Better Life Goes Live in Portland

Portland, Ore.; Vancouver, Wash.; and Salem, Ore., tune your televisions to digital Channel 36 KEVE! As of 1:45 p.m. Wed., Oct. 20, Adventists now have a TV presence in the greater Portland and Salem areas. The Oregon Conference and Better Life Broadcasting Network have partnered in bringing Adventist programming to Portland.

The series of events leading to this miracle are many. The owners of KEVE contacted Better Life Broadcasting Network. They felt that Better Life’s ministry fit what they wanted to see happen with the station. So they offered to sell the station for the price of $750,000. The sellers later reduced the price to $700,000 and then donated back $100,000 so that the actual final price was $600,000.

Miraculously, a brand new, still-in-the-box antenna that had been in storage for the past 10 years was discovered for sale. Amazingly, it was already tuned to broadcast on Channel 36. The station sellers purchased the antenna, worth $20,000, for $500 and donated it to Better Life.

The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist gave the Oregon Conference $500,000 and the North Pacific Union Conference gave $100,000 to help with the station purchase to get Adventist programming on the air. The Oregon Conference will own the station and Better Life Broadcasting Network will manage programming. Even following the purchase, the sellers were so supportive of the ministry they did some reengineering, allowing the station to reach down to Salem.

At the short ribbon-cutting ceremony that accompanied the “flipping of the switch,” Al Reimche, Oregon Conference president, gave a prayer of dedication: “Holy Spirit, work in this area, use this equipment and signal to glorify God … And we look forward to working with all the individuals that you send to us … Now take this and use it to Your glory.”

Featured in: December 2010

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