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Corrientes, a coalition of ministries led by HCJB Global to train Latin Americans for bi-vocational missionary work, launched on Oct. 3.
- While 56 years of shortwave broadcasting from Pifo, Ecuador, ended, the mission refocused its efforts on satellite networks, local radio and Internet, production and distribution, radio planting and radio training. Shortwave continues from other locations.
- German and Low German broadcasts were reorganized in a new cooperating ministry called Vozandes Media. Regional Spanish broadcasts and indigenous shortwave broadcasts continue under the umbrella of Vozandes Media.
- HCJB Global Hands ministries touched the lives of more than 275,000 Ecuadorians.
- 254 Latin American communicators were trained in 10 cities in seven countries.
- Apoyo, a pastoral training ministry that touched 3,000 church leaders in 2009, relocated to Quito.
- 300 attended a "FamilyLife Today" conference in Quito.
- 20 percent of the region's radio budget now comes from the support of local donors in Latin America.
- The total number of graduates in the Christian Center of Communications reached 164.
In the past eight years, Christian radio stations across the U.S. have partnered with HCJB Global to send fixed-tuned, solar-powered radios to more than 27,000 recipients worldwide.
About 12,000 of these have been SonSet® radios developed at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind. Money for the radios is raised through a campaign dubbed "Turn the Radios On" (TRO). The special radios are digitally tuned to pick up only signals from local Christian radio stations.
"These radios go to prisoners, people in remote areas who don't have access to electricity, and poor people who can't afford radios or the batteries to operate them," explains Heide Jones, the mission's station relations director. "They're a great thing to give to people who've never heard the gospel. If they listen, all they'll hear is programming on their local stations."
"It's almost like sending a missionary into a community," she explained, noting that the $35 radios last 10 years. "That works out to less than a penny a day for the life of the radio! They're small, and the carrying strap is actually the antenna so people can sling it around their necks and listen while they're working in the fields or going about their business."
Marlis Klaassen in the Estate & Gift Planning Office of HCJB Global at 1.800.525.8857, Ext. 2232, or e-mail mklaassen@hcjb.org. Carol Kerk (front) and Sarah Good test SonSet® radios at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind., in preparation for shipment to potential listeners around the world. The radios were designed at the center and manufactured in China.
In August, KPOF in Denver broadcast live at the HCJB Global Ministry Service Center in Colorado Springs, raising enough pledges for more than 1,000 radios that are being sent to Cambodia.
Staff members of another station, WBFJ in Winston-Salem, N.C., along with Steve Hodgson, HCJB Global's executive director of advancement, hand delivered 600 radios to Lesotho in March. This spring the station raised pledges for an additional 411 radios for Lesotho, a small country surrounded by South Africa.
Scott Herrold, program director of the SOS Radio Network based in Las Vegas, Nev., said listeners pledged funds for some 1,000 radios after meeting its two-day spring fundraising goal after the first day.
"By noon of the second day our listeners had also funded the special project we had designated. Then we decided to raise money for SonSet® radios. It was sort of a last-minute thing, but God really provided." The sets will go to northern Guatemala and southern Mexico where signals from Radio Impacto in La Mesilla, Guatemala, reach both sides of the border.
This year, spurred by a significant matching grant from a Christian foundation, local churches joined Christian radio stations in the TRO effort, using a special vacation Bible school (VBS) program produced by Go Fish, an a cappella music group.
"This summer 15 churches raised money for 309 radios through their VBS missions projects," Jones explained. One of those was Calvary Church in Roseville, Minn.
Christy Becher, the church's elementary kids ministry director, said the 300 children quickly latched onto the program. "They were intrigued by the gadgetry and the solar-power technology of the radios," she related.
"Leaders and parents were glad to support a project that would directly take the gospel to people who don't know Christ. Each year we choose a missions project with a tangible item for kids to purchase. The SonSet® radios motivated them to give more generously than ever before. Many kids set up lemonade stands and held car washes to raise money. We're excited about the eternal ripple effects this project will have!"
Including matching gifts from two members of the congregation, the Calvary VBS raised enough funds to buy 100 radios. Overall, this year's TRO campaigns raised funds to provide more than 3,000 radios with another two campaigns still in process.
Use of the handy radios is resulting in changed lives. Recently a set was given to a poor non-Christian man from Haiti. His wife was dying, and he gave most of his possessions to the local witchdoctor to heal her. She still died, but the man began listening to his radio. Soon he became a believer and gave his fixed-tuned radio to the witchdoctor who also gave his life to the Lord. The witchdoctor had 13 children, and 12 of them—along with his wife—made decisions for Christ!
"With people hearing stories like this, it's been hard to keep up with the orders," Jones said. "We order between 5,000 and 10,000 radios a year, but the requests keep coming in."
"Our goal is to raise money to send out another 10,000 radios in the next year which is only 10 percent of what is needed out there," she continued. "Uganda alone wants 50,000 radios! Next year we are again partnering with Go Fish's VBS program, expecting even greater things in 2010!"
Interested churches and radio stations are invited to contact Heide Jones or Kate Elliott at 1.800.360.4252 or visit turntheradioson.org.
| Partner Ministry in U.S. | Radios Pledged in 2009 | Destination Countries |
| 89 Q, Wisconsin | 26 | Unspecified |
| SOS Network, Nevada | 819 | Guatemala, Mexico |
| KPOF, Colorado | 1,052 | Cambodia |
| MCBI, Minnesota | 186 | Guatemala |
| Mars Hill, New York | 150 | Unspecified |
| WBFJ, North Carolina | 411 | Lesotho |
| KBHL, Minnesota | 97 | Unspecified |
| WFCJ, Ohio | In progress | Unspecified |
| WAFG, Florida | In progress | Unspecified |
| 15 churches (Go Fish VBS programs) | 309 | Unspecified |
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