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- [00:01]
A
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Skywatch Television. I'm Joe Artis Horn. As this year comes to a close, we just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to our Skywatch family, our viewers, our supporters, our sponsors. Thank you for contributing and continuing to embrace and stand with us, especially over these last few years. You've welcomed us into your homes each week, even if it's just through the television. And your support has made it possible for us to continue doing what we believe God has called us to do. It's had a profound impact in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ both here at home and around the world. You know, over the last couple of years, we've faced several difficult challenges, spiritually, financially, and even physically. And we found ourselves many times in a season of deep soul searching, sincerely praying and asking God what he would have us do in response to these challenges. And through all of it, many of you stood with us. Your support, your prayers, they carried us. And we continue to be deeply grateful. I'm going to start this week by talking with you, Mom. You know, as we face the end of the year 2025, you know, Derek, Sharon, Donna, my beautiful wife Katharine, you guys have helped us so much over the last several years. March out via Daily News. Derek behind that authorship, Sharon and creative things and the simply his coffee shop and Donna behind the scenes show print. So many adventures and yet so many difficulties. And a lot of it is stuff that we don't really want to belabor on camera or, you know, hit our audience with. But just so you know, it's a spiritual battle we're constantly dealing with what is the next thing that the enemy is going to do to try to undermine our message or get us deplatformed, et cetera. But then God always shows up and he reveals victory. He will illuminate the steps ahead. And I will say at the very onset of this program that Skywatch TV is nothing more than a continued fleece before the Lord. I say it every month. This place is a fleece before the Lord. And for as long as it has kingdom value and people believe in the ministry, it will be here. What does it mean to you when you learn that someone has supported the ministry of Skywatch tv?
- [02:12]
B
Well, I want to take a moment personally, which I don't get often an opportunity to do, to say thank you to all of our viewers and our supporters, not just financially, but in prayer. I'm telling you, this has been brutal these last couple of years. And because of the prayers of the saints and because of the financial support. We're still here and it is because of them that we are here. And I love that you've called it a fleece because it truly is. We are just step by step, day by day, we say, lord, here we are today. What are our marching orders today?
- [02:48]
C
Right.
- [02:48]
B
And then he lays it out before us daily. And Derek and Sharon have also been a part of that walk with us as everybody here in the studio audience. And I'm grateful to every single person here and to everybody that is watching. And I brought with me if it's okay to share a couple, I have some little papers here. I have Hunter. She'll print these out of the financial office. If we get cards and letters, I put them in my room and on my desk and they get piled up. But I dig through them every now and then and remind myself here's just a few. And this is just want to say thank you to viewers and I'll make sense.
- [03:24]
A
Now are these letters.
- [03:26]
B
They're honest letters that come from the people who are watching Skywatch who are
- [03:29]
A
watching Skywatch and they send letters to the ministry. Okay, go ahead.
- [03:32]
B
I'm going to condense some of these because some of them are long and some of them have personal things I would not want to disclose regarding them or myself or anyone else on Skywatch. Reading down, reading down. Greetings, greetings. Just got off this phone with Stephanie. Must have been a great phone call because she was all jazzed to write me a letter. Thank you, Stephanie. She's our lead call warrior back there. And next to her would be Lynn, somewhere in here. Anyway, moving down. And again, some of this is personal, so I'm going to skip down. She says she misses Dr. Tom personally and wants to thank him and Anita for the vision they had for the ministry and for this camp ministry to these youngsters. God bless you and thank you again. This is Patty out of Colorado City. Patty, there there is more to your letter than I have read and I appreciate very much what you've sent and what you've done. It's a lady that prays for us. Thank you, Patty. I appreciate it. Thank you, Patty. Huge. Oh, that's my own letter. There's a young man by the name of Scott, recently met him at a recent conference. He's been kind of dialoguing a little bit.
- [04:46]
D
We know Scott.
- [04:46]
E
He's wonderful young man.
- [04:48]
B
He's a good kid. But what I love about Scott is I don't really know him. As you know. I met him once. But he has emailed us A few times and along the way has shared his journey. When I did meet him, he told me it was because of Tom that he began to kind of watch what was happening at Skywatch, which led him to learn about Whispering Ponies Ranch. And the more I get to know this young man, the more I realize he is one of the ones that somebody somewhere in the past connected. And I want to say it was probably Tom because that's what he told me. But in any case, this young man, he has an amazing, outstanding job. Now, he has fought against the odds and again, for personal reasons. I'll shut my mouth there, but bless you, Scott, for your prayer, support and all of these other things. He has for some reason connected Derek and Sharon and Tom and I to this story that he's unfolding. Anyway, he shared with us some of his journey and he's making a difference in his life in spite of it.
