our history

HISTORY OF NEW DAY MINISTRIES

A Walk of Faith and a Daily Adventure!

1976: Betty Thiessen (Co-Founder) Describes the Atmosphere

We really didn’t know what we were getting into, we just knew that Jesus had dramatically delivered me from depression, we were experiencing the love of God and we wanted the world to know!  Our passion and excitement was the engine that drove us.  Faith gave us the push to pioneer a Christian television talk show when there were few and sometimes no Christians on TV on a daily basis.

Willard left a successful engineering profession selling rockets.  We were in our mid-thirties living the dream: financial security; three children (Barry, 17, Jeff, 14 and Audrey, 11) and a bright future.  We went out on a limb trusting God for the impossible!  No salary, but a dream to change the world.

Our intention was to administrate and organize the airing of an existing TV show being produced in the U.S.  When plans fell through at the last minute, we had no choice but to attempt to host the program ourselves!  With no television experience, and extreme dependence on God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we took the plunge.
October 6, 1976 was the date of our first one-hour program.  It aired once a week, and the positive response was shocking to the secular TV station, CKND.  Believers rallied around the vision, began supporting it financially and within two years we were airing daily, Monday through Friday.

For 35 years my faith has been tested daily.  Besides the constant financial challenge of being solely supported by donations, staff changes and television station negotiations, my greatest step of faith has been to go on set daily trusting God to give me a Holy Spirit anointing and a prayer that would bring hope and healing to the hundreds and thousands of hungry and hurting people.  It has also been my greatest joy!

We could never count the number of people who have received salvation, healing, deliverance, or saved marriages and families… but we know that it is larger than the biggest church with walls.
I have witnessed leaders that are presently influencing thousands in their churches who themselves received the Gospel first from It’s A New Day. 
I remember thousands of guests over the last 35 years who have had a voice to our nation, releasing the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and set many free.  I see families that are second and third generation Christians beginning a Christian heritage that were introduced through “It’s A New Day”. 

After thirty-five years, Willard and Betty officially commissioned their daughter and son-in-law, Bob and Audrey Meisner to take full leadership and hosting responsibilities for It’s A New Day.

2011: Willard Thiessen (Co-Founder) Describes the Transition

God is faithful! In addition to impacting thousands of people through the work of It’s A New Day, God was preparing Bob and Audrey and their team to take the ministry to the next step. Unless we pass it on to them in the care of the Lord, the ministry cannot become what God wills for it. Like God said in Genesis about a man leaving his father and mother, in leaving he is forming a new household. Psalms 127:4 says, “Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.”  Like arrows in the quiver of a father, they don’t do any good until they are shot out of the bow. It is the way of God to send out and multiply. 

Legacy is what we leave to the next generation. God desires to build for the next generation. When we cooperate with Him in developing maturity and Godliness, wisdom and values, strength and grace in our children and those who will take our place, we’re doing a ”God” thing.

Our desire is for Bob and Audrey and the ministry to serve Jesus faithfully and that many will experience Jesus through their efforts. They will continue to receive our full support in prayer and encouragement. We’ll be behind them cheering them on!

2012: Bob Meisner (President) Anticipates the Future

The ceiling of the previous generation has become the floor of this next generation. There is a depth that has been forged, laying a solid foundation for what is yet to come.

Willard and Betty strongly believe that the season we are entering is extraordinary. After seeking God’s heart, it is clear to them that they are bringing closure to the past 35 years while prophetically releasing New Day Ministries to fulfill its purpose for the next generation. They simply said, “Bob and Audrey, sometimes there needs to be an definite end, before there can be a new beginning, and we are convinced that God has fashioned you both to take New Day Ministries forward…the time is now.”

Our family is about to get a lot BIGGER.

In the days that followed that initial conversation, the Holy Spirit literally downloaded an action plan to multiply the reach of New Day Ministries. Like a waterfall, a surge of faith and passion came over us.  Innovative ideas, divine appointments, and creativity have ignited our imagination for a 2012 launch of a new program, MyNewDay.tv.  Personally, I have never had such great anticipation in my spirit as I do today.

The new direction for New Day Ministries is becoming clear. Audrey and I have come through a huge personal crisis, and where we have had our greatest pain we have great passion. It’s been over ten years now that I began to face my deepest and darkest years where I saw little if any hope for a happy ending. My bride of 17 years clung to my feet and wept while confessing to adultery. Two weeks later we discover that she had become pregnant as a result of the affair. It was then that we forsook all that we might find a way to keep our marriage and family together. What we found was more than enough. We experienced the love of God and know the grace of for ourselves personally, our children and generations. Today, that baby, my son, carries my name Robert and is one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me. He’s neither an accident nor a mistake. He’s not the result of a sexual affair. He’s perfect in every way, born out of the heart of God and given to me just as my other three children.

We’re not the perfect family and we’re not attempting to be that for anyone. We know what home looks like and when you’ve wandered away we know how to guide people back to where they belong… home.

2012: Audrey Meisner (Co-host) Shares Her Heart

Our 35-year history of God inspired programming and love motivated ministry is solid, strong and based on God’s Word.  We have worked side-by-side with our parents, Willard and Betty, for our entire married life and are grateful that together we have never swayed from what we feel is most important.  It’s miraculous when you think about it – all four of us share the same heart.

In July, 2010, Mom and Dad told us, “God wants to do something new. It involves us stepping down, and you grabbing the baton and running with all your might.”

Tears came first…I love ministering with my parents. The love you see on the TV set with mom and dad is real. We share passion, we share tears and we love to laugh together.  I wanted to buckle down in weakness and refuse to let them retire.  Even deeper than my tears, I felt a stirring of strength, authority and the unstoppable calling of God causing me to stand tall, take a deep breath and run the race.

Bob and I have been commissioned to continue a work that is precious to God’s heart.  We are sobered by the weightiness of the call, and we depend completely on God’s voice in our hearts, and His grace that empowers us to accomplish His highest purpose.