MINISTRY UPDATE - 4TH QUARTER 1999

Greetings to you in the name of our precious Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ! We hope and pray all is well with you and your loved ones since our last newsletter, which was in July of this year. We really appreciate and continue to covet your prayers for this ministry outreach and for us. There have been continued blessings from God for Precious Testimonies since we last talked. We would like to thank you for your faithful support that we receive from you - most importantly through your many prayers offered up on our behalf and your financial gifts. We want to say a great big thank you and God bless you! Once again, we would like to update you on what has been happening with this ministry outreach.

Let us briefly share with those of you who don't know what this ministry is all about, in the TV Public Access video area. Besides having our web site for Precious Testimonies, we also are blessed to be able to come into the homes of thousands if not millions of people now through this video ministry. We are currently broadcasting in a total of 23 TV public access stations in a total of 13 states: Michigan, Washington, Virginia, California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, and New Hampshire.

We have lost a few stations, and added a few stations since our last ministry update. Cable TV Public Access must accommodate LOCAL video producers first, and give them priority airtime. Only when vacant time slots become available are outside producers such as ourselves able to have our video tapes play, providing we can come up with a sponsor and our video format meets their requirements (and of course if station supervisors are willing to allow our type of programming to play).

We are now gearing up for the scheduling of filming new testimonies for this ministry. This is the time of year when we can devote some quality time to do that. We have a list of people to contact for the sharing of their testimonies. Please pray if you would that God would orchestrate the filming time for each person we will be contacting, and that the enemy will have no part in hindering us or those from sharing their testimonies. This is one part of the ministry that is such a blessing to take part in! Not only are we able to meet new saints in the Body of Christ, but along with that comes a new friendship and the beautiful fellowship that occurs during the film times.

Now we will share with you some of the latest blessings that we have received most recently. One of those blessings are that we have been given two more public access stations to add to our list for our TV viewing audience for this ministry. Those two stations are Londonderry Access Center in Londonderry, NH and AT &T Cable Services in LaPorte, IN. Thank you Penny Huth for your willingness to sponsor our broadcast there in LaPorte and for all the tape distribution and pickups you are doing for us. In addition, thank you Clinton Salas in Londonderry for your willingness to sponsor the broadcast of Precious Testimonies in your viewing area. God bless you both for your faithful support!

The testimonies began to play in Londonderry on July 5, and they began playing in LaPorte on October 20. We are so blessed that God continues to open hearts and doors for His word to get out through this avenue of testimonies. We have received video requests from the viewing public in each of these areas since they began playing. Praise God that His word is getting out and that He still changes lives for those who will respond to His tugging on their hearts to come back to Him!

In our last newsletter, we told you about two stations that were in their final stages of being definitely confirmed for us. Those two stations were in LaPorte, IN and in Phoenix, Arizona. With these two stations, we have secured a local sponsor in each viewing area and praise God for LaPorte being finally finalized! We thank you for your prayers for these two stations and sponsors and pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead you in your prayer time for them.

We are still waiting on the one in Phoenix; the public access board meets every 2-3 months to update their program scheduling. Their last meeting was in August and they did not notify our new sponsor for that viewing area for that particular meeting, which she would have had to have been in attendance. Their next meeting is scheduled for January of 2000. If you would, please pray that the communication lines will remain open and that our new sponsor (her name is Jodi Cheadle) will be able to connect with them in order to secure a time slot with their station for us.

We give all the glory to our Heavenly Father for these doors opening up for us and thank Him for your faithful prayer support. Without Him or your prayers, none of this would be possible. We sense a growing assault from the enemy on Public Access station managers to stop playing anointed Christian programming, so prayer coverage of Public Access stations is vitally crucial. People are going to be watching television until Jesus returns, and if Christians don't use this powerful medium to win lost souls . . . the enemy will dominate it with everything that detracts from the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Truth and Life that He brought to mankind. (The same can be said for the Internet).

As you will recall, we spoke in our last newsletter about Ft. Worth, TX; we still have not seen that door totally opened yet for us. There still seems to be an opening there and they have a time slot for our broadcast, but we haven't found a sponsor yet in that viewing area. We are still prayerfully looking for someone to step forward and offer to be our sponsor there. If the Lord lays on your heart someone you could refer us to who lives in Ft. Worth, we ask that you please contact us. We would love to add the Ft. Worth viewing area to reach the lost and hurting with the hope and encouragement that these God glorifying testimonies will bring! We know that He is using them to build His kingdom.

