Tomorrow is the last day of the year! Praise God for all He has done in 2024, and for all He will do in 2025. Make your year end donation by tomorrow for it to be included in the 2024 year end receipts.
Donation deadlines are the following:
In person (1844 Baty Rd. Lima, OH 45807)
Monday or Tuesday, 9am-4pm
By phone: (419) 339-4444
By Tuesday at 4pm
By mail: 12/31 postmark
Online: actsministries.com (Deadline 11:59pm EST)
12/29/2024
There are 3 more days in the year 2024, and there is still time for you to make a year end donation. Here are the deadlines:
In person (1844 Baty Rd. Lima, OH 45807)
Monday or Tuesday, 9am-4pm
By phone: (419) 339-4444
By Tuesday at 4pm
By mail: 12/31 postmark
Online: actsministries.com (Deadline 11:59pm EST)
12/29/2024
With only 3 more days left in 2024, we are less than $10,000 from our campaign goal. Now is a wonderful time to make a year end donation or pledge.
If you make a pledge, the amount will be counted in the Annual Campaign total, but you can pay it throughout 2025.
To make a pledge, call 419-339-4444 or visit TV-44 Monday or Tuesday between 9am-4pm.
“Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people.”
Luke 1:68
12/27/2024
Here are the timing deadlines for donations in the 2024 calendar year.
In person (1844 Baty Rd. Lima, OH 45807)
Monday or Tuesday, 9am-4pm
By phone: (419) 339-4444
By Tuesday at 4pm
By mail: 12/31 postmark
Online: actsministries.com (Deadline 11:59pm EST)
12/25/2024
12/25/2024
Here's our Christmas Day Programming Schedule
Enjoy it all on TV-44 on your TV via antenna, your cable provider, or Roku.
Wednesday, December 25
1am: The Great Rupert
2:30am: Scrooge
4am: Bluffton University Presents: Handel's Messiah
6am: Black Swamp Community Orchestra 2024
7am Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
10am: Bluffton University Presents: Handel's Messiah
12 noon: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
3pm: Black Swamp Community Orchestra 2024
4pm: Beverly Hillbillies (Home For Christmas)
4:30pm: Beverly Hillbillies (Christmas at Clampetts)
9:30pm: Christmas with Will Graham: Peace on Earth
12/24/2024
You may have a family member in their early 30’s who was a high school choir member.
Relive memories with them during this year’s special “throwback” edition of HMF as we feature selections from 23 choirs taped in our studio during years 2008, 2009, and 2010.
We are just over $15,000 from our year end campaign goal of $175,000. Would you make a Christmas gift donation?
Donate here: actsministries.com
Thank you!
12/23/2024
Enjoy these Christmas specials on TV-44
Tuesday, December 24
3pm: An ORU Family Christmas
3:30pm: Christmas with Will Graham: Peace on Earth
4pm: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
7pm: Angel Doll
8:30pm: Scrooge
10pm: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
Wednesday, December 25
1am: The Great Rupert
2:30am: Scrooge
4am: Bluffton University Presents: Handel's Messiah
6am: Black Swamp Community Orchestra 2024
7am Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
10am: Bluffton University Presents: Handel's Messiah
12 noon: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
3pm: Black Swamp Community Orchestra 2024
4pm: Beverly Hillbillies (Home For Christmas)
4:30pm: Beverly Hillbillies (Christmas at Clampetts)
9:30pm: Christmas with Will Graham: Peace on Earth
12/23/2024
Christmas with Will Graham: Peace on Earth
December 24th at 3:30pm
In this heartwarming Christmas special, Will Graham reveals the only source of true peace for the world. Join Will, and musical guests, Cochren and Co., for this timely celebration, filmed at the boyhood homeplace of his grandfather, Billy Graham.
12/23/2024
Now is a perfect time to donate, as we are in our final days to raise $175,000.
Our current campaign total: $148,602
Donate here: actsministries.com.
Thank you for your support in our local ministry.
12/22/2024
The Greatest Family Tradition
by Jennifer Beck
Do you have any Christmas traditions? My extended family lives out of state, so it's not easy to gather every year for Christmas. However, when we do, one tradition is to play a card game called Squeak. It is similar to Dutch Blitz, but includes my family’s rule changes. Another tradition is to enjoy the soups made by my mother. We are welcomed by her Chicken Corn Chowder and hearty Vegetable Soup, alongside a table full of crackers, veggies, and her family-famous cheese-ball.
