Behind the Scenes at WUAS

The Wake Up America Seminars friends in Denison, Texas are so excited they can hardly stand it. In the December 97 issue of Day Star we reported about their outreach project that offered a free Warning! book using the Thrifty Nickel and other nationwide, free advertising papers.

By the time you read this, they will have received requests for over 9,000 books! Last month they received two calls from pastors in Louisiana requesting a total of 300 books to be shared with their congregations.

One pastor, after reading the little book said, “This is a message my people need to hear,” and he promptly ordered additional books. Another woman called, requesting 75 books to share with her Bible study group. If you are discouraged because you think nothing is happening, think again! God is at work!

Thousands of people are anxious to learn what the Bible teaches regarding Jesus’ imminent return and we just need to find them! The testimony coming from Denison should encourage us not to give up or give in to failure. After trying many promotional ideas for distributing books over a three year period, Willie and Dorothy Brock felt impressed to try the Thrifty Nickel (a very affordable method). Now, the fifteen sponsors in Denison are amazed at God’s handiwork!

A few months ago, Doug and Pauline Parker, decided to send the Asteroid Impact brochure to 7,250 people in Arizona. To date, more than 300 phone calls have been received requesting additional study material in response to this mailing.

This number has exceeded the number of responses that would normally be expected from this type of mailing! When people ask for more information, this shows a good level of interest. We are very encouraged by these results.

When friends of Wake Up America Seminars in Austin, Texas heard about the level of response generated from the mailing, they became excited too. (Using various mailing lists, the Asteroid Impact brochure can reach people for less than 40 cents per household.)

So, the Austin group began setting aside funds to reach a large number of people in the state of Texas. The group sponsoring this project is small, less than 15 people, but with the Lord’s blessing and their sacrificial giving, they have raised $12,500, the amount needed to mail the brochure to 36,000 Texas residents!

Please pray for those who receive the brochure that they will be prompted to consider its contents. Pray that the Lord will use this endeavor to find people who are praying and searching like the centurion, Cornelius, for a better understanding of God’s Word. (Acts 10)

Incidentally, we have learned that a movie produced and directed by Steven Spielberg called Deep Impact is scheduled to be released this summer. It is a story about the global consequences of an asteroid impact. Perhaps the Asteroid Impact brochure will prompt people to search their Bibles when they see on the “big screen” the implications of coming events.

Yes, the Lord hears our call for help even before we cry! A few days ago, Larry Wilson, Director of Wake Up America Seminars, was preparing a video for the Tape of the Month Club when his video switcher malfunctioned. (A video switcher is a device that switches the video signal between cameras and computers.)

As Larry searched for a new switcher, the prospects looked bleak, since small component switchers range in cost between $5,000 and $30,000.

After talking with video dealers all over the nation, Larry found nothing that seemed “just right.” However, as he looked in the advertising section of a video magazine, his eye caught a dealer’s name that he promptly called. To his surprise, the dealer had the very switcher Larry needed.

Incredible as it seems, just the day before, a church had backed out of a TV broadcast agreement and the dealer was “stuck” with this new switcher in his inventory. The dealer offered it to Larry at his cost and Larry rejoiced over God’s blessing.

The offer was especially generous since this switcher had also been discounted by Sony. Normally, the switcher and related components sold for about $15,000. Sony had just dropped the price to $10,000 and Larry purchased it for $8,000!

Larry called Marty at the WUAS office and asked him to go to the bank and “beg, borrow and squeal.” The switcher was ordered, and the very next day a Wake Up America Seminars‘ friend called feeling impressed that a special financial need had developed at Wake Up.

Talk about timing! The caller praised God for His goodness and told us their family would provide the funds for the switcher! Can you believe it? Certainly God is blessing this work and those who love it.

I will close with one last story. As you may remember, we mailed the charts, Roadmaps for the End-Time and an audio tape instead of the January Day Star. There is a wonderful story behind those charts. About three years ago, Larry presented a seminar on the west coast. After the meeting, Larry visited with a man whom he had not met previously.

The man asked about upcoming projects. Larry mentioned his desire to produce a set of colorful charts that would be (1) very inexpensive so they could be widely shared, and (2) visually helpful so that new students could quickly grasp the prophetic story.

A few weeks after the seminar, without another word between Larry and this gentleman, a $25,000 check arrived in the mail stipulated for “color charts.” Since Larry’s work load has been very heavy, he was unable to produce the color charts until August 97.

Unfortunately, several production snags prevented WUAS from meeting a November 1997 deadline. Putting the charts together was far more challenging than we anticipated. So, the deadline was pushed forward to December, only to have the project delayed further due to several computer problems – translating the graphics data from one computer to another. Finally, the charts were finished and ready for printing.

The size of the charts mandated the use of a large press in Columbus, Ohio, but Marty arranged for our job to be placed at the end of another vendor’s very big printing job, which resulted in a better than average printing cost (½ the cost).

At last, the day came for our charts to be processed, but to our dismay, the printer could not process our computer files, even after two weeks of work. (Another delay!) So, Marty enlisted the help of a computer firm to process our files and produce the large negatives necessary for printing.

Still, several negatives came out wrong, which represented a $2,500 mistake. (This is not an uncommon problem due to hardware differences in computers.) So, Marty went back to the drawing board and processed the negatives again. Success at last!

However, the use of another computer firm meant we were facing an additional $5,000 expense which we had not counted on. To our amazement, the day we received the invoice for the $5,000 bill, the mail also contained a “surprise” gift from a Wake Up friend for $5,000!

Hold on . . . there is more to this story! The charts were rescheduled for printing on January 2, but the devil, always anxious to impede God’s work, attempted to stop this project one last time. A fire started in the press and shut down the printer for several days. (The fire resulted in $750,000 worth of damages.)

Fortunately, the printer could print the Roadmaps on another press in a few days and the charts were printed and mailed out. Although it seemed like an uphill battle to produce these charts, we are jubilant to see how God has made the impossible – possible. In spite of everything, the price for all nine charts remains only $1.

These types of experiences encourage all of us that God is at work. He continues to bless this message and whether we receive gifts of $25,000 or $2.50, we regard each penny as belonging to Lord and endeavor to stretch it as far as possible.

Our mission statement is simple and direct: “We are dedicated to proclaiming the imminent return of Jesus Christ through whatever means possible.” For nearly ten years, Wake Up America Seminars’ focus has been on this aspect of the King’s business.

Please join us in reaching as many people as possible while circumstances are favorable for distributing Revelation’s story.