We have had another opening in another Public Access station, which is in Austin, Texas. We were contacted by a Christian brother through email asking for our permission to allow him to use the testimonies on our web site for a book that the Lord has directed him to publish. Praise God for that blessing not only for us but for those of whom he has contacted for their permission for him to use their testimonies as well! We have heard nothing but positive comments from those whom he has contacted.

Through our correspondence with this man, he was more than willing to become our sponsor in that viewing area of Austin, TX as well. However, we are sorry to report that door is not one the Lord has allowed us to walk through. The taping requirements were not ones that we could become involved with. Thank you Brother Walker for your willingness to work with us and may God continue to bless you in the work He has called you to do for Him regarding testimonies!

Some of our new readers may not be totally familiar with Cable TV Public Access, so please let us reemphasize that a "sponsor" for our video broadcasts does NOT require the giving of money. A "sponsor" is simply someone living in the viewing area of that city or community who is willing to sign a standard Public Access form requesting that our broadcast play on their local Access Channel. It's a formality that Public Access stations require for out of town producers such as Precious Testimonies. It also protects the Public Access stations from being "legally forced" to play pornographic videos and other undesirable videos from producers across the country who want to take advantage of FREE television that Public Access affords.

Please keep this in mind about the Precious Testimony videos we play. The Gospel Message of "Salvation by Grace" is put on virtually every tape we produce. We believe God has imparted to us that if we will minister the Good News of the Gospel on each of the tapes, along WITH the testimonies, we have His FULL ASSURANCE that "His Word will not come back void."

For those of you who have provided us with e-mail addresses, we will be blessing you with selected testimonials as they are about to be added to the ministry website. This way you will be able to read NEW testimonials that you have not read previously. The ministry web site continues to be a glorious extension of this outreach . . . to the glory of God. Here's one recent testimonial that brought tears to our eyes as we read it:

"The devil had me believing that I was right with God and didn't need to do anything. But reading the testimonies, I knew that I needed more. Something spoke to me and said that I needed to say that prayer too. [A Salvation prayer God has led us to add at the bottom of each testimony]. I know that I will be with Jesus one day now. I have a mental illness that I deal with and I'm praying that God will heal me and I can give Him the praise for it, and I can witness to others what He has done for me. Thanks again."

For those of you who have committed to pray regularly for God's protection to be around us individually and this outreach -- for God to use our efforts to touch people's lives for their spiritual growth and His glory -- for God to speak to people's hearts about supplying financial provision to the ministry . . . from the depths of our being, we say . . . "Thank you so very much!"

For those of you who have offered words of encouragement and wisdom -- for those of you who have sent testimonies and allowed us to video tape you as we are able . . . "Thank you so very much!"

For those of you who have given financial provision to enable us to cover ministry expenses and expand -- from you prisoners who send stamps to those who have been able to send more . . . "Thank you so very much!"

For those of you who send e-mail copies of the testimonials to others . . . "Thank you so very much!"

For those of you who pass along the tapes and books you've requested so God can use them to minister to others . . . "Thank you so very much!"

For those of you who are willing to be sponsors so the testimonial tapes are able to play in your communities. . ."Thank you so very much!"

For those of you at the Public Access Stations who have given us your approval to play our tapes, at the risk of putting your jobs in jeopardy perhaps or losing possible favor in getting a job promotion and/or pay raises . . . "Thank you so much!"

For those of you who are being called to pioneer testimonial outreaches yourselves so Christians have a place in their OWN communities where they can more easily share their testimonies AND Psalms 96:3 and Matthew 28:19-20 can increase . . . "Thank you for your obedience to God!"

As we end this millennium and prepare to enter the next with whatever challenges it brings, we exhort each of you to continue to "put on Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14) as you go about doing your heavenly Father's will. Be faithful in your callings, even though we face the spirit of anti-Christ in ever increasing measure.

Until next time, Giving God the Glory!

Norm & Kathleen Rasmussen,
Directors

Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among the peoples
(Psalms 96:3)