Wow! How would you feel getting in front of a television camera? Nervous? Read Paula Mosher Wallace’s #BeBoldGirl story as God tells her to share her story of abuse across the world. Perhaps God is calling you to step out of your comfort zone.
Start a television show? What? No. That’s crazy! My mind was racing. I was being offered a television show on the Nashville Christian Television Network affiliate, WHTN. This was insane. Me? I didn’t even have television service to my apartment, where I lived with my three boys.
I thought back to how I grew up as a missionary’s kid in the jungles of Peru. No electricity. Speaking Spanish. Definitely no television! I laughed at the thought of our hut with a television in it. How had I gotten to this offer in a television studio?
Oh yeah. I wrote a book, Bloom in the Dark: True Stories of Hope and Redemption with thirty true stories of girls and women who’d been through brokenness and abuse. The stories shared how each had found healing. This was the book I wished I’d had when I was going through my worst abuse. After starting the charity with the same name, I was interviewed on the television show, “Bridges” with Christian television icon, Monica Schmelter.
This was the beginning of my choosing to be BOLD in this way.
I had sobbed my way to that television interview. My pastor’s wife had prayed with me over the phone as I drove to the studio. A couple friends met me there with support and prayers. I quit panicking long enough to do the thirty minute interview, but then started sobbing again ten minutes afterward. Not a good track record for someone to start their own show, right?
But I’d chosen to be bold again by doing a fifteen minute interview on a different television show. That one wasn’t quite as tough. I even had fun on camera for a few minutes. But start my own show?
So, I talked to my friend and ministry buddy, Ginny Priz. She’d written a book and been interviewed on television as well. She told me that she’d also been offered a television show. Neither of us wanted to consider an individual show, but what if God wanted us to do a show together? Our messages were definitely in sync.
Talk about stepping out of our comfort zones! Neither of us had any experience hosting a television show. We decided that our show, Bloom Today, would be a Christian talk show, set in a kitchen. Not to cook food, but rather to welcome the audience into a comfortable setting. In my home, the kitchen was always the center of comfort and communication. I wanted to invite our viewers into our discussion of abuse and healing with a twist of humor and sarcasm.
A non-profit owning a television show? Why not? I signed the one year contract, and tried not to throw up.
Before we had even built the set or recorded the first episode, we met and talked about our show with the acquisitions manager for Inspiration TV international. When Lisa Mouradian heard about our concept, she told us that she wanted our show to be broadcast on her network—as long as it was well done. She said that there were no other shows like what we described to her. Now, the pressure was on! What if we were hopeless failures? After all, we’d never done this before.
Tweet ThisWith God’s help, she was going to try, despite every discouraging thought.
We started recording. Monica told us we were naturals. Relief flooded me. Maybe this was doable. God had confirmed it to us so many different ways: the “But God” on the moving truck; the billboard with “With God, all things are possible”; and the church roof with “the gates of hell shall not prevail” in six foot letters.
Bloom Today went live on cable and satellite on July Fourth last year. Five weeks later, Inspiration TV broadcast it into over one hundred and fifty countries! Over one hundred and sixty-three MILLION homes were able to see our show. This message of hope and redemption was going over airwaves and cables around the world.
BOLD. Scary bold. Outside-of-my-comfort-zone bold. Struggling bold. Crying bold. Laughing bold. Never-giving-up bold. Trusting-God BOLD. Changing-the-world BOLD!
Paula Mosher Wallace
Ex-Victim & President of Bloom In The Dark
Born in the jungles of Peru to a missionary family, Paula experienced the front lines of spiritual warfare in the form of abuse from the age of 2. The abuse cycles finally ended when God brought Paula through a healing journey – through Christian counselors, ministries, and recovery programs. Her book, Bloom In The Dark, inspired the 501(c)3 charity Bloom In The Dark Inc.which shares testimonies to raise awareness and let victims know they are not alone and there is hope. Paula is a life coach and cohosts the global Christian talk show Bloom Today.
Praise the Lord, for he is good. I’m glad you did not allow fear to stop you from sharing a message of hope. God bless.