PROGRESS

Hey, folks and future listeners of 88.7fm The Bridge!

I am excited to report that we are continuing to move forward with WKNZ. Much is being done that is not yet visible but will be soon!

WEBSITE - Our new website is in the final stages of content-building. The framework is complete but we are waiting on folks to add fresh, updated stories and articles to make the website "crackle" with information that you will enjoy.

STUDIOS - A volunteer has stepped forward to do some custom interior work in our studios and offices!

AIR TALENT - We've been getting emails and phone calls regarding folks who are interested in volunteering for auditions to become on-air staff! Remember, we hope to have two people on every daytime air-shift! We still need more volunteers!

TOWER - We've identified the major issue which is delaying the whole process! I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that our little studies (which are required before we can set an air-date!!!) appear to be very small fish in a large sea. From the standpoint of doing business, I fully understand why this is, but our hope is that God will part those seas so our little fish gets some attention! Knowing the "why" is a giant leap from not understanding the hold up and it allows us to go down different avenues to solve the problem.

Please PRAY for us! The TOWER is the key to an air-date! We need these studies to be completed before we can move forward with the remaining major purchases.

We still need your support in prayer as well as financially! Have you partnered with The Bridge? I hope so.

Walk with the King and be blessed!

Is it still coming?

I went to the grocery store today to pick up everything needed for the week for my family. I happened to be wearing my 88.7 WKNZ T-shirt. While in the produce section a woman approached me, who had apparently read my t-shirt, and asked me, "Do you know if that station is still coming?" I promptly answered her "Yes it is!" I let her know that I was one of the many people helping to get it on the air. I informed her that we are dealing with a couple of radio tower issues but that I was hopeful we would be on the air before the end of the year. Now I'm not an engineer and I don't know how long the process will take to figure out the tower situation, so I could not give an exact date...but I'm pulling and praying hard for it to be soon. The woman later said, "I keep checking the dial to see if you're there yet." I told her to keep posted at our website for updates.



The encounter left me thinking about anticipation and how sometimes we wait on pins and needles for things to happen. We don't always understand why they take the amount of time they do, but God does. He knows all and sees all. He knows what's best for us. I've learned that He can run my life far better than I can, so why not let Him? It reminds me of the hit radio single by John Waller entitled Waiting made famous in the movie Fireproof. Waiting can be painful and slow but I believe it builds character. If something came fast and easy we might not appreciate it very much. I believe God is making us "wait" so He can pave the way for things to work out for His glory and not ours. My favorite part of John Waller's song is, "I will move ahead bold and confident, taking every step in obedience." That's what we are doing, moving ahead, confident that the Lord of the Universe will make a way for us to come on the air at just the right time.



While we are waiting together remember to "worship while you're waiting" and be in prayer for WKNZ and all it's volunteers AND for all those who will be touched by this ministry once it is launched. Please also consider a donation to help this ministry have legs. God Bless!

We're on the move

Last October I had the opportunity to speak to the Seaford Wednesday Morning Prayer Group. We had just had our "Consider the Cost" banquet a few weeks prior to that and excitement was in the air. Much has happened since that last meeting and we are so excited to be asked back again. Join us this Wednesday morning, August 5th at 6:30 AM as we meet at the Seaford Eagle Diner. Director, Richard Houston, has asked us to come in and give an update on where we are.

To the outside world, it may look like things are moving slow, however, in God's timing everything is perfect. He knows when we need what we need. He also keeps us from getting ahead of ourselves and walking in our flesh. The building of this station has been exciting, humbling, frustrating, scary and wonderful all at the same time.

If you are interested in hearing about where we are, join our GM, John Mixon and myself as we share where the Lord is taking us. If you can't attend but would like to hear more, please consider hosting a coffee or small get-to-gether where representatives from WKNZ can come in and share the vision and show how God's hand is moving to bring Christian music and the WORD back to Delmarva through WKNZ. Please also consider standing with us as partners for just $10 per month. This is VERY "do-able" and what a great way to be the hands and feet of Christ. Join 88.7 WKNZ and help us "Bridge" the gap to a lost and dying world.

New Logo for our Clear Direction!

Officially released yesterday, this is our new logo and theme!

Our website development is chugging along at a frantic pace as our web developer, RadioServers.com, continues to impress by answering all our "pie-in-the-sky" requests with "we can do that" attitude. The website is still in development phase and will be premiering soon!

