Metro Centers are Birthed and Television Starts
In 1983 we had a prophetic word that we were going to have more centers locally. We soon expanded to eight
centers in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, so that we could recruit more counselors who could minister
closer to their homes. We opened these local centers in various metropolitan suburbs and one in St. Cloud,
50 miles away from the Twin Cities. We were able to transfer crisis calls there.
We opened centers in eight metro area churches. In Emmanuel Christian Center in Spring Lake Park we also
backed up their television show on Sunday mornings. We had small offices with telephones in Park Assembly
of God in St. Louis Park, Christ Church in Apple Valley, Woodbury Church, Buffalo Assembly of God, River
of Life Church in Cambridge (which we are still in today), North Heights Lutheran Church in Roseville, and
Elk River Assembly of God. Both Elk River and St. Cloud are out of the Twin Cities area.
The centers worked well as long as the individual centers had strong volunteer managers. At the point we
could not replace the satellite center managers we closed the centers. They were too hard to manage from a
distance. Our branch centers were opened from 1984 to 1995. We realize now that they were not that great a
benefit.
In 1983 and 1984 prophetess Helen Velonis prophesied that we would be doing a television show. For years I
had been saying, "Thank God we are not involved in television." I saw the spiritual warfare that went on in
television ministries. As far as I was concerned we had enough spiritual warfare and didn't need more. *
Just before we started, Helen prophesied that we were going to be bigger than Jimmy and Tammy Baker's
"Praise the Lord" television show. That really got me angry since I