- [05:49]
A
Yes.
- [05:50]
B
So I wanted to share that about Scott because he supports us in prayer and in finances, too. So thank you, Scott. If you're watching another one real quickly. Dear Nita and Joe, greetings from your friend. So this is a friend, Skywatch. And again, I'll condense. He misses Tom. He's read a few of the books and he's gotten so much out of them. And he wishes he could thank Tom personally. However, your continued work and development of the Whispering Ponies Ranch is amazing. Nothing short of a miracle. And although I'm not physically able to be there to help you, I do want to do what I can to help you with various parts of the ranch. And then he also prays for us. So Reuben is out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Reuben, thank you so much for your letter and for your. For voicing to us, putting a voice behind the. The prayers and the gifts. I appreciate that so much. I personally try to send thank you notes back to these people. It has been a hard couple of years and my time has been a lot more then than it already was. But please know in my heart I write you letters back all the time. It may not get to the paper, but maybe someday in heaven God can reveal those to you. Yeah, because they're written. They're not on paper, but they're in my heart. I will share this one because it represents more than one in which I have received a lady by the name of Ruth. And Ruth is out of Wisconsin. She says since my husband's passed away last year, I have been getting my affairs in order. That said, my offering to you should now be coming through her Financial representative. And she just counts it a privilege to be able to help us and the organization to help these little children at camp. So I just want you to know. The widow's mite. Just saying, folks.
- [07:49]
A
Yep.
- [07:50]
B
I want you to know. So what does it mean to me? That's what it means to me. It means to me that other people are standing in the gap. We may sometimes feel that we're in the battle. When you're in the battle and it's at you, you don't. You don't. You don't see it and you don't feel it because you're too busy fighting. But on those moments when God says, stand for a minute. I'm your buckler, and you pick up a letter that someone has written, you realize that you're not alone. This little woman, she has fought battles. She's fighting battles right now because she does not have her other half. Just saying, I could go on, but for the sake of time, I think I've said my say. But please know, what does it mean to me? It means to me that I am so grateful and I'm so humble that God would look down and allow me to be a part of this amazing ministry that he is allowing to sustain through our viewer and our Skywatch family. Thank you so much.
- [08:48]
A
Yeah.
- [08:52]
D
Derek and I are privileged to be part of the Skywatch family here on the ground, so to speak. But as you have just read, you have an extended family that wraps around the world.
- [09:07]
C
Yeah.
- [09:07]
D
Because you and Tom had a vision to come here, and you ended up deciding, we're going to have a ranch that specializes in little ponies that allows children who are disaffected and disconnected to connect with Jesus. And I know that there are a lot of people out there watching that. You are feeling disconnected.
- [09:33]
C
Yeah.
- [09:34]
D
You may not be a child, you may be my age or older, but you feel all alone. You may be a widow, you may have never married, but for whatever reason, you're feeling alone right now. Let me tell you, you have a family. We're right here. And we want you to be part of our family. And if you don't know Jesus, we want you to be part of that family because that is the family that really matters.
- [10:04]
C
Yep.
- [10:05]
D
We've got a savior who died for you. And at this time of year, we think about that. But we want you to know he loves you so much, he spread his arms wide and he wants to wrap them around you. And we love you. Thanks for being part of this family.
- [10:27]
B
We could not do what we do without our Skywatch family. This is why we are here. It's because of all of you. So thank you.
