Christmas broadcast set for Sunday 

NEW BOSTON — As they do each Christmas season, Evangelistic Outreach is distributing food baskets to the needy.

Dr. Calvin Ray Evans, president and director of the ministry, said this is the focus of their efforts this week, including a stop at Ironton City Mission, which took place Friday.

“We’ve distributing hundreds of these food baskets,” he said.

Evans, who also serves as the pastor for Rubyville Community Church, said the ministry provides for several thousand people each year, raising the funds for the effort and handling distribution.

He said they cover a large area, ranging from Pikeville, Kentucky, to Pike County in Ohio.

He notes that the ministry’s television program had its start out of Huntington, West Virginia,  which is the basis for the focus on the Appalachian region.

Evangelistic Outreach was founded in the 1950s by his father, Dr. Calvin Evans, of Pedro, out of the family’s home.

The ministry eventually moved to Ironton, its home for several decades, where it expanded to radio and television, before relocating to its current building in New Boston.

The ministry’s television program is carried nationally on broadcast stations.

Each year, the program has a Christmas broadcast, which includes music and Gospel message for the holidays.

Evans said this year’s holiday program is set for Christmas Eve on Sunday and has a theme of “One Night on Earth.”

The program will air locally at 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on WSAZ and at 8 a.m. on WOWK.