I went back to the congregation; we had an elder’s meeting; the elders called a meeting and had the deacons in. We had four elders and four deacons. I proposed that to them. We were in debt! We owed for our building; we owed for…oh, my. We just had… Every time we looked up we had payments on a note at the bank for something. We had a banker, who was one of the elders, and we could get a loan at the bank. We were just a small congregation—around 125 people. But I laid that out on the table and told them what I’d done. They said, “We’re for it! Let’s do it!”

“But that’s going to be $400 a WEEK, in addition to what we’re already obligated for.”

“Let’s do it!”

Now, all of them were for it, except one deacon. This one deacon was against it, but then, he was that deacon that always felt that nothing ever should be done in that church without his opposition, so….we just didn’t pay much attention to him—we went ahead and did it anyway.

That was the beginning of the SEARCH Program we started. And you know what? The time that the TV manager sold me was……….Swaggart’s time. We got Swaggart’s time and began on Sunday morning. From the beginning, it was obvious that this Program was going to go. God was in this Program. This was the Lord’s doing.

It has grown from that time until now until I can’t tell you how many stations we’re on—that fluctuates—but, you’ve got a printout over there in the foyer if you’d like. Because of people like you, who support us, we’re able to reach into the homes of millions of people every week. The last estimate that we had of our audience per week was 16 to 18 million households. And there are 2.4 people in each household. So you figure that out, now, about how many people we have access to by means of the SEARCH Program today [that’s 38,400,000 to 43,200,000 people—ed.].

Those people who measure the [television] audiences tell us that when we’re on the air at any time, on any station, and some other preacher is on over here [on another station at the same time], or there’s another religious program on another station, we always have more [people watching] than he has—sometimes we’ll have twice as many people seeing us as he has, and sometimes it’s more that twice as many.

Our Program is acceptable with the audience. We can hold an audience; we do hold an audience because of our Message and because the Lord is working through us. I, as the apostle Paul said, I am no more than the vessel—a clay pot through whom the Gospel Message, that which is glorious, is seen. So, the people are [watching and] listening.

And who’s [watching and] listening? Well, I told you last night about one of the little girls and some of the children who listen. We have a letter printed in the Newsletter that’s coming out next from a teenager, who was converted to Christ, and he wrote and told us about it. They are young people, they’re older people, they’re babes—just little infants, preschool children like I told you about last night, who see the Program.

I was boarding an airplane in Atlanta [Georgia]. I’d closed a meeting, and I was coming home the next day. I was seated in row seven, back in the cabin with most of the people—the common people. The flight attendant came to me, and she leaned over, and she said, “Mr. Lyon, if you will get your things together and come with me, I’ll move you up into first class into a more comfortable seat.”

Well, I’d put my computer upstairs—up over my head—and I’d put everything away, and I said, “I’m comfortable here. I’ll be all right here.”

She stood there a minute, and then she said, “Mr. Lyon, I said , if you’ll come with me, I’ll give you a more comfortable seat.”

Well, this not a request—this was an order. And so, I got my computer down. I went up there with her. Well, when I stood up where I could look her in the eye, there were tears coming down her cheeks. I said, “What’s the problem?”

She said, “I don’t think I could start this thing—begin this [work] every Monday morning like this—if it were not for the encouragement that I get from your program on Sunday morning.” I don’t know where she was based. I don’t know whether it was an Atlanta-based crew, or it could have been one of the other places, but I never did get to talk to her any more. I don’t know what her situation was.

When I preach in the Eastern time-zone, and they have a 5:00 [p.m. EST] class, or some kind of an early service, that kind of thing, it isn’t unusual that I can get on a plane and I can be back in Oklahoma City and sleep in my own bed [that same night].

Well, I was doing that while I was living alone after my first wife died, before I met Lois. I was doing that; I’d come into Oklahoma City, but I had to change planes in Dallas [Texas]. When I got there, the arrival [of the flight into Dallas, which was going on to Oklahoma City,] was a little bit late, so I didn’t have much time. I went right straight to my gate—departure gate. It was nearly time for them to call the flight for Oklahoma City.