I wish you could have been with us on our first day of classes in The Barn in Woodland Park. It was awesome! The auditorium was filled with hundreds of people who are in the process of becoming disciples. Those in attendance were representing so many of you. Some of you are just now learning that God isn’t mad at you. Some of you are learning that you are who God says you are. Some of you are learning that God wants you well and that the war is over. Some of you shared a portion of what God has blessed you with to help pay for this building.
All of these things are happening because of what Christ did over 2,000 years ago. Now God has provided a new home for even more disciples to be made. The faces in the crowd were students who have come to sit under the Word of God for two or three years to grow in their relationship with the Lord and to prepare themselves for whatever He has for them to do.
My Television Department put together a week’s worth of programs that will be airing in the month of February. These programs will show you the beautiful facility the Lord has given us, but more importantly, it will show you some of the lives that are being changed through this ministry. There is so much bad news today that it sometimes seems like darkness is winning. But that’s not what we are seeing at Charis Bible College (CBC). God is moving mightily, and you are a part of it. I encourage you to either watch these programs on television or go to our website: www.awmi.net to view them. These programs will bless you. Your gifts are making a huge difference, and you need to know it. They will be airing February 10-14.
The presence of the Lord was powerful, and everyone was so excited to see what the Lord has done. Indeed, this is one of the greatest manifestations of God’s blessing that I’ve ever seen. In a little over three years, we brought in enough extra money to pay for this facility, DEBT FREE. Thank You, Jesus!
There are a few more finishing touches to be completed over the next few months that we will pay for as the bills come due. The guard house, the cross that will be visible from the road, and the fireplace in the main auditorium are among the items to be completed. I don’t think you’ll notice any of that when you watch.
I am so excited for our students to be here. CBC and those of you who are partnering with this ministry have provided a place where students learn to hear the voice of God for themselves, the Word comes alive, relationship with God is given the highest place, and lives are transformed forever.
And thank you, partners. This truly is the house that our faithful partners built . The cost of tuition was never increased to pay for this facility. The students could not have done it. All the glory goes to God. Jamie and I sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts for enabling us to accomplish this. But there is still a lot to be done.
CBC in The Barn and Around the World
Second Timothy 2:2 says,
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
This scripture is what I’m called to do. While I’ve been blessed throughout this building process, my heart isn’t really in the buildings. I see our building as a tool. It’s not the tool that excites me but what I can do with the tool. It increases my ability to work and accomplish what God wants me to do.
It’s when the students came walking into The Barn that I really got excited. It’s all about people and changing lives. This building and the auditorium we’ll build next are taking us to a whole new level. We’ll be able to accommodate a minimum of 3,000 students at one time with these buildings.
We moved in on January 6 with 636 students. There are now 2,225 correspondence students taking the first-year classes by DVD. There are 479 online students, and we have 1,894 students in our 39 extension schools scattered over 17 countries. This is a grand total of 5,234 students who are attending CBC at the time you are reading this letter. Also, this year, nearly 60 of our second-year students at our Colorado campus came from what I call our “feeder system” of online, correspondence, and extension schools.
Only God knows the full potential of what He will do through these students. But I know it’s BIG, and it’s only going to get bigger.
Speaking of big things, one of our third-year Business School graduates currently has eight major companies bidding on her idea. This idea that God gave her was developed and the business plan written in CBC. I look forward to sharing more about her idea when things are more settled. We need more successful Christian men and women in the marketplace, and CBC is providing a platform to make that happen.
This could not only make a huge difference in America but also around the world. We’ve already started micro-enterprises in our Kampala, Uganda CBC with the goal of our Business School sending those students to the Karamoja region of Uganda. They’ll combine their efforts with our discipleship training that has been going on in that region for over a year now and are prepped to literally change an entire region of the world. Thousands have already come to faith in the Lord through our JESUS film presentations and our follow-up with the 48-Lesson Discipleship Evangelism course. Soon they will also start receiving clean water to drink and training in micro-enterprises.
What Happens Next
At the current rate of growth, The Barn will accommodate us for three or four years. It will take over a year to construct the next building, which includes a 2,500-seat auditorium with offices, break areas for students, a Phone Center, media space, and other functions. We will do some preliminary construction in late summer 2014. We will put in some of the foundation and get a head start on the main construction that will start in the spring of 2015. Our plans are to have Phase II finished before school starts in September of 2016.
Even though this auditorium will be twice as large as The Barn, which we have just completed, it will only be two-thirds of the cost. That’s because we did around 12 million dollars’ worth of infrastructure for the whole campus in the first Phase. Therefore, this auditorium will only cost $25 million. We have thirty-one months to come up with this money, and yes, I intend to finish this auditorium DEBT FREE too. I know it can and will be done.
CBC’s Growth Is Tied to Television
With all the excitement about opening the new CBC campus in Woodland Park, let’s not forget that Andrew Wommack Ministries is discipling people all over the world through the Gospel Truth television broadcast! Expanding this outreach is essential for future growth. In fact, nearly half of our students come to know of CBC through television.
In Russia, my staff has translated my programs into Russian, and for several years, we have been broadcasting there to over 160 million homes across the former Soviet Union. They already have three extension schools, and their goal is to have over 1,000 extension schools over the next several years.
Through God TV, TBN, Daystar, and other Christian television networks and stations, we have worldwide coverage, with 3.2 billion people able to watch my program if they so desire. But I must have multiple broadcasts on the same networks and stations to reach people at different times of the day. The majority of my broadcasts are in the morning, and there are a vast number of people who don’t watch television at that time. They’ve never been exposed to the Gospel Truth.
We could easily double the number of people whose lives are being impacted by the Gospel Truth by just having multiple broadcasts in the same market. However, I need a huge increase in finances to do this.
I know that the message the Lord has given me for the body of Christ is changing lives. It changed mine. It could change a lot more lives if the people were exposed to these truths. I must continue to expand the outreach of the Gospel Truth.
I’m asking every person to consider giving an additional $10 per month for the next thirty-one months. This would more than cover the costs of this second building and expanding our television ministry. It’s a piece of cake for Jesus. That’s only 34¢ per day. You can’t buy gum for that price today. But just 34¢ per day can impact the world if you will participate.
Not everyone can or will join with me in this, but I’m asking those of you who have been impacted by the power of God’s grace through this ministry to do what you can. Some can do more, but everyone can do something. This is an obtainable goal that could impact the body of Christ worldwide.
Again, Jamie and I and all our staff and students want to thank you for standing with us. We aren’t just cursing the darkness; we are turning on a light. And that light is getting brighter all the time. You are a big part of it. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
P.S. If you are going to join with us to see this financial increase, please let us know what you’ve purposed in your heart. If we know how many of you, our partners, are going to stand with us, that will really help us to know if we can move forward with these plans. We’ll keep you up to date on our progress on our website www.awmi.net. Thank you again for your past participation and your continued support!
