After 40 Years of Prayer
It was way back in the 1970s that TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch first set their sights and their faith on broadcasting in China. In those days, China was very much a closed, mysterious nation.
To natural eyes, the thought of bringing Christian programming to mainland China was an impossible fantasy. In reality, it was a God-given dream.
In the years that followed, Paul and Jan made numerous trips to China and spoke with leaders there about Christian television on each occasion. They plowed the hard ground and sowed the first seeds. They, along with many of TBN’s partners, watered those seeds with prayer for decades. As the timeline on these pages reveal, in recent years TBN has begun to see the first signs of green shoots rising up from the soil.
In fact, not long ago, a prominent Chinese television producer arranged for Matt and Laurie to meet in Beijing with executives of China Central Television (CCTV)—the largest television group in that nation of more than 1.4 billion souls—to discuss the possibility of TBN providing large blocks of program content for one of their channels. CCTV is accessible to more than a billion people.
We are thrilled to report that TBN’s programming partnership with CCTV can become a reality. After 40 years of prayer, we are seeing the fulfillment of this dream! With your support and prayer, we will begin by providing a block of children’s programming in the Mandarin language.
Please take a moment to reflect on this: YOU are about to be a part of bringing illuminating children’s programming to millions upon millions of children in China. The door is open. Let’s walk through it together.
For the Nations,
Matt and Laurie Crouch
THE TBN/CHINA TIMELINE: (See insert photos above)
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*1970s: Mom and Dad stood in Hong Kong, faced the Chinese mainland, and declared before the Lord that one day, TBN programming would cover China.
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*1980s: Dad spoke in a government-registered church in Shanghai with the extraordinary Chinese evangelist, Nora Lam. Nora was a dear partner and friend of TBN for many, many years. In fact, in 1990 TBN Films made a feature-length dramatic film China Cry, based on her remarkable autobiography.
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*1990s: Dad, Mom, and Nora stood together upon the Great Wall of China. They prayed and prophesied that TBN would one day be in China, interceding with passion and love for the people of the most populous nation on earth.
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*Early 2000s: The first green shoots from those seeds sown in the 70's began to emerge, as TBN's streaming video-on-demand began to be accessible in China. I'll never forget the day in 2012 when my dad and I, traveling together on a train in China, were able to watch TBN on a smartphone. It blessed me to see how moved and excited he was as that long-held dream began to be fulfilled. He moved on to heaven the very next year. I'm so glad he lived to see the "first fruits" of that God-given dream become a reality.
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*2018: Breakthrough! After 40 years of prayer, a programming partnership with CCTV-the largest television group in that nation of more than 1.4 billion souls - is becoming a reality. The partnership begins with TBN providing children's programming content in the Mandarin language. This is only the first step on our journey in China, but it is a big one. Stepping through this door will mean taking on significant costs for equipment, infrastructure, and, of course, content creation in Mandarin.