We greet you in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We have great news.  On July 8^th, God finally gave us the victory—we purchased WCOK Radio and its property! We took the station off the air briefly and reopened the station on July 15^th.  We have reopened to tremendous response.  The people love the Christian radio station in the mountains in northern North Carolina.  This is a great opportunity to get the Gospel out.  We have an estimated listening base of 72,000 people in Alleghany and the surrounding counties.  We have a great open door yet we have many adversaries.  Please pray for us about this but we know that God is greater than our adversaries.  If you are a pastor, a church, or a preacher and would like some radio time with us, it is a great opportunity to get the gospel to the northern mountains of North Carolina. 

Our support continues to do well although we have not been able to take many missions meetings the last few months.  God continues to provide our needs financially.  In our last letter, we wrote to you about a financial need in the ministry.  God has been good to us and we have seen money come in and we thank God for it. 

Please continue to pray for us that God will use us greatly in these days.  My radio broadcasts (The Gospel Pulpit) I am getting overwhelming response from it.  We are hearing from people every week that are getting help from my radio broadcast.  The main goal in my life is not to be a famous radio preacher or for people to know who I am but that people know who He is—Jesus Christ—and that people would get help.  It is not all about promotion my friends but it is about people first getting saved and then getting help and strength to be able to stand in the storms and for the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I would once again thank our home church and Preacher Barker for their support in their prayers and standing behind us in this ministry.   You can not be a missionary unless you have a great home base.  I thank God for those of you , all across the country, who have given to this cause locally so that we might go globally. We literally are—we are now on AM, FM, short-wave, and internet radio. God has been so good to us.  Our Preaching the Gospel station continues to do well. Many people are hearing the word of God through our preaching internet station. 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  We have many decisions to make in the upcoming weeks concerning the ministries in Sparta, North Carolina, and I want to be ever mindful of the Lord on the directions that God would have us take this radio station.  I believe that we have one of the greatest opportunities that has ever been given to Gospel Broadcasting.  Please help me pray that I will have the wisdom to make the right decisions concerning the radio stations and all the radio work.  More than anything in the world I need the wisdom of God to guide these ministries.  It must not be Ricky but it must be the leading of the Holy Spirit. Pray that we will see many people in all of our works saved by the grace of God.

Your Brother in Christ,

Ricky Cothren