BUCKHANNON – A local show featuring Buckhannon’s own Jenny Pfister, “One Brushstroke at a Time” will soon be featured on Uplift TV on satellite, enabling her message about the love and promises in the Bible to people around the globe on a weekly basis.

Pfister’s show has aired on local channel 3 for more than six years and shows on WBOY and WVFX, an affiliate of WDTV.

Pfister said she moved to Buckhannon via Baltimore, Maryland, and has been a resident since 1990.

“I moved here to be the Southern Baptist Convention State Keyboard and Piano Specialist,” Pfister said. “I served as specialist for three years, but God called me out to my own ministry; I began Bible studies in people’s homes and different churches. I kept expanding and expanding and growing and growing.”

About six years ago, Pfister said she opened the Brushstroke Ministries, saying she stepped down to be a woman’s conference speaker and Bible teacher.

“I have been on WBOY with the show ‘One Brushstroke at a Time’ for the last five-and-a-half years,” she said. “I just taped my 312th show. That’s a lot of shows.”

She said her shows started when Dr. Greenbrier Almond asked her to fill in on his program because he was going out of the country for six weeks. She said she had never done TV before but was successful.

“Someone said I needed to expand from being just local, and they introduced me to someone from WBOY-TV,” she said. “I have been on there ever since and just recently made the change to FOX 10, WDTV the first of April.”

In the meantime, an executive from Uplift TV was in the Buckhannon area in February and saw an episode of “One Brushstroke at a Time.”

“They contacted the ministry and asked if we would like to consider going national,” Pfister said. “We prayed about it and decided that is what God wanted us to do. So, our show has been syndicated to Uplift TV on Direct TV, and the crazy thing is, when they asked what time slot we wanted to be in, they were dropping names that were spinning our heads.”

Pfister said the representatives at Uplift TV said her show could air before such well-known people like David Jeremiah or after Charles Stanley, or after Gaither Music or before Benny Hinn.

“Our heads were spinning – we were thinking this is big, bigger than we thought,” she said. “We were humbled. We are just a little ministry, but God took notice and opened up this great opportunity.”

Pfister said she signed the contract two weeks ago and then worked to revamp the entire TV show, making it better quality.

“We will be airing on Friday nights on Direct TV, Uplift TV at 7:30 p.m.,” she said. “Our first show will air Friday, May 3. Uplift TV will soon begin streaming, so it will be global in the next few months. That just spins our heads.”

“God is just blessing us,” Pfister added. “We are just following His lead. None of us feels worthy of the call, but we are just overwhelmed by his goodness and faithfulness to this ministry. We feel this will open up opportunities to other pastors in the area. It blows your mind – there will be a national show broadcast here out of Buckhannon.”

“One Brushstroke at a Time” is 100% Bible study, Pfister said.

“It’s His word and preaching His word,” Pfister said. “Each week is a different message. God always gives me crazy, amazing, funny titles, and we just go with the show. Every show is independent of one another – there is no series.”

She said the initial program is called “Love at First Hearing,” and it’s the story of Rebecca traveling to meet her husband.

“She fell in love with him before she got there because the servant kept talking about the master,” Pfister said. “When she finally met the master, she loved him. That is our job as believers – to tell people about the master so they will fall in love with him before they meet him.”

The shows are recorded at Mountain State Video Imaging in Buckhannon.

“[They] do that with a full set with lights and camera,” she said. “[They] format it and closed caption it and then upload the programs to the different TV stations. So, we get to tape locally and don’t have to pay someone outside of the area.”

Pfister said the idea of a brushstroke and painting a picture came because people tell her when she ministers, her words paint a picture of God’s word for them.

“They tell me they can see it, understand it and absorb it,” she said. “He gives me this way of explaining His word, one single brushstroke at a time.”

Buckhannon resident Becky Williams said everyone in her Bible studies group is excited about the show going global. Williams said Pfister’s perspective is what draws folks to her show.

“Jenny has this perspective and when she teaches from the Bible – her show is called ‘Painting a Picture of the Word of God, One Brushstroke at a Time’ – she is excellent at explaining the scriptures and allowing you to understand them by getting a mental picture of the message,” Williams said. “It just helps with the comprehension of what the Bible is trying to say and then apply that to your own life. It is a different outlook from what you receive from other teachers.”

Williams said she has followed the Pfister’s teachings for more than eight years.

“I also watch the show because I am the one who records it,” Williams shared. “She is our worship leader at church – it is called Breath of God – and we meet at the Way of Holiness Church in their auxiliary gymnasium. It begins at 8 a.m. in the morning.

“We have people from all different churches who attend; different denominations come because it is early enough that they can come and then attend their regular church that they are a member of. It’s really nice. Jenny is our worship leader.”
Along with painting a picture to help folks better understand the Bible, Williams said Jenny Pfister is an accomplished pianist.

“She went to Shenandoah Conservatory for music, and she is very accomplished at many instruments,” she said. “Not only is she a great Bible teacher, but she is also a great musician. She has given piano lessons for years, but she prefers teaching.”

Williams said the contract with Uplift Television satellite to air the local show “One Brushstroke at a Time” globally is surreal.

“It’s hard for us to wrap our heads around it,” Williams said. “When you think of the personalities that are on that type of venue of television, you think of the big names who have huge global ministries with tons of money coming in … many of those ministries have a huge organization [associated with] them with paid employees and call centers.”

“But this is just a small, tiny, unassuming ministry,” Williams added. “We just see God’s hand in this. There is no way that a tiny little ministry like that could have landed an opportunity without God stepping in and allowing it to be. That is the only way we can explain it – God is stepping in and allowing this unusual set of circumstances to happen.”

She said Brushstroke Ministries helps in the community in so many ways.

“There is a fraternity house beside Brushstroke Ministries,” Williams said. “We share a parking lot and we have a great relationship with the members of the fraternity; next week we will be doing a dinner for them during finals week. They eat snacks when they are studying for finals, and they invite us over for a Thanksgiving meal.

“It’s a great outreach between our groups. We work with the Crisis Pregnancy Center, nursing homes in Buckhannon, and we also have a Blessing Box. She also conducts women’s conferences.”

“One Brushstroke at a Time” will still air locally on Sunday mornings on at 8 a.m. on local channel 3, WBOY and WVRX Fox 10, a WDTV affiliate. Uplift Direct TV Channel 379 on satellite will begin airing “One Brushstroke at a Time” beginning at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 3.

It is available to stream live.

Brushstroke Ministries has a Facebook page and the website is online at www.brushstrokeministries.com. They can be reached by calling 304-473-7300 and are located at 81 S. Kanawha Street in Buckhannon.