Radio Reaches Out in Michigan

Radio Reaches Out in Michigan

We are convinced that God has ordained every broadcast medium to be used in proclaiming the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 to the world, and the exciting reports coming from a large 3ABN Radio affiliate network in Michigan prove that radio works!

Strong Tower Radio operates both a television station and eleven radio stations, broadcasting a combination of 3ABN and local programming to a huge audience throughout Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

Tom Mejeur works for them in production and marketing, and recently sent us these reports. “Pastor Jed Genson of the Manistique, McMillan Northwoods, and Sault Ste. Marie Seventh-day Adventist churches, sent us a first-person report. He told us that of the eight baptisms they had in 2016, seven were as a direct result of Strong Tower Radio. Pastor Genson wrote, ‘Our contacts were well grounded in the truth of the Scriptures after listening to the powerful preaching… and when we studied with them, each candidate was already prepared to make a full commitment and follow Christ in baptism. Thank you for your vision and dedication! Radio waves have enabled the gospel to be shared in areas we cannot reach, and lives have been touched for eternity.’

“Then there’s Diane Kobor, in Gaylord, Michigan, who wrote us, saying, ‘Michelle walked in ten minutes before Sabbath School started, and said, “The Lord sent me here to this church!” Evidently she’s been listening to Amazing Facts, and has already decided to stop her business on Sabbath and let work be done on Sunday! Another Strong Tower listener, who was baptized in 2015, signed her up for Bible studies on the spot, and Michelle plans to be back for Thursday’s study in Revelation!’ ”

Yes, the Lord is using every means possible to reach His children, and we are thrilled to work with ministries like Strong Tower Radio. God’s blessing and favor have been poured out abundantly, and their ministry has undergone tremendous expansion. Please pray for both 3ABN Radio and Strong Tower Radio as we seek to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sharing Her Joy

Sharing her Joy

Jane Gibbs was raised Catholic, but never really knew the Lord. Growing up with ten siblings, her father’s alcoholism and drug addiction made for a very unhappy childhood, but God made sure she felt His love. “A lovely Jehovah’s Witness family lived across the street, and they were very kind to me,” she says. “However, as I grew up, I began self-medicating, and my addictions kept me trapped for most of my life.

Then, one day, I found a channel I’d never seen before on DISH Network, and as I listened to 3ABN I was hooked! In time, I felt a need to be baptized, so I prayed, Lord, if You’re serious about this, please help me find a church. Then I called 3ABN, and they got in touch with the Oakwood Seventh-day Adventist Church in Taylor, Michigan.

When someone called to ask if I’d like to study the Bible, I was so excited that I blurted out, ‘What I really need is to be baptized!’ They sent Mary Skrobowski, who was also raised Catholic. We had so much in common; and as we studied, I felt so alive and so saved that I wanted to tell everybody!

I remember the day I was baptized. When I came up out of the water, I knew my life was different. I’d quit smoking, drinking, and taking drugs before; but this time it was real. The Lord was holding me up!” Pastor Ariel Roldan had the privilege of baptizing her and says that Jane is a tremendous blessing to his church.
“Just a few months ago I baptized two people who received Bible studies from her,” he says, “and she welcomes and nurtures all of our new members!”

Jane believes that 3ABN is a great tool, since it reaches everywhere. “I know firsthand,” she adds, “because you certainly reached me!”

Should We Block His Calls?

Should We Block His Calls?

by Joe O’Brien

In October 2001 Brian called 3ABN’s Pastoral Ministries Department to complain about God. As I listened, Brian shared with me why he thought God was a very poor and unfair manager of human affairs. He had lost a relationship with a lady friend; he had lost his brother to an untimely death; and now a young lady he admired for her talent had met an untimely death in an airplane accident. In fact, his subsequent phone calls seemed to be his way of filing complaints against God.

For a number of years he’d called several other ministry prayer lines, as well as ours, and unfortunately, the guidance he received from some of the other prayer warriors only added to the confusion. On one occasion, someone at another ministry prayed that an individual who angered Brian would die!

As Brian pointed out the error in their beliefs, these ministry workers became disenchanted with him and blocked his phone number, refusing his calls. This resulted in him calling us even more often, using excessive time, and honestly forcing us to consider blocking his calls, as well.

