Mision Compartida 2007

Hi all,

What is Mision Compartida you ask? That is the name we have given to our annual Radio-thon and Open House here at HCJB. We have been doing this for about 4 years now and each year the event grows. Mision Compartida means "Shared Mission" in Spanish. This year we held Mision Compartida on the 13th, 14th and 15th of December. (Yes, just 2 weeks after the Quito Day Concerts... December is a busy month for us!)

A big part of Mision Compartida is the open house. During the 3-day event, we have thousands of people come by the station. They can stop by our largest radio studio and watch, listen, and even participate at times in the live radio program. We also do a lot of live Christian and Ecuadorian cultural music during the event. Some of these artists are local, and others we bring in from out of the country. So many people will come by to meet the musicians as well.

We also have a children's tent where a team of mostly volunteers come and do all kinds of activities with the kids. This has become very popular during the last couple of years. In fact, there were times this year when we had more kids on campus than we had adults. The kids tent usually has face painting, puppet shows, skits, videos etc. Because of the kids ministry, Mision Compartida is becoming a family event each year. Families will come and spend several hours with us.

This year we had some special tents set up which presented other ministries of HCJB. One in particular was done by our Bible Institute of the Air. They created a mock-up of the ancient tabernacle of God from the old testament. Students in the Institute manned the tent, giving tours of the tent and the meaning of each of the items in the "Tabernacle". Another popular area is our Prayer Room. Many of the local pastors come and volunteer to be available to pray with people who come to the station with special needs.

Of course our donation areas are open as well. People can call us and pledge their gift or they can come by in person and leave their gift with us during their visit. This year we set a goal of raising $150,000 for the local AM and FM radio stations. That is about half the cost it requires to operate those stations each year. Although our pledges had never surpassed $100,000 in the previous years, the listeners gave nearly $130,000 during each of the previous years. We count the money that comes in during the year and not the pledges anyway, so $150,000 seemed like a reasonable goal. To our surprise, our listeners pledged over $160,000 this year! We were all humbled by the Lord's grace this year since this is almost twice what our listeners pledged last year.

Mision Compartida was a success in several ways, not just financially. Many of our listeners shared with our producers how the Lord had used a particular producer to speak to them, or encourage them just when they needed it. In fact I think we, the staff of HCJB, get as much of a blessing by this interaction with our listeners as they get in giving to the ministry. It is easy to wonder if you are making a difference in people's lives because radio is a one-way medium. Mision Compartida is the listeners opportunity to encourage us, and it does. We are so grateful that we can be a part of this ministry which touches so many lives for Christ.

Quito Day Concerts

The city of Quito, Ecuador celebrates its founding every year on the 6th of December. Since 1965, HCJB has been participating in the celebrations by presenting the "Quito Day Concerts". The concerts include a mixture of Ecuadorian cultural music and Christian Christmas music. We also usually invite a special artist or group to participate with us in the concert as a special guest. This year we invited Paulina Aguirre, who just this year had her album "Mujer de Fe" (Woman of Faith) nominated for a Latin Grammy. She is the first Christian music artist to receive such a nomination.

The concerts were held in a local theater where they were originally held back in 1965. Even though the size of the theater was small, the concerts were well received. The owner of one of the largest secular radio stations in the city of Quito came by to congratulate us on such a good production. Another man who owns one of the most respected radio production houses in the country also di the same. Both men offered their services for the next years production.

The concerts are not just about good music though. We had a very strong evangelistic message that was woven through the concerts. This was done via a drama that highlighted the cultural history of the city of Quito, and ended with a message of redemption that is needed by all who are searching for truth. Many people have told us that they remember the drama from the concert more than anything else.

Radio Veca

Think back with me a month. Do you remember hearing about Hurricane Felix and the damage it caused to Central America? It came ashore in a place called Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. Chances are you have never heard of Puerto Cabezas, but we have. HCJB has a little partner radio station in Puerto Cabezas called Radio Veca.

Radio Veca is a small FM station. They came to us several years ago in need of a new transmitter. We were able to provide them with that and have stayed in contact with them ever since, doing training sessions for the radio producers, etc.

When we heard that Hurricane Felix had come ashore at Puerto Cabezas, we knew our partner was going to need help. However the hard part was communicating with them. Phone lines were down, as were power lines. However, after a few days, enough electricity was restored so that cell phones could sometimes get through to the station. Sure enough their radio tower was several pieces and their transmitter damaged as well. However, the electric company had run a special power line to the station to help them get back on the air, however with a greatly reduced coverage area.

We determined as best we could what the station was going to need to get back up to full power and sent an engineer in to help. Radio Veca had managed to piece their radio tower back together, but the cable that goes to the antenna at the top of the tower was not available in the country. So our engineer had to make a stop in Miami on the way (OK, so its not exactly on the way) to buy some cable.

We were able to get the station back up to almost full power. This was crucial since the station was being used by rescue workers to broadcast key information to the community. This is an example of how HCJB Voz Global is partnering with Christian radio stations all over Latin America to help them more effectively minister to their local communities.

