With ‘Jesus and Tim in Las Vegas’
Tim Berends, known to many as the “Christian Howard Stern,” is now daily lighting up the Las Vegas Strip
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service
And
for Tim, Las Vegas has become fertile ground for witnessing, as most of
these visitors to Vegas have one destination in mind: The Las Vegas
Strip. This is where Tim comes in, and his tracts. His prayer is that
some of these visitors will take one home and teach their family and
friends about the Lord.
But
his ministry is not confined to Las Vegas. He has shared the Gospel and
handed out tracts worldwide, ranging from the gang neighborhoods of
America and Mexico, to terrorist neighborhoods of Ramallah in
Palestinian Authority-held West Bank.
Besides
that, Berends hosts a Saturday afternoon radio show called “Jesus and
Tim in Las Vegas” on local station, KKVV Radio, 1060 AM -- www.KKVV.com -- and I’ve been a guest on several occasions.
Tim
Berends grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his father was a
Baptist preacher, and he says he put his faith in Christ at a young age.
He
began broadcasting in 1970 at the Moody Bible Institute radio station,
WMBI in Chicago, and then secured a job at the Billy Graham-owned
WMIT/WFGW radio stations in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
I
first became aware of Berends shortly after moving to Southern
California, when I would tune in to “Mornings with Tim and Al” radio
show broadcast in the Los Angeles and San Diego area (KBRT AM-740),
which was so popular that readers of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
voted Tim and Al “Top Jocks” in 1986 for the LA area.
In
1994 Tim and his co-host, Al Gross, moved their entertaining and often
controversial “Mornings with Tim and Al” to KJSL out of St. Louis,
Missouri, which ran until 2005.
I
recently caught up with Tim at the recent 18th Annual Faith &
Values Awards Gala at the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills,
California, where he had driven from Las Vegas to attend this glittering
event, and I was able to briefly interview him.
I
was recording a series of interviews for my “Inside Hollywood with Dan
Wooding,” television show on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (http://hsbn.tv), and they also included on-camera chats with veteran entertainer, Pat Boone (http://www.patboone.com/), Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and president of Movieguide® (http://www.movieguide.org), and Pastor Bob Rieth, founder of Media Fellowship International (http://www.mediafellowship.org),
who organized the glittering event. (The keynote speaker was Michael
Klausman, Executive Vice President for West Coast Operations and
Engineering, and President of the CBS Studio Center).
I
began by asking Tim, if while in Southern California, he had any
difficulties in getting guests on the show, especially because of his
hard-hitting interviews.
“Well,
I was going to try and get Richard Simmonds [the American fitness guru,
actor, and comedian] on the air and he said that his friends told him
not to be on with me because I was ‘a Christian Howard Stern,'” he said
with a smile.
Tim,
and his side-kick, Al Gross would also often call “Houses of Ill
Repute” during the show, and tell the “lady of the night” who answered
the phone, that she could “win a Bible” if she could answer a question
about Scripture. It all made for gripping broadcasting and several
Bibles were sent to them.
He concluded our chat by saying, “God bless everybody, and share your faith in Jesus Christ with somebody today!”
To know more about this extraordinary broadcaster and evangelist please go to: http://jesusandtim.org/.
And,
if you would like to see the complete “Inside Hollywood with Dan
Wooding” TV show in which Tim Berends is featured, please go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmQk1SRV-Bc&feature=youtu.be.
Photo
captions: 1) Tim on the Las Vegas Strip. 2) Tim Berends shows a tract
to the wax figure of President Barack Obama in Las Vegas. 3) Timothy
Leary. 4) Tim witnessing to Muslims in Jericho. 5) Norma and Dan
Wooding.
Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.
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