QUESTIONS

Eventually he was restricted to speaking only with me, and I was glad I was picked, because Brian’s anger with God was usually expressed in the form of a question. Why does God allow this or that? Why doesn’t God do what I would do?

Questions allow for answers, and answers produce understanding. Understanding produces transformation, and transformation is just what God wants! “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2. Brian was walking the very path God was calling him to walk.

As Brian would ask his often-brilliant questions, we would go to God’s Word for the answers. Why do evil people get away with doing evil? Why do good people suffer and die young? Why has God allowed Satan to run rampant for thousands of years? On and on it went, but God’s Word gave Brian the answers he needed.

NEVER GIVE UP

This continued for nine years! Nine years of transformation by the Word of God. That’s where Brian found wisdom. That’s also where he found power—power to rise above anger by forgiving his enemies. It also provided him with the peace that God promises in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Brian found that he can trust God and His Word, and that’s where he met his best friend, Jesus.

By our tenth year of conversation, the man who had started out as what seemed like a sparring partner in 2001, had become my friend and brother in Christ by 2011. Brian dedicated his life to our Lord on March 23, and was baptized on July 9, 2011, by Pastor William Webb.

I congratulate and welcome my new brother, Brian Hofacker, one of the newest members of the New Port Richey Seventh-day Adventist Church in Florida! To God be the glory!

No Coincidence

No Coincidence

by John Dinzey

Recently, Pastor Armando Miranda, vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, related a remarkable story to us. While traveling in Texas for an event earlier this year, he met a fascinating couple who had told him of an amazing “coincidence.”

Gabriel and Minerva Hernandez live in what they call “The Valley” in south Texas, an area close to the U.S. border with Mexico. They have seven TV sets in their home, but six of them couldn’t receive any TV channels, and the seventh one could only receive two channels: a Mexican sports channel and 3ABN Latino. However, the sports channel came in so poorly that it wasn’t too appealing to watch.

One morning Gabriel watched 3ABN Latino for a couple of hours and was blessed by the programming, but when he turned it on later that evening, his wife asked, “Why are you watching that channel again?”

“Oh this is a Christian channel, and it’s very good,” he told her. Then he added, “You should watch it, too.”

“Oh really?” she asked as she stood there for a moment.

Before long Minerva was sitting down. As she was a much-sought-after speaker, pastor, and evangelist, 3ABN’s programming was very appealing to her. They began watching together whenever there was an opportunity. Having a theological background, Minerva ordered some Bible studies offered in one of the programs and began to dig deeper.

Eventually their interest prompted them to contact Amado Sanchez, a local Seventh-day Adventist pastor,  and he invited them to an evangelistic series scheduled for the next two weeks.

“I would love to be able to come every night,” Minerva said, “but the only night I can come is Monday, since I have to preach all the other nights.”

“What a shame,” Pastor Sanchez said. “I think you would really appreciate these presentations.”

“PLEASE DO SOMETHING”

Gabriel and Minerva came on Monday and they were blessed. Again she expressed her wish to attend every night.

Later that night she prayed, “Lord, I would really like to go to these meetings, but I’m booked every night to preach. If You really want me to go, please do something to make that possible.”

I believe God heard her prayer, because the very next morning she received an apologetic call, explaining that an unforeseen situation had developed and asking her if she was willing to postpone her preaching for two weeks.

“No need to apologize,” she said. “God is in control, I don’t have a problem postponing for two weeks!”

The Lord had worked it out, and they didn’t miss a single night. Soon after, Gabriel and Minerva were baptized, and today they are happy members of the McAllen Spanish Valley Central Seventh-day Adventist Church. What seemed a strange coincidence was really a blessing to them!

Once again, we praise the Lord for using 3ABN Latino to help people “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18.

More Precious Than Gold

More Precious Than Gold

Leroy and Colleen Sharp (center) were befriended by Martin Klein (left) and his wife Janelle (right). “It’s so important to have people walk with you from the time you begin attending church, through baptism, and beyond,” Colleen says. (Photo: Bob Charbonneau.)

Republic, Washington, is nestled among the mountains on the northeastern side of the state. Originally dubbed Eureka, the settlement’s first name aptly described the excitement created by the discovery of gold in the late 1890s.