- [10:35]
A
When my father, Dr. Thomas Horn, passed away in October of 2023, when I said at the open, you know, soul searching seasons of okay, Lord, what is next? You don't know. You don't know what will become of all these things that he championed, you know, from public perception to do you have the chops to navigate to? And there's billions of details that you would get bored with if I was to sit here and recite all of them. But literally, literally, literally thousands of decisions that go into the micro nuances of everything that you see. And so I will just share personally. And I knew this was coming. I was on the phone with a man named Don Fields that I had only just met, who has now become one of our grandest supporters here at Skywatch Television. Yeah, you introduced him to us. But it was right before my dad passed away. My dad was getting very sick and I was on the phone with dawn and I told Don, I said, don, if this thing with my dad goes unfavorably, I'm gonna go through a season. I don't know how long or I'm literally doing life without one of the fundamental benchmark pillars of how I do life. And every decision is thought through and quantified. And you talk to your wife. But then before you make the decision, okay, dad, what do you think? And it's different for me personally. I'm just sharing from my personal experiences here because I know not everybody has the same dynamics with their families. But for I didn't just lose the emotional side effects of a father figure or a best friend or a moral compass or a hero or a champion or all the other positive adjectives that I would sit here and share with you. I also lost ministerial, partner, leader, guider, decider. We would bring our questions and dilemmas, but ultimately he's the one that would kind of pray through it and then decide we feel this is best. And so you're following him. So there was a ton of layers going into the beginning, especially of 2024. We're like, as a ministry, how do we do this? And I will tell you to collapse because I want to make sure others have a chance to share. I will tell you there is no chance Skywatch TV is here right now in 2025, going into 26 as a ministry now without your support.
- [12:49]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [12:50]
A
Absolutely zero chance. The world has changed the way that people view package participation. The season of offering Books the way that they used to get offered. I mean, people are more and more learning things online. They're not as product dependent. They're not as interested in digging deep into paper products. They're taking online courses. There's theological answers to literally everything. So even the old model of turning to a ministry like Skywatch Television to learn about your giant or Nephilim dilemma or Genesis 6 is different. When my dad was. And Derek and Sharon, you guys are part of this. Russ Dizdar and Mike Heizer, when they started Louisiana. Marzulli and Steve Quell started pioneering a lot of the content now that is at your fingertips all day. And there's podcasts now that exist everywhere. And they're unpacking these books like you don't even have to have heard the name Tom Horn to have now heard about a Nephilim. It's pretty commonplace on Google. And of course, I attribute a lot of that to people like yourself and my father. But the point is, the world is different than it was just 10 years ago. So without support from viewers that just believe in sharing of the gospel through this very unique platform, which is Skywatch Television, we don't exist anymore. So I want to give you gratitude for that because I'm being transparent with you. But I also want to tell you something before we pivot over to Derek that is profound. Having come through and we're not ever out of the woods again, I said, this is a fleece before the Lord. Things could change at any time. People change, things change. But right now, as we close up the year 2025, we have gone from Lord, We've lost our hero and champion, at least here, the mortal one, that you had stewarded over this ministry. Because ultimately God the Father is our leader and our champion. But the surrogate that you had placed here in my father to steward over all of this, we've lost him. And now what do we do? There were times, and you guys know this, we had board meetings. I said, well, we may or may not exist in a year. This is a fleece before the Lord. And I could have been at total peace with whatever that outcome looked like. Cause I wouldn't have seen it at the end of my personal ministerial calling. But the Ministry of Skywatch tv, does the Lord want for that to go forward? And I feel like every month that we're here, he's answering that question. Yes, very much. He wants this ministry to continue forward. And I think that Whispering Ponies Ranch has a lot to do with that. Because God has a Priority for the children that the world is overlooking. And you guys all know that that's what we're about. Yeah, we've gone from that, fellows. I don't know how much longer we have to now in the year 2025. This is not me spiking footballs. This is not me, you know, celebrating the fact that we've arrived. Because again, this is a continued fleece before the Lord. But when giving is strong, we don't embellish ourselves with that. We don't wrap that into personal pet projects of personal benefit. When giving has been strong this year, we have immediately rolled that into expanding the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what does that look like? There were five. I'm gonna name just a couple of the two larger ones so that viewers that have missed this understand that because of your support this year, we were able to sign. This was all done with the board's consent, contracts with two very large networks for television. One is the Faith TV network, which expands Skywatch TV to another 8 million homes. Previously not seeing our program. And then just a few months ago, with board consent, lots and lots of prayer and lord, would you have us do this? Giving is strong right now. We were able to sign a contract with the Word Television Network with this in mind that one network is an expansion to another 90 million homes worldwide. It's a sea of people that you can't even comprehend that now have access to our program. And so you have to understand if you love this ministry, if you appreciate what we're doing in the sharing of the gospel through this very unique way that we present it is very much not the entertainment based church. It's scriptural, it's factual, it's based on the news Bible prophecy. We're trying to be watchmen on the walls. The way we present the truth. If you appreciate that, we just wanted to thank you. Because what you're doing is not only enable us to stay here, but now we're sort of going on the offense very cautiously and very responsibly. We're going on the offense. I don't want to do something unsustainable, but we are walking in faith that as God has showed us the way, we're going to be obedient with those resources to expand the the ministry. Derek, what is something that our supporters might not realize that they're a part of, as you see it?
