Today, I write to you to inform you of some exciting happenings. Effective February 18, 2000 the Christian Indian Television Network is no more! Yesterday, February 23^rd I received in the mail, a letter from the New Mexico Public Regulations Commission approving the Articles of Dissolution for our corporation.

It sounds shocking that I would be writing all this to you with joy and excitement, and in the name of the precious Native American people that we have been endeavoring to reach with the gospel for these last three years. The news however is really good!

As most of you might know by now, the Lord called our family from Miami, Florida to New Mexico, to serve Native Americans in the gospel of our Jesus Christ nearly three years ago. Part of the calling came in our establishing Native American Christian TV by and for Native Americans.

God brought my wife Mary and I together with Warren and Peggy Small Bear two years ago. Warren is from the Oklahoma Chickasaw tribe and has had a vision to reach Native Americans through Christian TV for nearly eleven years. Afterwards God blessed us with Carol McFarland out of Nebraska. Carol has been our encourager, supporter, intercessor, and researcher extraordinaire. Together, we formed the Christian Indian Television Network. I was truly amazed that God had launched us into a totally embryonic field, where Christian Native American television programming was very scarce and is in its very initial development.

In our labors to connect with others doing the same thing, the Lord opened up a door for us to meet Jeanie Greene. I discovered, that this television producer, editor and TV host had already launched a very same vision in Anchorage, Alaska. In the early 1990s Jeanie had created, hosted, and produced a multiple award winning show called “Heartbeat Alaska”. This syndicated television program is a hard-hitting news show about Alaska’s currents events. In 1996 the Lord inspired her to take the vision for Native television to new heights through the creation of a gospel based television program called ‘WE WIN”. This stands for “World Evangelism with Indigenous Nations”. In her web site Jeanie states, and I quote, “The Lord has called me into His service to spread the gospel to every Inuit village and Indian reservation in America, Canada, in Russia, to every corner in the world where indigenous people live.”

The team of “WE WIN” has produced some noteworthy results to the glory of our Lord and Christian Native TV. On the fourth of July of last year, a beautifully produced three and one half hours “WE WIN” special was aired nationwide by one of Christian TV’s premier satellite broadcasting networks, Dominion Sky Angel. I think that for all of us involved in the ministry of reaching indigenous peoples with the gospel, we can proudly say that this was a first. Secondly, “WE WIN” can now be seen through video streaming via the Internet. Thirdly, starting April of this year, WE WIN will be televised nationally by Sky Angel twice a week!

Almost six months ago, my wife Mary and I started to discern from the Lord that the Christian Indian Television Network was to close down. Our relationship with Jeanie Greene had grown throughout the previous months, and we had all discovered that God had given us exactly the same vision. One thing that I had known, and shared all along, was that I could never really be in front of the TV cameras in promoting the gospel to Native Americans and indigenous people. I knew that it would take Native ministers to reach Native Americans. My job I felt would always be to build and expand Native TV technically. Warren Small Bear, is called and anointed in the business and fund raising end of the business. Jeanie Greene on the other hand, is extremely anointed by the Lord to produce programming and host in front of the television cameras. A Native Inupiat Alaskan with tremendous zeal and love for the Lord, she is already an established television personality and celebrity, though you would never hear her boast about it.

We started to realize that instead of having Jeanie tug one way up in Alaska with her programs, and us in another direction here in the Southwest, we should try to work and complement each others callings in promoting the gospel. God clearly told me that He was going to anoint the work that He had already begun through WE WIN. The Christian Indian TV Network had been His vehicle for us to get in contact with Jeanie Greene, but our responsibility would now be to serve and get behind her efforts in something that God was very much opening doors up to. In a recent conversation with a trusted friend, he unknowingly made a simple comment that confirmed our closing down of CITVNET. I will paraphrase his words; Native American Christian television needs a group of people to come together so that they can get big enough to put it on the map and get the ball rolling.

In conclusion then, I am excited about what God has in store for indigenous and native peoples’ Christian television. Knowing Jeanie Greene, Warren Small Bear, Carol McFarland, my wife Mary and myself, we all agree that it not about ministries or being a personality, but in decisively and sacrificially lifting the name of Jesus Christ on high via television to the Native American and indigenous peoples through their “God given” culture.

I would like to direct you in closing to the following web sites.

Further resources for you, explaining the closing down of the Christian Indian TV Network@

http://indigenouspeopleworldtv.homestead.com/ChristianTV.html

The Ministries of “WE WIN”@

http://www.wewin.org

Jeanie Greene’s personal web site and the Ministries of “Heartbeat Alaska”@

http://www.jeaniegreene.com

God Bless You,

Jose E Alvarez