There are many things that make Republic special, but perhaps nothing is more precious to Leroy and Colleen Sharp than a little radio station that broadcasts 3ABN Radio.

BACK STORY

Everything about KETL-LP, 100.5 FM, is miraculous. In 2001, a small group of church members decided to try for a construction permit after receiving notice that the Federal Communications Commission was accepting applications. But the challenges were steep. “We would need to find a broadcasting site, do some preliminary engineering work, form a nonprofit corporation, and submit an application—in four weeks!” says Dr. Bill Pellow, a Seventh-day Adventist optometrist who led the team. With faith and determination, they obtained their permit, which gave them 18 months to put the station on the air.

One problem, however, seemed insurmountable. No one wanted a radio tower in their backyard!

“We talked to a half-dozen landowners, but received a negative response from each one. Things began to look pretty bleak for a while,” Bill admits, “and my faith wavered a little.”

Finally only one location was left—Gold Hill, the best location of all. One of the team members knew the owner from high school, but he didn’t hold out much hope the man would be sympathetic to their cause.

“We had earnest prayer and continued to pray as our friend Reed Heckly called the landowner,” Bill says. “As he tried to describe the purpose of the station, the owner cut him off! ‘I don’t care what you broadcast,’ he said. ‘I believe in freedom of speech!’ ”

That problem was solved, but another one quickly replaced it. They had to obtain permission to pull electricity from one man’s property, and permission from two other families to bury heavy electrical cable across 2,000 feet of land to the tower site. As they called each one, they obtained permission without problems, and no one was more surprised! “After receiving half a dozen noes in a row, we had just received four critical yeses,” Bill says. “We knew we were watching a miracle!”

There were many more stories—finding a sturdy tower for a miracle price, how church members hauled it there and assembled it, how they raised $12,000 in yard sales, and the logger who just happened to be building a logging road through that area. Finally, KETL-LP went on the air—just four days before the FCC deadline!

“Our signal reaches much farther than we ever expected,” Bill says. “You can actually receive a pretty fair signal all the way in Grand Forks, Canada!”

PREPARING THEIR HEARTS

Meanwhile, many miles away, the Holy Spirit had spent years preparing the hearts of Leroy and Colleen Sharp for new truth.

“I was born in Dixon, Missouri,” Leroy says. “My dad’s dad was a Pentecostal preacher, and my mom’s dad was a deacon in the Baptist church. But my parents weren’t much for going to church. Sometimes I’d go to Sunday School with an aunt, or I might attend Vacation Bible School, but when I was 12 or so, I got saved in the Baptist church. Well, that caused an uproar in the family because of their Pentecostal background! ‘Wait until your grandpa learns about this!’ they said, and I was left feeling like I’d done something wrong, rather than something right.

“After that I went to church a few times, but never felt like I belonged,” he continues, “and by the time I was 16 or 17, I was already drinking and doing drugs. By the time I was 27, I was already in a messed-up relationship, and one day we got into a fight and I got shot point blank through the chest. I was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital but when we got there, I woke up. The attendant said, ‘Hey, you’re dead!’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not!’

“I’ll never forget the surgeon’s words when I tried to thank him afterword. He said, ‘Son, you shouldn’t thank me. You just weren’t bad enough to go to hell, or good enough to go to Heaven!’ ”

Colleen, on the other hand, was raised in County Durham, England. “I was brought up by my grandparents, and my grandmother was Catholic. I know she gave me her love for Jesus, but my granddad gave me the things of the Spirit. I’ve always had those as my foundation, even though I never went to church.”

“I lived in a large farm house in the country—a retreat for my friends when they wanted time out. We’d talk about what was happening in the world, and although we had no knowledge of Bible prophecies, after 9/11 we just knew that something was going on. I began feeling a strong urge to give up everything I had and move to America with nothing but a suitcase. I finally did, and I can’t explain how I felt, except to say that it was very freeing. It’s as if I was going through my life and settling things within myself.”

However, Colleen says she missed those deep conversations with my friends. “By 2009 I was dying inside because I had nobody to connect with on a spiritual level,” she says.

Leroy and Colleen had moved several times, looking for land to settle and build on, and finally they came to Republic.

