By Edie Schmierbach

The Mankato Free Press

NORTH MANKATO — On bitterly cold and snowy Sunday mornings when she could not get to services at her church, Janet Loe would tune in to a ready source of inspiration and faith, right there in her living room.

The Fairmont woman would watch the Rev. John Michel’s television ministry “I Believe in Miracles.”

“It always made me feel good,” she said.

After 54 years on KEYC, the locally produced show aired its final broadcast Sunday.

The show featured traditional gospel songs, hymns and a sermon by Michel, a pastor with Grace Baptist Church. Michel’s wife, Marilyn, was the show’s organist.

“We started in 1961. I had the desire to spread the message of God’s word, love and grace to a larger audience,” Michel said in a telephone interview.

“I Believe in Miracles” had a captive audience when it first aired, Michel joked. “We were on the only channel they could get.”

The show’s title was derived from lyrics by a popular composer of gospel music during the 1950s, John W. Peterson.