Bible Marathon

Hi all,

This week HCJB, The Voice of the Andes, and The International Bible Society in Ecuador launched a special joint project..... a Bible Marathon. What is a Bible Marathon? We are asking people from all over Ecuador to help us write the Bible in Spanish by hand. The catch is, each person can only write 1 verse. That means that over 30,000 people will have to help us write this Bible.

The Bible started at the HCJB studios in Quito and is there through today, saturday. Then it will begin to make its way around the city of Quito until the end of October visiting churches and Christian book stores where people can come to add their verse. After October, it will begin to circulate around the country. We will use the radio station to inform people of the location of the Bible. We expect this project to take a full year to complete.

Why do a Bible Marathon? One reason is to unify the church in Ecuador. We will need the participation of many people from many different churches to complete the Bible. Last year the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association did a "Festival of Hope" here in Quito and this year they did one in Guayaquil. These two events brought the church together in a way that has not been seen in recent history. We are hoping the Bible Marathon will be the next great unifying event.

The second main reason for the project to promote the reading of God's Word. We are asking each participant to give a free will donation to the project. The Bible Society will use their half of the proceeds to buy Bibles which they will give to HCJB to distribute throughout the country. HCJB will use our half of the proceeds to cover our air-time expenses as we follow the Bible around the country, letting people know when the Bible is in a location near them.

Many people have already come by our studios to write their verse. I stopped by today and the studio was completely packed with people. There was standing room only. Word is getting out about this project and people are coming from all over to add their verse. We started the project at 4 different books in the Bible; Gensis, Job, Mathew, and Romans. I started off the book of Job and Ruth followed me with Job 1:2. We have had over 1000 people participate in just these first 3 days.

Please pray that this project will fulfill its goals of unifying the church in Ecuador and promoting the reading of God's Word.

The Dedication

Hi all,

Sorry it has taken so long to give you an update on the church dedication. We have been experiencing some computer problems lately.

The dedication of the El Tablon church took place on Aug 25th. We had a great crowd turn out for the dedication. Most of the visitors were people from outside El Tablon though. The churches in the towns of Pifo, Mulauco, Papallacta and Chaupimolino were all invited as they had all helped in one way or another with the construction. We estimate that between 400 and 500 people were in attendance based on the amount of food we served. The church was built to fit 200 people so needless to say there was standing room only. In fact, some people just stayed outside and looked through the windows or helped cook the food.

The service lasted about 3 hours, but by the time the food was all served it stretched into 5 hours. We had a great time of thanking those who had helped with the construction and ministry including work teams from Costa Rica, Northland U.B. (Michigan) and College Park U.B. (Indiana). We had lots of music as two of the churches brought along their Christian folkloric music and dance groups. (Dancing in the church??? I know, I know.... Its a cultural thing...) Then we did some reminiscing about the early days of the ministry when we had to tread through 6 inches of mud every week just to get to the house we were meeting in. Rachel put together a video chronicling the history of the ministry including the building of the church. We even sang Happy Birthday to Rachel, our daughter, who turned 18 that day.

Not everything went right though. My laptop computer picked the day before the dedication to decide its useful life was over. So Saturday morning I was scrambling to find another laptop to use. Then as we were about to the start the service, one of the Power Point music presentations became corrupted, so we couldn't use it. Someone brought a sound system, but the microphones they brought were not compatible with the sound system mixer. So we didn't use that either. Fortunately, these were relatively minor things in the big scheme of things and Ecuadorians are used to improvising.

All in all it was a great day though and we dedicated the building to the Lord and His use there in the community. One of the exciting things about the day was that we saw some of our people take some leadership in organizing the food for the day. It was good to see them step out and do that. We are encouraged about the future in El Tablon and trust that the Lord will use that building to bring more people to him. Thanks also to many of you who came to Ecuador to help us build the church. Our folks in El Tablon wanted to make sure we especially thanked you...

Doug

Welcome to our blog

Greetings all and welcome to our blog!

We decided to try blogging as a way to keep you updated on what is happening in our ministry and lives. With a blog we can give you more updates than is really possible with out prayer letters. There are often so many things happening in between prayer letters that we have a hard time choosing what to include in the prayer letter. Hopefully this way we can change that.

This blog does not replace the prayer letters that we send to you 4 times a year. So if you receive those now, you will continue to receive them either through the mail or electronically.

I will also send out an e-mail message when we update the blog with a link to this page so that you won't have to waste time checking the blog, only to find that we have not updated it. However, if you want to be removed from that list, or you know of someone wants to be included on the list, please write to us at dweber@hcjb.org.ec.

Pray for today:

* On Saturday the 24th we will be dedicating our new church building in El Tablon. Some of you helped us in the construction of the building, others have prayed for the construction. Please pray that the building will now be used by the Lord for his work in El Tablon.

* We also expect lots of visitors to the church in El Tablon for the dedication. Please pray that those visitors will accept the Lord and return in future weeks to grow spiritually with us.