“While Leroy was at work I remember wanting to listen to something, but the only radio station was 3ABN! As I listened to David Asscherick, he got me! I kept thinking, This is exactly what I believe!

I would turn it off before Leroy came home, and several months went by before I told him. Then I began switching it on tentatively and discovered that while he liked Doug Batchelor, he couldn’t handle David Asscherick’s pace!”

Colleen grins, “It’s sort of like a preference in herbal teas. In the morning I really like Red Zinger tea because it has a kick, but others like a more calm variety.”

THE INSISTENT MAN

After listening to 3ABN Radio for about a year, Colleen felt compelled to visit a Seventh-day Adventist church, but didn’t know when they met for worship. “I couldn’t get anyone on the telephone, so I called a church 50 miles away, and they told me the services were on Saturday mornings,” she says. “When I arrived I was greeted cordially and found a seat in the back of the church. Now you have to understand that I was raised Catholic, and mass was solemn and silent, but here people were drinking water, walking around, and greeting one another! They seemed genuinely good-hearted, though. After the service I met Martin Klein and his wife Janelle. She invited me to lunch, but I told her I couldn’t come because my husband was picking me up. As I was leaving, Martin kept up with me and said he wanted to invite my husband.

“ ‘Hello, Leroy, would you like to come to lunch?’ he asked as we approached the truck.

“ ‘No, I don’t think so,’ my husband answered. ‘Besides, I’m not dressed for lunch.’

“ ‘That’s okay, I invited someone who’s camping, so you’ll fit right in!’

“What a pushy guy! I thought, just as Leroy shot me a What’s going on? look. The truth is that he was so pushy we finally agreed to lunch out of courtesy! Later we found out that this was not his nature at all, but he’d felt the Holy Spirit compelling him that, no matter what, we were supposed to come home with them!”

They drove up to the house at the Klondike Mountain Health Retreat, founded by Martin’s father, Pastor Leonard, and his wife Aldine. Martin explained that they treated all sorts of lifestyle diseases and provided vegetarian cooking classes for the community. After lunch the two couples went for a walk, and the friendship they established brought Leroy and Colleen both back to church the following week.

Soon they began having Bible studies after lunch, and major changes began to take place. “We claimed the promises in Psalm 107, and the Lord took away the desire and broke the chains of our cigarette addiction,” Leroy says. “When God does something like that, He doesn’t mess around!”

On September 18, 2010, Leroy and Colleen were baptized in a lake, as their church family gathered around them. Church pastor Mel Pond, and retired pastor Leonard Klein (Martin’s father), baptized them together, welcoming them into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Today they are both active in their church, doing their part to spread the good news.

“It’s so important to have people walk with you from the time you begin attending church, through baptism, and beyond,” Colleen says. “It’s so important to never forget that our presence is important in church, too. Each of us gives the gift of our presence in church, and I think that ties in with what Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, ‘For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.’ It’s not just that we’re all there worshipping with the words—our hearts come out in worship, too. It’s a palpable thing, and when someone’s not there, I miss them.”

Leroy and Colleen (center) were baptized in a nearby lake. Since they had close friendships with both pastors, they asked Pastor Mel Pond (left) and Pastor Leonard Klein (right) to baptize them together.(Photo: Bob Charbonneau.)

MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

Through God’s blessings, the Sharps have been able to purchase some land on a mountain and are now building a home that’s “off the grid.”

“We have no electricity,” Leroy says, “but we do have solar panels and batteries.”

“We also enjoy the light of lamps in the evening,” Colleen adds. “It’s so lovely. We have radios on our phones so we still listen to 3ABN Radio. I think it’s the best evangelist ever. It’s non-threatening, and different speakers appeal to different people. I think it would be great to have someone talk about the local church, though. I would have liked to hear what went on there, where it was, and what time they met.”

Her idea is not wasted on those who work there. “We have a tremendous need for someone willing to move here and volunteer to produce local programs,” says Bob Charbonneau, the personal ministries director for the Republic Seventh-day Adventist Church. “All the equipment is ready. They don’t even have to know how to run it. They just need to be willing to learn. This is a special place that Seventh-day Adventist founder, Ellen White, would have heartily endorsed,” he adds.

The little station on Gold Hill is working tirelessly to reach those who are seeking for the Lord. And with results like these, it’s proving to be more precious than gold!