This is the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network. They say, if you want to change a culture, you reach the leaders of that culture. There's a man of God that's doing that. I'm sitting next to him.
Get ready, folks. You're about to drink water from a fire hydrant because Ron Harris is going all over the world. To Bali, Nepal, Malaysia, all these countries, some I can't even mention, and he's training leaders to share the gospel through media. He's a Christian radio guy at heart. I mean, you were doing mornings there, brother, on the radio for years, decades.
People woke up to you every morning at KCBI in Dallas. 15 years I was on the air in the morning. My radio career started over 60 years ago. And so God has given me the opportunity to understand media, to understand the various aspects of it, how to do it. I'm having to learn some of the new stuff, you know.
But what we get to do, Stu, is that we get to go around the world, we work with Christian media leaders. in over fifty countries. And you're right, some we don't talk a lot about. Yeah. How about?
How about Iran? A year and a half ago, we trained 20 people. from Iran who are doing media in that country, you know, under peril of their lives. And several of them told stories of being arrested and stuff. Six of them actually came out, the others had already refugees getting out of the country because they had to.
Six of them said, we can't even take our handwritten notes back into the country because they'll see them, they'll know we're Christians. and the rest.
So we can't do it. And one young man came up. crying. He said, We never get this kind of help.
Social media stuff that they can do, and video telling stories, that's what we trained him in. And he was just, he said, we never get this kind of help. We do stuff, but we don't know the best way to do it. And so, what a joy it is. Let me tell you about that one.
at the end of it. they circled our little team. and prayed for us. and one man got on his knees next to my feet, and prayed. And I thought, Lord, this is backwards.
We're the ones praying for them and no, no, no. They prayed for us. God has got great people all over the world, and the joy that we have is to get to go in, stand alongside them, pray for them, with them, encourage them, strengthen them, teach them better tools, better methods of sharing the gospel through the media tools we have, and many times just keep them doing what God's called them to do.
Well, my dad has always been a big fan. Of Dr. Ron Harris. He is the head of Media Alliance International. He's training leaders.
God's using you in a mighty way. You've been telling me these miracle stories.
Some of you had to tell me off-air because we couldn't mention them publicly. But. People listening Want to hear the good news of what God is doing around the world. Give us a snapshot of that, of how guys you've been on the board, you've been in the executive leadership of national religious broadcasters. You've been a friend and mentor to me for years.
We love what you're up to. Give everyone a snapshot of what God's doing in the nations. Give us a wake-up call and give us some encouragement. We just had a man from India here. We've had some people from Romania in our suite.
All of them are saying, it's getting harder. It's getting harder. Romania has been relatively open, but it's getting harder. India is getting much harder. And in the north, it's very, very challenging there.
For Christians in the south or some of the other areas, they, you know, they can do what they do, but under pressure. And so it's getting tougher. And yet. They're bold people who go out. I remember this is several years ago, but it really tells the character of the people.
A ministry out of Albania went to Kosovo, 99% Muslim. And they put in a radio station. My wife and I went over to help dedicate it. And in six months they had to Shut it down, move it because the landlord in the building they were in was getting death threats in Kosovo.
So they moved it, they're still broadcasting. In that climate, This ministry leader goes to the most popular secular television station in the capital city. Christina, and says, We'd like to put Christian teaching programs on your station. Who would have thought? I would have said, uh-oh, don't get into that mess.
I mean, you're going to lose your radio stay. She said, No, I'm going in. Wow. And when she came out, She had secured 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for Christian teaching programs.
Unbelievable. Not buried overnight. you know, prime time.
So about six weeks later, she goes back And the director of the station she had met with before, she said, I just want to see how things are going. He said, They're fine.
Some people don't like it, but that's okay. And he said, Now, you know that I'm Muslim, don't you? And he was kind of like, duh. Yeah. Everybody is.
He said, Do you have. children's programs that teach the Bible. And she's like Yes. I can get it. He said, I'll put them on for free.
He said, our children are being destroyed morally. And I know if they get Bible teaching, it will build them up. And he said, if you have youth programs, music that have Bible content, I'll put it on for free. That's been going on their station now for six or seven years. Because this leader was bold enough to go in and ask.
It's unbelievable. I wouldn't do it. But she did. Wow. Dr.
Ron Harris, give us the nuts and bolts of Media Alliance International, your slogan, strengthening and encouraging leaders in Christian media. We're actually recording this at the Religious Broadcasters Convention, the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, where you have been a leader for a large part of your life. You've been a leader more here than the majority of your life. How does the ministry work?
Someone sends you a check of financial support or prayer. How do they find out about you? Like you guys are a 501c3. Give us the basic, like just kind of like who you guys are for dummies.