We have scaled back on gift giving (we don't need more "stuff"), and we value our together time.
Christmas is a unique time to remember the One who gave us the gift of salvation. We picture Jesus as a baby in the manger; and yet, His birth was the launching point for His earthy ministry leading to His death and resurrection. The gift of eternal life is the free gift that you and I can all celebrate!
This holiday season, I ask you to join me in a time of gratefulness for the gift of eternal life. I often look at my grandchildren and think about the state of our world, the shifting morals, and the struggles that seem never ending. Then I remember that salvation and everlasting life will keep them. May you be at peace and sense His love, knowing that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.
(By the way, I hope you enjoy this precious picture of my grandson, Henry, with my parents, his great-grandparents. He had just received a gift from them and he was showing his gratitude. This Christmas season is a time to be grateful for all God has done for us, especially the gift of His son!)
12/22/2024
In these final days of 2024, Bob and Jennifer invite you to make a year end donation to the TV-44 funding campaign.
The campaign goal is $175,000.
The current total is: $148,602.
Donate online at actsministries.com.
You can also visit us Monday between 9am-4pm at 1844 Baty Rd., Lima. OH 45807.
Thank you for your partnership as we continue to spread the message of Jesus Christ into 2025!
12/22/2024
You may have a family member in his or her early 30’s who was a high school choir member.
Relive memories with them during this year’s special “throwback” edition of Holiday Music Festival as we feature selections from 23 choirs taped in our studio during years 2008, 2009, and 2010.
The following choirs will be featured in year's special broadcast.
The Holiday Music Festival airs December 24, 4pm and 10pm. It airs again December 25 at 7am and 12 noon.
Sunday, December 22
2:30pm an ORU Family Christmas
6pm: Gaithers: All Heaven & Nature Sing
Monday, December 23
3pm: Petticoat Junction (Cannonball Christmas)
3:30pm: Ozzie & Harriet (The Boy's Christmas Money)
4pm: Ozzie & Harriet (The Late Christmas Gift)
4:30pm: Ozzie & Harriet (Busy Christmas)
5pm: Ozzie & Harriet (The Day After Christmas)
5:30pm: Ozzie & Harriet (The Christmas Tree Lot)
8pm: Scrooge Podcast
Tuesday, December 24
3pm: An ORU Family Christmas
3:30pm: Christmas with Will Graham: Peace on Earth
4pm: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
7pm: Angel Doll
8:30pm: Scrooge
10pm: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
Wednesday, December 25
1am: The Great Rupert
2:30am: Scrooge
4am: Bluffton University Presents: Handel's Messiah
6am: Black Swamp Community Orchestra 2024
7am Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
10am: Bluffton University Presents: Handel's Messiah
12 noon: Holiday Music Festival Through the Years
3pm: Black Swamp Community Orchestra 2024
4pm: Beverly Hillbillies (Home For Christmas)
4:30pm: Beverly Hillbillies (Christmas at Clampetts)
9:30pm: Christmas with Will Graham: Peace on Earth
Thursday, December 26
3:30pm: Billy Graham Classics, "A Family Christmas"
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We are just over $15,000 from our year end campaign goal of $175,000. Would you make a Christmas gift donation?
Donate here: actsministries.com
Thank you!
Something not so great happened last week when our Take One Newsletters were processing through the mail, hundreds of reply envelopes and cards **fell out** of the newsletters. You might have been one of the many who did not recieve all of the items that were supposed to be inside your newsletter. We apologize! This means you will need to use your own reply envelope to send in a donation. However, you can also call your donation in by phone (419) 339-4444, or online at actsministries.com.
In their own unique style, Patrick and Jennifer create a special display to help you remember to return the card you received in this month's Take One newsletter.
Did you receive the latest Take One newsletter? This card was included in that newsletter. Please call us with the information, or return the card to us. We want to know how you watch TV-44, as we aim to make sure the programming is available to all throughout the region.
They're finally finished! Patrick and Jennifer display their newly finished 100% edible Christmas trees, and compare them to the examples made by the floor director, and food craft prep lady, Abby.
