asked if I could bring in Pastor Willie Mullan’s testimony for the patients to hear. In those days there was no TV in hospitals to distract the patients, who were often there for 6-8 weeks for bone operations.
I continued to visit Richard and take in the tapes. I was told that a man named Frances Cooke in Ward 14 would like to listen also. This was the long stay MS ward where patients spent years, not weeks in bed. I continued to visit Ward 14 on a weekly basis until it moved to Foster Green. After TV was introduced in the late 1960’s I had the privilege of switching it off on a Friday night and putting on a tape of hymns.
I also met Sadie and Kathleen who spent 20 years in the Ladies ward. From their bed they raised funds to buy a minibus so they could go on outings. I became a voluntary driver. Clover Chapman from Faith House was a leader in Finaghy DCF. He asked me if I could carry patients from Musgrave to the DCF. Assisted at first by Helen Jebb, and then Hilda Francie (who is still involved after 25 years!), we were able to take patients there and to the Gospel meeting at Finaghy Gospel Hall.
In 1965 was introduced to Gladys Hartley, a radiographer at Musgrave who was involved with the Hospital Christian Fellowship. She got permission to bring patients along to the HCF Friday night gospel meeting – and then invited patients while she X-rayed them! Some would just come to get out of the ward, but numbers grew to approximately 30 patients most nights. More helpers joined us including Billy Miliiken, Stewart…. Mrs Spence and Mrs McKweon, Esther… Priscilla,, Lois Dermond and Rachel.
We also asked patients in the wards if they would like a recording of the service and at one stage Sandy Smith and I took Gospel messages to up to 8 people a week. One patient I was introduced to was Sam Johnston. He fell off a roof and was paralysed from the waist down. He was the first person to be saved through the Hospital Christian Fellowship. Gladys and I married in 1967 so we were both involved in the tape ministry.
In 1969 a patient called Donny Dodds was transferred to Thompson House from Ward 14. I went to visit him and took a tape with me. At Thompson House I met George McIllory, who asked if I could come on a Saturday night and put it on for all who were gathered in a room to listen. Approximately 20 – 25 people came each week.
After a couple of years I couldn’t go every Saturday night so we started having speakers. Eric Hall and others from Wallace Avenue got involved. The meeting continues to this day – 46 years on – with ……. Helping.
Alongside growing numbers of people listening to the tapes, the number of meetings being recorded expanded.
I began recording the Lurgan conference and then the Craigyhall conference. When ‘Tuesday Night at the Crescent’ begin in 1976, I asked Derek Bingham if I could do a few recordings for some of our disabled friends. After a couple of months Derek and Alan Bronte organised the Tuesday night tape ministry. Alan did the recording on a Tuesday and brought me the master cassette to duplicate. I would do up to 150 cassettes a week, which meant buying a duplicator and a large number of cassettes. (My children say they have memories of using the unopened cassettes as building blocks!)
Gladys and I decided it would be better to have a separate tape account, and Clifford Tughan suggested setting up a charitable trust. We called it Christian Tape Teaching and after overheads are taken out, any additional funds go back into the Lord's work.
In 1988, Derick asked me if I would copy and duplicate cassettes for Northfield. This year, DV, will be my 29th year doing these recordings.
Nowadays most halls have their own amplification and recording systems which allows meetings to be recorded easily. There is a large informal network of men, young and old, who do the recordings. They can bring the cassettes to me for copying and the masters are also added to the Tape Teaching library.
Over the 54 years a library of ministry by brethren such as Harry Bell, Jack Hunter, Albert McShane, Albert Leckie and many others has been built up. Technology does not stand still and with the help of others with an interest in the ministry, we now produce CDs and Robert Eadie, Jnr, has set up and continues to maintain a Tape Teaching web site. This allows people to browse the catalogue on-line, order tapes and listen to ministry in MP3 format. There have been 1.75 million downloads of recordings since 2009.
By 2015, Tape Teaching was sending out between eight and nine thousand recordings a year all over the world and it’s ministry continues. The aim still the same – to bring God’s word to people who can’t attend meetings in person.