Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,
Greetings from Charlotte, NC! God’s Work is moving ahead swiftly. We are doing all we can do, humanly, to preach the inspiring message of Christ’s coming Kingdom and to genuinely warn our people regarding the horrifying Great Tribulation which is destined to strike this generation. Yet God is merciful and He is allowing us time to get out the message with increasing power. God is enabling us, now, to build a stronger infrastructure in this Work so that we can—in His time—“finish the job” more effectively. We are very grateful for the prayers, the encouragement and the financial support of all of you brethren and co-workers. Thank you for doing your part in this end-time Work!
The first two months of calendar year 2007 have been nothing short of incredible in the media area of God’s Work! Some doors closed for us, but many bigger doors opened up. It has been amazing to watch God’s blessings pour forth. In the United States we added TV coverage in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania area. Also, TV stations were added in Camden, New Jersey; Niagara Falls, New York; Altoona, Pennsylvania; Fort Wayne Indiana; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey.
As wonderful as all these TV stations are, these were just the small TV stations added in the first two months, accounting for nearly one million additional TV households for the Tomorrow’s World television program. The big ones include WBPX in Boston, Massachusetts, with nearly two million households, and the WORD Network, with over 42 million households nationwide across the United States, and transmitted via satellite to many more tens of millions of additional viewers around the world, in the United Kingdom, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia and Central America.
But there is even more! Just last week God blessed us with two new stations in southern California, which we have been hoping and praying for—in some cases—for years. For the first time since the Tomorrow’s World telecast began, we now have a contract to begin televising on a popular commercial cable system in San Diego, Cox Media’s channel 4, which reaches over a half-million homes. And on top of this, we were able to negotiate a contract with KDOC-TV in Anaheim, which reaches most TV households in Los Angeles and Orange County—over 4.5 million homes. We thank God for these fine new openings for the Tomorrow’s World telecast.
Responses from the telecast around the world are certainly inspiring to all of us. In the United States, for the first time ever, we had two programs that produced more than 5,000 responses each. However, when the U.S. numbers are added to our worldwide TV results, the worldwide stats show that the 5,000-mark was achieved four times in January and February. Four times in two months! Last year was the first time for the worldwide telecast to break the 5,000-barrier, and the 5,000-mark was broken a total of five times in 2006, but already four times in just the first two months of 2007.
In the first two months of 2007, our combined worldwide TV stations generated more than 41,000 responses. This was more than all the responses we received in our first year in 1999! Reports produced by Nielsen Research and other media-research companies indicate that the telecast is now reaching an average of 50,000 brand new viewers each week. This year, with coverage in North America, the Caribbean Islands, Ireland, UK, Europe, the Mediterranean area, South Africa, Australasia and the Philippines, the data indicate that Tomorrow’s World viewers should increase by well over two million households. The blessings we have seen and experienced in just the past two months far outweigh some of the setbacks and difficulties we have recently encountered. God’s will be done, and it looks like God’s will is being done big time! We thank God for His marvelous interventions and blessings, which the Work will need all the more as we approach impending end-time events.
In addition to our media growth, we are also busily preparing to launch an on-line university this coming autumn! This will be an outstanding opportunity for thousands of young people—and for some of you “older” ones—to obtain more “in-depth” training in theology and in the liberal arts than most of you have ever had. Many of you know that I, personally, was used by Christ to teach more theology classes at Ambassador College than any other man. Along the way, I was blessed in obtaining a doctorate in Theology from Ambassador College. I thank God for those opportunities which I did not deserve, but which He provided. I sincerely want to share much of that knowledge and teaching experience with thousands of additional students by personally teaching a number of the Theology classes offered by the Living University. Other classes will be taught by another very experienced Theology teacher from Ambassador College, Mr. Richard Ames—very familiar to most of you as the other major presenter on Tomorrow’s World program.
Many of the liberal arts classes will be taught by our Director of Church Administration and major writer for Tomorrow’s World magazine, Dr. Douglas Winnail. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Mississippi. Taking the lead in the entire program, and also teaching a number of classes, will be Dr. Michael Germano—who holds an Ed.D. from the University of Southern California and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of La Verne. Other very qualified faculty are being lined up now.
This “on-line” university (many prestigious universities are beginning to offer on-line classes) should truly enable us to impart much more in-depth knowledge of the Bible and of true education in the liberal arts to all who wish to enroll. More information will be forthcoming on the website (www.livinguniv.com) within a few weeks. Questions can be sent to the email address [email protected]. This is an exciting development! It should genuinely strengthen God’s people and God’s Work. It should help prepare more leaders for the future of God’s Work as it grows. Your prayers are solicited that God will guide and bless this exciting endeavor.
Now, as the Spring Holy Day season approaches, I encourage all of you who understand to draw closer to Christ and to meditate about the meaning of the coming Passover season. May God inspire and move each of us to dedicate our lives to truly serving the living Jesus Christ as He served us when He came in the human flesh to die for our sins. And may we all be stirred by the prophetic events now underway to zealously do our part in Christ’s end-time Work.
With Christian love,
Roderick C. Meredith