A Special Message from James White

A New Mobile Studio for Alpha and Omega Ministries

So, what is the 40th anniversary travel project for Alpha and Omega Ministries? We need to hire somebody to come up with a better name, but we're not going to do that because that's not how we do things.

What are we talking about, this special project? Well, it is a special project, it has been 40 years since we started Alpha and Omega, and isn't it strange that in our 40th year we're looking at how to expand the capacity that we have for me to do what we do while I'm still traveling?

And I travel now very quickly on the road here in the United States, used to travel around the globe, but that airline travel stuff has become unpleasant, to put it mildly. And so, as most of you know, we have a fifth-wheel trailer right now and a truck that pulls it and that allows me to stop.

And like I did last night here in Lafayette, Louisiana, leave the unit here, drive to a very nice church, meet with hundreds of folks, talk about important things, and then come back and this is where I stay.

And I'll be doing the same thing Monday, another church, and then off to another state and doing it for the whole month. So, we're asking those of you who appreciate the providing line, appreciate what we're doing, to join with us in making a change.

We only had very limited knowledge as to what we'd be able to do, and in fact, all the technical stuff of webcasting and stuff like that, didn't even think about it, didn't even know how it would work.

I had stayed in like three RV parks my entire life, I had no idea. And so, we've just been cobbling stuff together as best we can and trying to do as much as we can while traveling. And it struck me, I don't know, a couple months ago, I started putting these ideas together, that there was a way to utilize the space in an RV to really get very close to having the same capabilities that we have when I'm at home at the office with the two studios that we have at our offices.

And it came to me because I had always thought that the bedroom in my RV was just too big, the bed was too big. I only use a portion of it, my wife doesn't travel with me, she's taking care of her mom, it's that time of life for us.

And so, I had always thought, man, I wish there was some way to take this bed out, put a bunk in, something like that, because I'd be more comfortable in that smaller space. Even when it's cold, it's easier to warm up a smaller space than a big space.

And all of a sudden, it hit me one day, a friend of mine has an RV with bunks in the back and his grandkids go with him, and they stay in those bunks in the back. And it struck me, if I had bunks in the back, we could take the bed out in the bedroom and turn it into an entire studio with a permanently placed touchscreen, obviously not as big as we have in the big studio, but we can do the textual criticism, Greek, Hebrew, the stuff that a lot of you really enjoy, and I love doing as well.

That's one of the things that's special about The Dividing Line, is when we do apologetics, we do biblical apologetics, and we can get deeply into the text and issues like that. But that's visual. It's something you need to see for some of the, especially the textual critical things, some of the exegesis issues, or even recently putting quotes up from people that we are engaging with.

When we engage with people, we let them speak for themselves. So I came up with this idea, started looking around, fairly quickly encountered what is called the Jayco HT Eagle. Let me show you the floor plan here.

And that's what she looks like. And many ways very similar. It's four feet longer than what I'm sitting in right now. So the one I've got here right now, I would go to about this length. I don't want to go any longer than that.

I'm not looking at, you know, there are big, huge ones out there. That's not my thing. But here you can see the bunks in the back. There's two of them. Basically, during the cold months, I sleep on the bottom one.

And during the hot months, you sleep on the top one. That's how you do it. There is an air inlet in there. So I can survive in the heat. But here you can see, if you use this, then here is where the bedroom is.

And we've taken the bed out graphically. The bed would go here. So here is your space now for the studio. I do not have any idea yet because this is a small slide out. That means this portion here comes in while you're driving.

So it would go, you know, to about here. So you couldn't put anything permanently there. To put that out, you'd have walking space there. There is a TV prep here. So maybe that would be the wise place to put a touch screen and then put a desk.

Maybe facing this way, we want to put a background in so it's consistent. There needs to be a desk for the computer and the screen and all the other kind of stuff you do. I'll need to have a little control panel to control probably two cameras, I would assume, plus the input from the computer, things like that.

And there's a window over here. So yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, just even now, having the background this direction with the natural light coming that way would probably be a wise thing. Here's your studio area.

And there is a super, super practical part about all this that I just want to go ahead and mention because it weighs heavily for me. With this setup, here's your doorway. When I'm traveling, I can simply stop, get in and use the facilities and get back out again without having to put any slide outs out.

My current unit, that's not possible. You cannot access the facilities without putting the slide out out, which is a real safety concern because it goes out into traffic. So yeah, let's just say this will greatly enhance my own comfort and safety.

Not just for that reason, but there are other reasons I'm not going to go into right now in regards to the design of the current unit. This would be safer. And without going through the walkthrough, I'm estimating between 30 and 40 more storage space in this unit than in the unit I'm currently in, even though it's only about four feet longer.

So this is the unit that we want to obtain. And I've mentioned that in reality, the market's sort of in a glut situation right now. So the prices are really good, but that also means we're not getting much for this as far as a trade-in is concerned.

And so we're just coming to our supporters, the folks who go, we love the fact that even while you're traveling, you're still committed to getting the program out there and addressing a lot of different issues.

Issues that honestly, a lot of other people are not touching with a 10-foot pole. Or if they are, they're not necessarily doing it in a deeply biblical fashion. And so we're coming to our folks and saying, here's the project.

If you go to the donate button at aomin .org, there's a little pull-down menu. There's only three options in the pull-down menu. But you've got the general fund, travel fund, and then this special project.

And it could be a little bit confusing while you're traveling. So yeah, I get that. But a special fundraiser specifically to get the unit. And then, of course, the travel fund is how you then maintain it over time.

There's always maintenance. And we're looking at 25 ,000, 30 ,000 miles, minimally, just as it's sitting right now. I haven't actually figured out maybe much longer than that this year. You got to minister while the sun is still up, someone once said, something along those lines.

And so we've got a lot of things coming up this year as well. But that's how you can help us out with this project if you want to have a part in it. We very, very, very much appreciate that. And just wanted to explain to everybody what it was all about.

And there it is. So if you want to help us, go to aomin .org, the donate button, pull-down menu. The mobile studio is what we've described it as. And we greatly appreciate it. And always appreciate your partnership in the ministry with us.

Thanks, and God bless.