Well, we have a website that tells a lot about that. It's MediaAlliance.net. Mediaalliance.net. And you can learn about it. You can sign up.
We do a weekly blog that we send out. My heart there is to these leaders around the world, but it's really good for a lot of different people. And so you can sign up for that, find out more about it, and donate through that if you'd like. We don't charge anyone when we go anyplace, we do these conferences, we don't charge them for our services. We may have to charge for the Hotel of Beals, but that's the.
We don't charge, and we bring people along with us who are professionals. They're from InTouch Ministry, they're from Ambassador Advertising, they're from these top Christian agencies, and they pay their own way. We take care of them while they're there. And we do that because we want to train those folks to be excellent in what they do. That's their heart.
We want to encourage them, strengthen them. Probably the most important thing we do, Stu, is encourage people. Your dad was an encourager to me.
So much. Your mom is well. Um, we want to encourage those folks now. I got to tell you. Saying we go to encourage people in other parts of the world is not a great fundraising tool.
Read the last chapter of Romans. Paul begins to say, Oh, so-and-so was good to me. Thank them. And so-and-so in their house, they kept me. You know.
You know how many names are in that one chapter? Thirty-four names. And what Paul is doing is encouraging those folks. He's saying. Hey, way to go.
You're hanging in there. Thanks for what you've done. You're great. And so, a part of what we do then, and really an important part, is to encourage those folks. And we love them.
We just love them. They're like my own kids, you know. In fact, I get. This is true. I get emails from some of them or messages and they say, Hey, Daddy, how are you doing?
How's mommy? And because they love us, because we love them. You know, I've got a four-word philosophy of life, leadership, everything else. Four words. Love God.
love people. It's right out of what Jesus said. What are the most important commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
So we love God, and because of his love for us and our love for him, we love people. I love these people we work with. I go to India. It's a tough area. I love the people there.
I don't love going to India. I told a guy from India, I don't love going to India. I love being there and I love the people. And so many places around the world are that way. It's not that I love the people.
Some of them I may not like, but I do love them. And out of that love comes a strong desire for them to come to know Christ. That's the only hope. And if you want a one-word thing that the whole world needs, it's hope. I don't care if you're talking about Ukraine where we've ministered, or if you're talking about Thailand, or if you're talking about Africa, or we'll be in Brazil this year, we'll be in the Middle East, North Africa, doing media training.
Every single place needs hope. And the only hope we have is Jesus Christ. And that's it. Mediaalliance.net, because I'm looking at your giant banner. I'm going to do a selfie with you with this banner behind us.
Dr. Ron Harris, one of my favorite people, passionate about. reaching the gospel, taking the gospel all over the world, and he targets Media leaders pouring Jesus into them so they can be effective at spreading the gospel on the platforms God has given them. And you're about to put a book in my hand. What's the name of this book?
Give a shameless plug for this book for folks that want to, you know, get this book and share it with their team, their family. Becoming God's Leader. And it's on Amazon. We have another devotional book. And then I wrote a memoir on my life, but it's how God leads.
And, you know, I've worked in radio people. You know how it is. People, oh, you got a great voice.
Well, the name of the book is The Voice Behind You. And it's taken from Isaiah, where it's you hear the voice behind you saying, turn left, turn right. This is the way. Walk in it. And that's God's voice.
And so the book basically is how. When I've understood God's direction, We've said yes. We've moved that way. But it's my whole life. It's kind of fun.
It's a fun book. And it's on Amazon, and I can shamelessly promote it because anything that comes in goes to our ministry. Any profit from it.
Okay, so. Pretend like we're at your retirement party. There you are laying in that pine box. And you want people to say nice things about you, of course. And hopefully, your favorite food is going to be served, right, as we celebrate your life, because I know you're going to retire that way, just like Big Stew did.
What is it? How is it you want to be remembered? What's on your tombstone? What is it that Ron Harris the legacy Ron Harris, what is it you wanted to be said about you When you have gone to heaven, and you're not even thinking about what's going on in that room, by the way. But what is it you want to be said?
You know, there's a couple of things. One is just what I said: that I love God and I love people. throughout my life. That's been my heart. And the other would be, and I got this from another man who said.
He stretched others. He stretched others. Fred Smith.
Okay, yeah. And Fred Smith said, He stretched others. Because that's what we do. We look to people, we want the best out of them. We want to stretch them a little bit.
We want to encourage them. We want them to accomplish more than they thought they could. To stretch others and to do it in that spiritual context means more people will hear about Jesus. More people will be strengthened in their faith because someone else took an extra step. True television.
