April 2004  

Dear Friend of The Way Home,

             There’s a story told of a meeting held in a Russian town shortly after the fall of the government to communism.  In an effort to detach the people from their religion, an official had assembled the townspeople and for two straight hours attacked the Christian faith, specifically the resurrection of Jesus.

             Feeling sure that he had persuaded the people of the foolishness of their beliefs, he invited anyone to come forward who would like to try to refute his arguments. A young Orthodox priest approached the podium. The official sneered, “You have two minutes,” but the priest replied, “I don’t think I’ll need that long.”  He stood before the people, extended his arms and called out in a loud voice, “Christ is risen!” In one voice, they gave the thunderous reply, “Christ is risen, indeed!”**  

            Alleluia!  No amount of proud posturing or know-it-all arguments can stand up to the truth we know in our hearts – Jesus is alive!  He died, he was buried, and he rose from the dead to live in us through the Spirit and to raise us into eternal life.  We have experienced his grace; we have known his love.  Christ is risen, indeed.

           This is good news, my friends!  I pray that this Easter season you have been blessed with joy and peace.  I pray you are even now being renewed in the power of the Resurrection, and that you will find ways to share “the reason for your hope.”  One way to do that is through your continued generous support of THE WAY HOME, which reaches thousands of households around the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ .

 The media makes the whole world our mission field!  But we do have obstacles.  You know only too well that our airwaves and cables are pumping the worst kinds of garbage into people’s homes, into the hearts of children, and into the minds of young people on the verge of adulthood.  We are called to bring the light of faith into this darkness.  We are called to save souls.

 How do we do that?  Our programs are, first of all, true. But they’re also interesting, visually appealing, and accessible to all.  You don’t need a theology degree to benefit from THE WAY HOME!  Here’s a sample of some of the good, solid teaching from one of our Easter programs, featuring Bishop Valerian D’Souza, a gifted teacher from Pune, India:

              “Jesus calls us to imitate him in his victory over sin and death.  In his victory over sin each one of us is called to be a saint, is called to be holy…For us to imitate Christ means first no serious sin, no mortal sin. Otherwise the death of Christ will be in vain for us…”  

He explains that it is not by our own efforts, but by God’s grace, that we can overcome sin in our lives.  And then he gives this great counsel:

“What about our smaller sins? We think they are not so serious.  Many say, don’t worry they are venial sins – those small lies, acts of jealousy, envy.  Beware of such thinking, for small sins do not remain small.  Small sins repeated and repeated lead to bigger sins.  No one falls into mortal sins suddenly.  It is prepared slowly, slowly…  

“…If you go to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, in front, on the right hand side, there’s a statue of St. Peter, the Pope, sitting down and one foot is slightly stretched forward.  The strange thing which everybody goes to see is that the foot is completely smooth, as if somebody polished it.  It’s just through the touch of millions and millions of pilgrims that the whole foot has become absolutely smooth.  You can’t see the toes or anything, just one smooth piece.  Just the slight touch of a human being, but it became millions and millions and millions of slight touches.  So let’s not play down what small sins can do…”  

He goes on to declare the message of the Resurrection, which is, above all, hope!  And that is the kind of message that gives life to a hungry and hurting world.   

We know people are hurting, because we hear from them in the prayer requests returned to us in our mail.  We have friends with painful and life-threatening diseases…with wayward sons and daughters…with spouses who have lost their faith…with oppressive financial burdens… We lift all these needs to you, O merciful Lord!  

Now imagine the struggling people who have not yet heard the gospel.  Faced with disease, divorce, unemployment, substance abuse, loneliness, they are near despair.  They turn on the television to escape. They flip channels, and then they land on an image, maybe a painting of Christ, or a compelling preacher, or a gospel drama, or children’s faces filled with joy.  They have found THE WAY HOME.  And they decide to come in and stay awhile.  

Their lives could be changed because they changed a channel.   

This is why we need your most generous gift today.  We are truly a door to a new life, the Resurrection life, for the people God loves and wants to save.  Please help us.

             Yours, in the Risen Savior,  

              Mike Wagner