In Acts Chapter 3, Peter and John healed a crippled beggar. They then seized an opportunity to spread the Good News to the gathering crowd, who were amazed by the healing. Acts 4:4 tells us that their teaching led to an increase in the number of believers: as many as 5,000 had become new converts through their “logos,” or as we would say today, the message. This idea of spreading the message of the Gospel has been core to WTLW since our founding in 1982. In essence, WTLW is Acts 44.
It started in 1976: a vision by Ron Mighell to bring a Christian television station to the Lima area as an expansion of local Christian radio station WTGN. It took almost 7 years for the legal details to be worked out; in the end, WTGN’s interest in the initiative ended but Ron continued to work on making his vision a reality. With WTGN’s departure, it was decided a new company would be formed, known as American Christian Television Services, Inc.
However, our history actually begins long before 1976: we need to go back to 1933. The facility was used by the Lima airport. Constructed during the Great Depression and later abandoned when the Lima airport moved, Ron toured the run-down property in the late 70’s and envisioned the largest television studio in Northwest Ohio. By 1980 the details were complete, the property purchased, and volunteers knee deep in renovations to transform the airport hangar into a center for television ministry.
With the renovations now in full swing, and having received over $1,000,000 in donations, the first governing board was formed consisting of Andrea King, Ron Mighell and Larry Sheets. They chose the new station’s call letters, WTLW, which represented the mission: Witnessing the Living Word.
After renovations were completed, the first broadcast was next. On June 13, 1982, at 3:30pm the first signal went out over the airways. A short video launched this monumental moment, followed by station founder, Ron Mighell, who welcomed the TV viewers on camera by saying just one simple word: "Finally." But regardless of its simplicity, the mission was just as important as the one Jesus gave the disciples in Acts.
TV44’s broadcast day initially began at 4:30pm. A live weathercast followed at 6pm each evening. The prime-time schedule included a nightly segment from Paul Harvey and Ron Mighell hosting Behind the Scenes. As the station grew, more locally produced material grew into the daily schedule including Tools & Tips, Time for You (a live ministry program) and locally produced election night coverage. At one point, TV-44 even aired Cincinnati Reds games (no offense, Cleveland fans!).
But the first real transformation came in 1991 during the Gulf War. When the bombs were dropped in Baghdad, TV-44 was the first station in the area to stay on the air 24/7. Since that moment, our transmitter has never been turned off, Witnessing the Living Word around the clock to over 100,000 households in a 14-county area.
Founder Ron Mighell resigned in 1990 to launch WLMB Channel 40 in Toledo. Bob Placie then served as our General Manager from 1990 to 1997. He hosted many of our local programs as well as well as launching the TV station into other successful avenues including local newscasts and an expansion of local sports coverage.
Placie resigned in 1997 to pursue interests in private enterprise. Subsequently, Kevin Bowers was named General Manager in December 1997 and continues in the position to this day. While our sports coverage began in 1988 (with a makeshift operation consisting of just a couple of cameras and two announcers!), by the mid-90s we were producing award-winning sports coverage with upwards of 6 cameras, instant replay, stereo audio and state of the art graphics -- all from a production truck home-built by our engineers.
The success and support of our local sports coverage have been unmatched and in 2010 we launched WOSN (West Ohio Sports Network), creating Lima’s first and only locally produced 24/7 sports channel. We’ve always emphasized local programming: Turning Point & 44 Magazine were mainstays of our daily programming for many years. We also produced Straight Talk from Teens, as well as countless news and information programs/documentaries.
TV44 continues to be the station that connects our community. We produce the Holiday Music Festival which brings more than 1,000 high school students through our doors each Christmas season. In the fall and winter of each year, we air Whiz Quiz. This pits area high school quiz teams against each other in trivia competition with challenging topics akin to of a game of Trivial Pursuit. Both of these programs demonstrate our continued investment in the accomplishments and future of our local youth.
Most recently, we began to make headway into the area of digital media as we follow Jesus’ teaching to go wherever the people are found. As millennials and beyond look to the internet as a primary source of their information, it is our mission to be right there with them. However, we can only do all of this thanks to your faithful support. From the bottoms of our hearts -- whether you’ve donated to our auction, been a faithful contributor for years, have prayed for us daily, or have been one of our regular business sponsors -- we sincerely thank you for helping us to Witness the Living Word.
