Who We Are

History of Keep the Faith · January 01, 2004

Powerful Tape Ministry; Over a Decade of Service

By Elder Lawrence Nelson

“Lawrence, God has called you to preach and no one must stop you,” said my wife Dean when she heard that the Oregon Conference President said I could no longer preach in any church in his conference. I had been a pastor and evangelist for most of my ministry and had been director of evangelism for youth at the General Conference for 13 years. While there, I led out in the Voice of Youth evangelism program which resulted in 164,000 baptisms.

After retirement from the General Conference I was pastoring in Mentone CA, near Loma Linda, when the Lord suddenly impressed me in 1991 that we should move to Myrtle Creek, OR. The Lord miraculously confirmed the impression when He sold our house in just three weeks, furniture included, lock, stock and barrel. It was unbelievable! We never dreamed of moving to Oregon. We had a wonderful ministry going in the homes and among the families of the Mentone church. Why did the Lord want us to move?

We didn’t have long to wait for an answer. The Lord opened the door for me to become the pastor of the Myrtle Creek SDA Church. Very soon I discovered that the Oregon conference was promoting this ungodly celebration movement which leads to further apostasy. I could not remain silent. By God’s grace, as I preached the unvarnished truth, the small weekly attendance of about sixty grew close to 200. God sent Glen Coulson from Roseburg each Sabbath to record my sermons. Without our move to Oregon, we probably would have never started the ministry of Keep the Faith.

Unfortunately, the conference president did not like that I was preaching against the celebration movement. He told my church board that he could find nothing wrong with my theology, but he did not like what I had to say. Soon he informed me that I could no longer preach in any church in his conference. When Dean said, “Lawrence, God has called you to preach and no one must stop you,” I thought of Glen Coulson who for years had made all of the tapes for the Voice of Prophecy. He was happy to help me. He made the first 14 tapes of my Sabbath sermons that I handed to those who I knew disapproved of Celebration. Week by Week the 14 tapes grew to 25, then 35, then 50, then more and more.

By 1994 it was clear that God was calling me to start a tape ministry more formally. Dean and I went to the bank and in faith that God would provide, secured a personal loan of $3,200 to purchase the necessary equipment that Glen Coulson suggested was necessary to begin Keep the Faith Audio Tape Ministry.

“Lawrence, are you going to stop taking more orders when you reach 100 tapes?” asked Dean. I dared not answer for I felt the Lord pushing me. When our tape orders were nearly 200 tapes, she would ask, “Are you going to stop when you reach 200 tapes. Then it was 300, 400 and finally she asked, “Lawrence are you going to stop at 500 tapes a month?” She could see how much work it was getting to be. Little did either of us know that under the blessing of God, Keep the Faith Audio Tape Ministry would reach well over 18,000 monthly tapes by 2004.
This has been a powerful and fulfilling lesson in faith. Imagine the cost of sending over 6,000 tapes overseas to over 80 countries every month, and over 12,000 tapes to listeners in America. But God has provided every penny of it! What’s more we have hardly ever asked for special help. Our little band of helpers have worked by faith.

Many of those receiving the tapes tell us that they share them with their families, friends and churches, around the world, some to hundreds of people. We praise God and give Him all the glory and thanks for the way He has abundantly blessed this ministry!

In all of my sixty years of preaching here in the U.S. and abroad, Dean and I have never felt so blessed as we have during these last ten years while leading out in Keep the Faith Audio Tape Ministry. What a mountain top experience it has been to receive literally thousands of letters from all over the world telling us how these tapes, born of the Holy Spirit, have brought many to know this message more fully and have a deeper relationship with their Lord.

Through the years, with the faithful gifts from many of our listeners, we have not only been able to send thousands upon thousands of Keep the Faith monthly messages around the world, but also thousands of Spirit of Prophecy books and Bibles to those in third world countries. Recently, God has answered another need and has made it possible for the Review and Herald Publishing House to answer our heartfelt request to print a special edition of 6,000 copies of the Maranatha books wrapped in a gorgeous paperback cover. We also praise the Lord that we were able to develop a 10 tape evangelistic series on the Three Angels’ Messages covering Daniel and Revelation to be used as Bible studies based entirely on the Bible alone to share with our non-Adventist friends and relatives.

As we stated before, many have written from far and near thanking us for this ministry, but when it is all said and done, Dean and I with our small but dedicated staff are the ones that have truly been blessed with our cup pressed down and running over. We thank God for watching over Keep the Faith Ministry.

Postscript: Geraldine Nelson passed away in 2007 and awaits the resurrection. Elder Lawrence Nelson is now 95 and in reasonable health for his age. He lives in California with his daughter and son-in-law.

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