- [17:25]
E
Well, it's something you alluded to and it is the work at Whispering Ponies Ranch. If you've watched Skywatch TV for Any length of time. You know that that is the central focus of what we do here. And that's one of the reasons that Cheryl and I, as you know, made the decision to come here. Your dad didn't even tell us about the ranch, but he was talking to us about coming down here and helping us set up the media department. Derek, you've got a broadcast background, secular broadcasting. Would you be interested in coming down here and doing this? He had been on our podcast going back to 2006. I think 2005 was our first interview with him. Back when it was like two tin cans and a string somehow wired into a laptop.
- [18:02]
A
That's right.
- [18:02]
D
We're actually serious about that. It's really close.
- [18:04]
C
I believe you.
- [18:05]
E
And he was very gracious in giving up his time to us back then, as were others who've been called home by the Lord, like Russ Dizdar or Dr. Michael Heiser. And because of that connection and your dad recognizing early on, I remember back in 2006, he said, well, you all have a ministry. And I laughed. I'm an old frustrated radio disc jockey who just can't keep his mouth shut. That's what's going on here. He said, no, no, you have a ministry. And he was right. But the reason that we came here was not because some of my colleagues in the steel business said, oh, so you're making your dreams come true. Isn't that wonderful? No, that's not why we're here. It's because Joe took us out on the ATV and said, okay, over here is going to be where the zip line goes. And here's where we're going to have, you know, the ponies and their kids are going to be learning to drive the carts. And we're like, wait a minute, what are you talking about? And when he shared that with us, we looked at each other in the backseat of the ATV and said, okay, we're in. Because this isn't about television and as you say, the entertainment based church. We're not going on more networks just so we can be more famous. We're going on more networks so that we can increase the base of support so that if anything, we can make it possible for more partner ministries to use the facilities at Whispering Ponies Ranch to save, to heal broken children at no cost to them, so that they don't have to make a decision in any given week. You, gee, we're short 500 bucks. Which one of these kids do we have to leave at home?
- [19:43]
B
Right, right.
- [19:44]
E
Your support. You are part of that that is what you are doing through Skywatch tv.
- [19:53]
A
Yes. No, I agree with you completely, Derek, in that every good thing that comes by way of this ministry, whatever that looks like, God is in total control. But the audience that's helping enable that to happen gets to own that someday when we're standing before God and he reveals the balance of our lives and we walk through fire and we are appraised. Every life that was reached, every child that was intervened for as a side effect of the support from our viewers, they get to own that. So I just want you to know, you get to own that. Every celebration we have at the end of a summer camp season where little kids gave their lives to the Lord, you guys get to own that. Kathryn is integral to that program as the head of food service. And it's like my father said, I don't want. Of course we're talking about Whispering Ponies Ranch, the children that we minister to there. My father always said, I don't want cheesy fast food stuff. I want lavish feasts for these kids. I want culinary masterpieces cut out of the fruit. And of course, we do some institutionalized food because some of the children won't trust your lavish feast. It has to be prepackaged because they've only ever known rotten food or food that's out of date. And they watch for that kind of thing. They're very leery of anything that looks homemade, for example, because they've never been nourished. But how have you seen God work through our audience's generosity just this year?
- [21:20]
C
So send a kid to camp. That's huge. And we appreciate those donations because it does help us so that we don't have to worry as much about the food costs, because as a mom who grocery shops, everybody knows prices are through the skin. So having those funds to be able to feed the kids and keep up with Tom's standards, because dad was very particular about what he wanted the kids to eat. And so we've kind of taken on that role as well, and we keep that standard very high. And if you go back and watch some of the camp videos, you'll see the food and everything that we do. So that is so incredibly amazing for these kids because they love the food and they come up and sometimes when we're putting the food out, they'll come up and they're just, like, staring, what's for lunch today? Oh, what's for dinner? And, you know, they're in awe of all of the food because some of them have never seen the types of food that we put out. So it's been incredible to watch their little eyes light up. And I think a few years ago we shared this one, but it's just too cute not to share. It was taco night. And so we have a full taco bar. So you can choose nachos or tacos. And it's all of the fixin's, the refried beans, the Mexican cilantro. Yes. Everything you can think of, we put it on there. And so I got a review on my taco night.
