Introduction The desert surrounding the holy city of Jerusalem sounds like a romantic place to get a call from God, but it's not as glamorous as it sounds. The ground is hard and unforgiving, full of deep and deadly crevices, as if a giant creature had carved the land with massive fingernails to trap unsuspecting travelersmuch like the Path of Surrender we followed to obey that call. But here is where my husband, Marcus, and I began the journey that brought us through "crevices" deeper than any we saw in the Sinai Desert as we traveled through Egypt. We had only been in the Bedouin region for a short time, when Marcus noticed something unusual: a satellite antenna poked up from the top of each tent in this dry and barren landscape. It seemed incongruous, this modern technology in so simple and harsh a land. Marcus realized that God had been planting a vision in his heart and mind, telling him that television is a tool for spreading the Lord's teachings to a vast audienceanywhere in the world, day and night. God had come up with a very tall order for us in the Holy Land. At that point, in March 1983, we were newly married.

We were on the road constantly, preaching and ministering with revivals in twenty states. We knew nothing about operating a television station, Christian or otherwise. So when the Lord spoke to Marcus while standing on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem about moving to Montgomery, Alabama, he said three things to God. 1. Why would You ask me to stop doing something You were blessingevangelism!in order to go and build a Christian TV station? 2. Lord, I don't know how to build a Christian TV station. 3. Lord, I don't have a million dollars to build a Christian TV station! You might think that God would respond with a lengthy dialogue to answer all those questions after giving Marcus such a tall order.

But all He did was repeat the assignment: Go to Montgomery and build a Christian television station. Marcus and I were excited by this, but we were also flustered and more than a little clueless about how to get started. We puzzled over it for several months. Then, in the fall of 1983, Marcus decided that we needed to seriously focus on it. He suggested that we go on a three-day fast to make sure we were clear on what the Lord wanted us to do. Like most other women, I'd done my share of dieting, even back when I really didn't need to diet. But I'd never gone on a three-day fast where you didn't eat even a carrot stick or a bran muffin. Let me tell you, it is no walk in the park.

I thought I was going to die! After the first day, the headaches were excruciating. But we both persevered through prayer, and when it was over, Marcus felt the Lord had made it very clear that we were to find a way to start a Christian television station. By the following January, we were in Montgomery. Risking All A few years before, Marcus had been helping a Montgomery minister in his efforts to build a television stationlong before we had any thoughts of doing it ourselves. This minister, whom Marcus and I had preached for, had gotten a permit for a broadcast license. He'd raised quite a bit of money, but the Federal Communications Commission sets a time limit when it issues permits and the funds weren't coming in fast enough for him to make the deadline. If you don't build your station within the allotted time, you lose your permit. Our friend was facing that predicament, so he'd decided to sell his permit.

Again, at that point, we were ministering around the country and not at all thinking about starting a television station. So Marcus had helped our Montgomery friend sell his permit to another group of Christians we knew from Kentucky who&am.