Sit Down

When people ask how the Star Project is progressing, I generally say “busy” or “great” as a shorthand assessment. But when I looked back on 2008, I was deeply humbled to see what God has accomplished, and I wanted to share some simple numbers with you.

We had problems with the secular distributor of the DVD. They didn’t account, and they didn’t pay. We changed distributors for 2009, and hope this results in much wider availability of the movie. Producing a film with God-honoring quality is an expensive endeavor, and we have not yet recovered the cost. This should change in 2009. While I don’t have hard numbers yet, I am confident we have sold many tens of thousands of DVDs. I know from emails that these are busy discs! They seem in constant motion, with people sharing them and giving them away. I hope this is satisfying to you prayer warriors!

Like last year, I was on radio, in print, and on television. But the numbers have become staggering. The BBC flew a team from London to film in my home. Their star special ran on Christmas Eve. According to Wiki, the BBC is in 274,000,000 households in 200 countries. TBN broadcast the DVD itself multiple times. TBN is in 100,000,000 households in 75 countries. EWTN also broadcast the DVD repeatedly. EWTN is available in 146,000,000 households in 127 countries.

Now, there is overlap in these demographics. But it is safe to say that the Message of the Star has been offered in over a quarter of a BILLION households. This means that if a couple of people watched in even 1% of the households, better than 5,000,000 people have heard about Messiah’s Star, and many have heard the entire story. Because the broadcasts ran repeatedly, the actual number could be many times larger; God knows. But sit down. It could easily be that 50 or 100 million souls have witnessed God’s starry poetry. Phew!

Email. I still look at everything that hits my inbox. But with these numbers, you can imagine the torrent here. I keep up as best I can, as many of the emails are profoundly encouraging. Just like you, I can use a boost now and then!

For many years, I and my prayer team have prayed that the message of Messiah’s Star would reach the ends of the Earth. Do you think He’s been listening? Yet, there is so much more to do! The DVD is not yet available in the Americas, Europe, Africa or Asia! All of these places need to see the celestial fanfare that announced the Savior of Mankind.

If you have time, please pray with me:

“Staggering, My Lord. We are staggered at how you have run with this project and made your name great! You have announced yourself in countless homes in countless countries. But we are not satisfied, Father. Like you, we want the entire World to know you and worship you. Will you help us penetrate the continents, Lord? We feel the joy of being on a winning team, and our hearts leap as we see you work! Our spirits shout, Go, Lord! Go! Thank you, and we can’t wait for more! We pray these things in the powerful name of our Jesus, amen!”

Rick

PS: You’ll roll your eyes when you hear this. The History Channel and Discovery Channel edited me OUT of the BBC production when they ran it in the USA! Said they wanted a female contributor instead! Maybe they should have bumped Kepler!