I'm very excited to see the progress of the site as well as some progress on our Tower situation. Please continue to pray that God guides us as a second tower option has resurfaced and also as we continue to pursue our original plan.

Decisions made at last night's volunteer meeting included moving forward with the Studio Lease, preparing to purchase Studio Equipment by contacting manufacturers and salespeople to get the ball rolling and the exchange which will result in delivery of our transmitter! This is a HUGE leap forward for 88.7, TheBridge!

Thank you all for your prayers and continue to watch this site for updates as we move forward.

The need for funding is still strong!

I was reminded (warned) of some risky thinking and a very Godly principal:

Risky Thinking: Build it and they will come.
It's easy to think that once we are on the air and people can clearly experience or hear the benefits to Delmarva and themselves and their families, we will experience a significant increase in funding donations. This may, or may not be a true statement, but it's an easy thought process. The thought that we will benefit Delmarva and individuals as well as society as a whole is easy to substantiate. But the idea that this alone will guarantee in influx of donations is a dangerous risk. Many are the ministries which did much for the kingdom yet died in bankruptcy court. Faith, much faith, is required and God's approval is key to the success of any ministry.

Faith Without Seeing: Come and they will build it.
Do you believe that God will use 88.7fm The Bridge to benefit people, yourself included? Do you sometimes need a little kick in the spiritual pants? Or encouragement? Or praise music? ... to keep your thoughts on the Lord, your Lord?

Do you believe that a statewide signal of hope and faith and truth will benefit society and please God?

Come now and help us build it. Pray! If you are married, pray with your spouse! We need 2000 "Ten Dollar Equivalents" to get started and will require more as we grow.


According to Census statistics and forecasting based on growth trends, there are over 500,000 self-reporting Christians in Delaware alone. Of those half a million people, we need 2000 people, or 0.4% of Christians in Delaware to donate $10 per month to meet our initial operating costs. That's it!

Things to consider, The cost of entertainment/services:
The AVERAGE cable bill in Delaware is $100 per month.
The AVERAGE cellular bill is $40 per person per month.
Basic Satellite Radio Service Starts at $12.95 per month.
The cost to rent one DVD movie in a video store is over $4.00.
The cost to go to a movie in the theater is over $10 per person.

Things to consider, The benefits of 88.7fm, The Bridge:
Connecting people, churches to each other and to God through praise, conversation and teaching.
Connecting churches and people to the lost by promoting outreach and other events.
Giving you an alternative to 'typical radio' which seeks to push boundaries and cause compromise.
Giving our children an alternative to 'typical radio' which promotes the very things we warn against.
Giving the lost a place to discover the difference between religion and relationship with God.


Is it worth your $10 per month? Have you prayed about it?

Click a link to the right of this page and become a Partner on The Bridge.

Other volunteers... Website content, builders, haulers, cabinet-makers...
This is a photo of the studio in it's current state of affairs... but it is a radio studio and it will be ours and look much better in a month or so! Moving forward!!!!!

WKNZ Bridges The Gap

Our two main themes at WKNZ are:

Connecting and Strengthening

Connecting

As it has been stated, the church is fragmented. We have numerous denominations and splits upon split within those. Do we share a common goal? One would hope so. I would like to believe so.

What's missing is the non-doctrine-threatening, loving, caring source to bridge the gap that exists between churches, even though they are in many cases literally next door to each other.

If we all share the common understanding that we are sinners, and outside of our Savior, are lost.. if we all understand Jesus' answer to the question, 'what is the greatest commandment?', "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.", then why not act like it?

Would you agree that if we joined together to work toward these goals, we'd be more effective?

Strengthening

To believe in God is also to believe in Satan. Satan is real, pure evil. He has done a very impressive job of distracting believers in America. We are more comfortable than the majority of countries. Our 'poor' own cars, cable TV, Blue-Ray players, X-Box, high-definition TV's and even homes that some countries poor would consider castles.

It only goes up from there as we look at the middle class and wealthy in this country. We have more 'things' to do, see, read and watch than at any other time in our history. We are entertaining ourselves into a state of numbness which so distracts us, we have no idea how far removed we are from God's voice.

I heard a pastor speaking about a time he was in great pain from an operation. When he arrived home, suffering, he instinctively flipped on the TV and laid in his misery. It was then he heard God's voice beg the question, "How can I comfort you when you turn to that box instead of me?"

