 |
|
|
By All Means Possible
The same goes for Christian ministry today. Despite current economic differences between nations, the tools of communications can be found in every corner. Populations who've never had telephones before (land lines were too expensive for their government to install) are now saturated with cellular phones. In Latin America you are always within walking distance of an Internet café. In 2008, a Nazarene radio boat will travel along the banks of the Amazon River in Brazil, broadcasting daily devotionals as far as it can reach into the jungles, reaching people groups who will hear the Gospel for the first time. There are millions of "lost passengers" within the reach of someone who can save them. They just need the Truth. How do we save them? By all means possible. If it can, in any way, house a Biblical truth, we need to seize the opportunity and throw a Lifeline out into a lost world. So what are those means? With new tools being developed everyday, the following are some of the ways World Mission Broadcast (WMB) is now spreading the Good News: Shortwave radio, AM and FM radio, satellite download radio, alternative radio (broadcasting with loudspeakers from street poles or the decks of boats), television, internet-radio streaming, pod casting, cell-phone texting, and the posting of ministry video clips on the popular web site www.youtube.com. On the Mexico/Central America Region, a full-time Nazarene radio station is now broadcasting on the Internet ? you can hear it at www.idnradio.com. In South America, weekly radio programs are posted to an online server where station managers from Europe, North America, Central America, Africa and Central and South America go each week to download content for use in their broadcasts. On the Asia-Pacific Region, where cellular phones have become the main means of communication, WMB provides evangelism and follow-up discipleship right over the phone, via texting. Computers easily communicate with cell phones, and we now have a person in the Philippines whose sole ministry is communicating with cell phones throughout the region. Asia-Pacific is also our first region to begin using podcasts as ministry tools. Listeners can subscribe to their favorite audio program and download it automatically to a computer or audio-listening device. South America is soon to launch their own pod casts. The video-streaming phenomenon www.youtube.com has become an innovative place to post videos with God-centered messages where thousands will view them as word spreads. Several of our regions regularly post ministry videos on this web site. As we stand on the world's ship-deck today, we are surrounded by ways to rescue those lost in the sea. Hard to image how anyone could drown if we reach out to him or her by all means possible. --- Lee Rudeen, Production Coordinator, World Mission Communications
Radio Renaissance ?Have you heard the news today?? Ayman Kafrouny asked when he answered the phone in Beirut, Lebanon.
?They've started to put bombs in different areas, the bombs they put are 15 minutes from our home,? he said of the militants. Ayman voiced concern about more than the safety of his wife, Grace, and 5-year-old daughter. The couple had to cancel a Christian concert sponsored by Nazarene Broadcasting & Communication Ministry (NBCM) ? the conflict in Lebanon has made citizens less willing to travel distances to attend events. Other upcoming revivals and concerts are also in doubt, he said. The live events are a new evangelism tool for NBCM, which until 2004 focused on just one form of media outreach: the radio. But the Middle East is a media-saturated place. People may listen to the radio, but they also surf the Internet. They watch satellite TV. They talk on the telephone. They attend concerts. A well-known singer and songwriter, Ayman ministered with a Christian satellite television network before he and Grace took over NBCM in 2004. ?When we took over, my wife and I, we felt ? that we can do more than the radio program. The communications ministry is much bigger than the radio program,? he said. ?I think it's very important to expand in this way so you can reach more people than through the radio,? said Sultan Masannat, a licensed Nazarene minister and businessman who helps organize the Great Doctor revivals. Holding the live events are key, Sultan added. ?This is very important because people, they like to hear you, but when they see you giving the message live, it affects them more.? Many tools, one message Combining Ayman's media savvy, famous voice and influence with Grace's administration experience, accounting training and marketing abilities, the couple built a strategy leveraging the many ways people communicate.
Those who hear The couple prays that God would enable them to organize more revivals and concerts later this year. They face challenges of limited funding and conflict within Lebanon. Even with a budget stretched to its limit, the couple presses forward because people are finding Christ. One man from Saudi Arabia wrote: ?Two months ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, and that was because of you. I will remain grateful to you for my whole life. I spent a long period of my life searching for peace and seeking the real God. That was a reason for me to worry about my eternal destiny, and finally I found the real peace in the lord Jesus Christ.? Another letter came from Iraq where one of the Great Doctor revivals was broadcast on satellite TV: ?We like to thank you and everybody who work with you to introduce this revival. We watch it on TV. And we are really touched and we like to inform you that there was a visitor in our house, he was a half a believer while pastor was talking about repentance that person effected and get a message from the Lord.? ?You feel encouraged that what you are doing is helping, even though you don't know them by face,? Ayman said of the people who write to NBCM. ?Through it's use of modern media to communicate, NBCM crosses borders, bridges war zones, and captures hearts and minds for Christ,? said Joel Mullen, former communications coordinator for the Eurasia Region. ?Regardless of where people live or what is happening in the world around them, they actually have a real opportunity to hear the message of salvation through their radio, their TV, or their computer.? (Read how Ayman accepted Christ, leaving fame and success as a popular secular singer to become an evangelist: www.intisar.org.) ---Gina Pottenger, Coordinator of Global Research and E.CommunicationsIt?s Never Too Late
"This is a testimony of Anthony, who gave his life through our radio program ministry. One Saturday night as I was on my couch resting just after preaching at the radio station, I got a phone call. As I answered the phone, this young man of 20 said, 'I just listened to you preaching and I want to accept the Lord Jesus Christ in my life. You preached on "it's never too late," and I think this is the time for me to turn over my life to Christ before it's too late. I made preparation for a lot of things in my life, but still there is no happiness. I now want to make preparation for God to make my life worthwhile.' I prayed for Anthony and he accepted the Lord in his heart. It is great to know that this radio ministry is effective for Christians and non-Christians. People call after our program requesting prayer. Even Christians from other churches call and ask for prayers. Pray that this program will spread and touch lives in Suriname. Thank you for your prayers and support.?Mujer Valiosa TV
The 30-minute Spanish-language program is based on World Mission Broadcast South America's equally popular radio program by the same name. It has caught on with TV stations because it combines spiritual truth with an informative and entertaining format, all at no cost to the stations, said executive producer Brian Utter. The show aims to raise up families and communities by demonstrating how women can value themselves and improve their families and relationships. The show's radio predecessor, The Nazarene Hour, ended in 2000 and cost $16,000 to air on two radio networks. Mujer Valiosa broadcasts on more than 1,000 television stations for free. ?They don't (usually) get quality programs at no cost to them,? Utter said. ?We researched what radio stations and television channels want, and we give that to them.? Most secular stations are open to airing the show because, although the Church of the Nazarene is mentioned as the producer, it doesn't push a particular denomination, he said. ?We're not here to promote a specific church; we're here to help promote Jesus Christ. We're not blatantly saying we're the Church of the Nazarene because that doesn't get our programs through the door of a secular station.? Mujer Valiosa, meaning ?The Valued Woman,? offers segments on cooking, handcrafts and home décor, wrapping up with a spiritual message.