- [22:44]
A
Oh, this is so good.
- [22:46]
C
It was so cute. He literally gave me five star reviews.
- [22:50]
A
There's a little boy.
- [22:51]
C
Yes.
- [22:52]
A
Campers. That wrote her a review for context. So you don't miss this after the meal. She gets this review. Go ahead.
- [23:02]
C
I think it was actually the next day, but one of the counselors came up. He said, hey, one of the little boys. And he was really picky all week too. So he wrote me a 5. He hand wrote it. He drew a picture of the tacos, and then he wrote five stars out. And he's like the best tacos I've ever had. So that was super cute. And it's still hanging in the kitchen because it has to stay there.
- [23:26]
A
But you're missing one of the funnest details. He ended it with something like would recommend.
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C
Oh, yes,
- [23:33]
A
let's be fair about this.
- [23:35]
C
Yes.
- [23:36]
A
Could pass or fail the recommend test. Even though he personally thought they were good tacos. He leaves you with a recommendation.
- [23:42]
C
Yes, he did. He recommended my tacos. So that was very fun. But we're so thankful for people supporting the ministry and what we do with the kids. It's huge. Looking into those kids faces is not something you can ever get over.
- [23:58]
A
I love it. And I want to make sure that we get to Donna Howell before we run out of time because we've only got a couple of minutes left on the clock. But Donna, I'm just gonna say it. You've been on some of the largest television programs on the planet over the last decade. Sometimes controversial, sometimes people have enjoyed what you've said. Sometimes there's been some heat that follows, like with the release of your book Handmaiden's Conspiracy. But you've been out there in the media sphere on lots of people's social media channels. Why do you feel that it's important for believers especially to support media ministries like Skywatch TV in today's world?
- [24:31]
F
Yeah. First of all, you're talking about all of this huge media, right? 2nd Corinthians 10, 5 would recognize some of these influences as the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. I'm talking secular media. I'm talking about such secular media driven ideologies as everything from relativism to materialism, the endorsement of rapid moral decay. That's what's out there in the world and that's what's being fed to young people every single day. The same young people that were reaching at Whispering Ponies Ranch. This is what the world is becoming. And what is one of the most important things that Jesus ever said, Go, therefore and make disciples. Well, you got to go. You got to use what you can to go. In Jesus day, that might have meant you're going to be a tent maker like Paul and you're going to go out on foot and you're going to. But now today, Skywatch TV and Christian media is the go and tell of today. These young kids are on their apps and they're flipping through and they're seeing all kinds of radical ideology. Let me tell you something about radical ideology. We have a great awakening that's about to explode on the scene. Jesus is about to get important fast. So as we battle the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, one of the most powerful things you could ever do in your generation or any generation since the time of Christ is to do unto the small ones as you do to the least of these, my brethren. You've done it unto me. That is what Jesus said. And the kingdom of God is made of such of these. So give to the children. When you give to Skywatch TV and Whispering Ponies Ranch, you're giving directly to the children.
- [26:14]
E
Amen.
- [26:19]
A
Well, ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately we're all out of time, but we hope you enjoyed today's program. We just wanted to take a minute and both unpack some of what this ministry continues to do because of your charitable giving and your prayers. But also I will leave you with a teaser. We're going to be doing some preaching series as we move forward either at the end of this year or very early next year. It's going to involve Donna Howell and the Gilberts and the rest of our team and bring some new things to TV that you've not seen us do. It is not content. You're going to want to miss. For everybody here in studio, everybody up here on panel, I'm Joe Artis Horn. Keep your eyes on the prize, which is Jesus Christ. We'll be back.
- [27:24]
B
Oh, my goodness, you caught one. Look at that little tiny fish. I caught one.
- [27:33]
A
Another one.
- [27:37]
E
You're famous now, sugar.
- [27:39]
D
You're doing good,
- [27:59]
A
Ram.