Indeed, we need to help people return to a focus on God and spiritual things. The key, and our goal, will be to help people turn to be attentive to God's voice in their lives while entertaining them with some of God's greatest gifts to mankind; music, humor, love and intelligent conversation.



Will you prayerfully consider becoming a partner with us along this journey?

We have the obvious financial needs but this is the easiest way to help. For many the sacrifice is a matter of watching one less On-Demand movie per week.

But we also need help in the way of time and talent.

For our website support we will need people to write about the following topics, keeping the website fresh and relative:

Music (In EVERY genre! We will need people who will keep up to date on every genre of Christian music from Hymns to Contemporary and all points between.)
Concerts (Reporting on upcoming concerts as well as concert reviews.)
Seminars (Any and all Christian Education seminars for people of all ages.)
Local News
Health and Wellness
Finance
Calendar of Local Events
Movie Reviews
Fashion
Shopping and Saving
School News (Hopefully a representative from each school district.)
Local Sports

We will be selling ad space on our website, so any Christian business owners who wish to give and get, please contact me ASAP! Our new website will be going 'live' soon.

This is an immediate call to action! If you're reading this, and I'm pretty sure you are, you should be feeling the pinch as though I were standing before you, face to face, asking for your help. I am. Will you help?

So, you always wanted to be on the radio, huh?

When WKNZ goes on the air, we will have two paid employees.... and a bunch of volunteers! We are seeking out Christian people with a love for God and the gift of gab.

It is our goal to have two people "on the microphones" between 6am and 10pm, Monday through Friday. This means we will need up to six on-air volunteers!

Since our station will be something NEW and FUN to listen to, our plan is to give the DJ's more flexibility than most stations offer today. To get a little into "the business" of radio, large radio consolidators have taken over the majority of stations across the country, taking "local" radio away and replacing it with generic announcers who pre-record their programs in the morning to be aired later in the day. These companies cite economics as the main reason for doing things this way, but as the economy tightens and these companies see their bottom lines shrink, they lay off more and more people. Who suffers? You, the audience!

Take for example the recent death of singer Michael Jackson. If you heard the news via the internet or TV, perhaps you turned to radio for what would surely be unending spoken and musical tributes to the controversial singer. That's what happened when Elvis Presley and John Lennon died. Regardless of how you felt about Jackson, his music has impacted and influenced many since the 1960's. If you did turn to radio for music or information in light of this, you were probably quite disappointed. Since many of the stations have DJ's "piped in" from other states who pre-recorded their show in the morning and they are playing music which was programmed weeks or months ago, these radio stations were unable to react to the biggest musical news story since December 8, 1980.

Had WKNZ been on the air, we would have most certainly been discussing his passing but from a Christian perspective, being careful not to deify Jackson and using the moment to remind many that we have no guarantees in this life. Getting "right" with God is certainly on the minds of many people when a high-profile person dies and where might they turn at a time like that? Christian radio, perhaps? Our DJ's/Talk Hosts would have been given the flexibility to speak to many about Christ at a time when their hearts were most able to be soft. What an opportunity!

Back to the original reason for this BLOG...

I am confident that there are a great many people on Delmarva who love God, have talent and have the time to use those gifts on the air at WKNZ. So, how do we find them?

THE INTER-WEB!

I'm treating this as sort of a contest... email me, jmixon@wknz.org , with your story and why you believe you should be considered for our volunteer air-staff at WKNZ. I will read every email and select some for an audition. We will post the auditions on our websites for a vote (but the ultimate decision will be left to the WKNZ staff and committee.) Please keep you letters relatively brief (no ten-page documents!).

Do you know someone who fits the bill? Get them to prayerfully consider being a part of WKNZ in this very important capacity!

We will also be seeking a variety of other volunteer positions at the station which will be announced as we get closer to the air-date.

Please continue to pray for WKNZ as we move forward.

Calvary Assembly Salutes our Military

Calvary Assembly of God in Dover will be hosting a military tribute service this Sunday July 5th during both their 8:30 AM and 11 AM services. This will include the Dover Air Force Base Honor Guard, patriotic songs and giveaways, plus a token of appreciation to all military members. The CF Swartz great big American flag will be hanging in the lobby. For more information, visit www.CalvarySalutesTheMilitary.com.