Mujer Valiosa isn't just about entertainment, however. It's part of a broad strategy to draw interested viewers to salvation and discipleship through the ministry of local Nazarene churches. "As a young girl members of my family abused me,? wrote Lidia, a 52-year-old mother from Colombia. "There were consequences that remained hidden in my guarded emotions. I tuned into your program, and it impacted my life. My emotional state was healed." WMB South America developed a three-pronged strategy for reaching and following up with viewers: digital, paper and personal, Utter said. The radio and television programs are the digital prong, which reaches women where they are, then gets them thinking about their spiritual needs. Paper refers to Mujer Valiosa literature, which is being developed through the Church of the Nazarene's Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International (SDMI) and will be offered throughout Latin American Nazarene churches as a basis for women's ministries. For the personal prong, viewers who write to the program are contacted by their nearest Nazarene church for counseling, spiritual help and, if they choose, discipleship and church involvement. For example, Utter mentioned an e-mail from a 27-year-old woman in Venezuela who asked for tips on the best way to lose weight after she viewed the show's segment on the spiritual and physical consequences of bulimia and anorexia. Another viewer e-mailed: ?I want to find out what God's plan is for me.? WMB South America passes these e-mails along to the follow-up coordinator in each nation where the show airs. That coordinator will connect these viewers to designated counselors and ministers in their nearest Nazarene churches. "By making contact through a local church, the listener is shown God's mercy,? said Colombian national WMB coordinator, Juan Jose Soto. "We can make this person feel important." WMB South America has delivered 26 episodes and in October starts production on 27 more that will be expanded to one hour each, with more room for content. Watch video segments at MujerValiosa.com or read more at Esperanza.net. Fast Facts
--- Gina Pottenger, Coordinator of Global Research and E.Communications Anderson Returns Dave Anderson has returned to direct the global efforts of World Mission Broadcast. For over three decades, Dave has provided vision and guidance to Nazarene Communications, and served as the Director of WMB from 2001-2005. He will work closely with the WMB field personnel to ensure all our programs reach the unreached by all means possible. To contact Dave, e-mail him at danderson@nazarene.org or via phone, 816-333-7000 ext. 2398.
Pray and Give - Be Involved in WMB The following are specific ways you can pray for WMB : • www.IDNRadio.com is the Mexico/Central America Region's first Internet radio ministry. Pray for the programs that air on IDNRadio, for the people who produce the programs, and for all those who log on to listen. • Pray for the ministry of the Gospel Magazine, a weekly 50-minute radio program airing in Trinidad and Tobago. Pray for the program's coordinator, Angelique Isaacs. • Pray for the Thru the Bible radio program airing in Madagascar in the Malagasy language, for program host Rev. Richard Revelomanantsoa, and the listeners. • Pray for the second season filming of Mujer Valiosa TV (The Valued Woman TV program) which begins in November 2007 and is slated to finish before Christmas. Pray also for the post-production process scheduled for January 2008-March 2008, with transmission set for May 2008. • Pray that God will raise up radio ministry workers in Melanesia/South Pacific that can help carry and assist in leadership roles. • Pray for Pastor Wein as he broadcasts messages on a radio station in a remote area of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Pray that he will have a big impact on the isolated villagers living on the shores of the lake there. World Mission Broadcast is entirely funded by donor support. If you would like to be involved in reaching the unreached by giving a financial gift, you can contribute on-line. Log on to
World Mission Broadcast |
|
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon for the program director of World Mission Broadcast 's Middle East devotional radio program. Ayman had spent the day aware of smoke rising from a refugee camp about an hour from his town. The Lebanese army fought with entrenched members of Fatah al Islam, a group of militants associated with al Qaeda, according to CNN.com. 
Rev. Tajera Sewkumar, District Superintendent of the Suriname D istrict, airs a weekly World Mission Broadcast radio program and shared this testimony recently: 
Airing on 1,034 TV stations throughout Latin America and the U.S., the Nazarene program, Mujer Valiosa, is experiencing runaway success in just its seventh month, exposing potentially 150 million viewers to messages of hope in Jesus Christ. 
Three women of different ages and life experiences host the program, which also includes interviews with experts offering a Christian perspective on subjects ranging from eating disorders to finances. The segments take place on sets designed to look like different rooms of a house. 
