Mision Compartida 2008

Mision Compartida is HCJB Global's Latin America radio-thon/open house. It is a time when we invite our local listeners in Ecuador to share in the mision of reaching the world for Christ. They are invited to not only contribute but to come to the radio statin in Quito and visit us. And they do come... thousands come during the 3-day event.

One of our goals as a radio ministry is to awaken the local church to the spiritual needs that exist in other parts of the world. So this year we included a tent where local Ecuadorian missionaries could share about their ministry with our visitors. Ten percent of our income from the radio-thon also goes to support these same missionaries. The tent was very popular especially when some of the missionaries dressed in the native clothing of their host countries. Several of these missionaries serve in Central Asia, India and the jungles of the Amazon Basin in South America.

The children's tent was another big hit. A local church volunteered to run the program. A local Word of Life group also came one day and presented a drama for the kids. All of the programs were very evangelistic in nature and the programs seemed to be as popular with the parents as it was with the kids. Face painting, and ballons were also part of the attraction for the kids

Our financial goal for this year was $190,000. We fell short of that during the 3-day event, having only received about $145,000 in pledges. However, several churches have informed us that they plan to raise money for us today in their Sunday services. We always receive more pledges throughout the month of December too, as some people cannot participate in the event itself every year.

We have been making a real effort in the last 5 years to work more closely with the local church and a change in attitiude from the local pastors was evident this year throughout the event. We had local pastors helping us in our counselling center and on the air, and volunteers came each day to just pray for the hundreds of prayer requests that came in with the donations. It was very impressive to me to walk by the intercessory prayer room and see several older ladies on their knees praying for our listeners and the ministry of HCJB Global world wide.

Please be in prayer that God will continue to touch hearts and continue to work through us to change the world by impacting Latin America for Christ.

Thanks,

Doug

Quito Day Concerts

Hi all,

Last weekend, HCJB presented their annual concert to honor the anniversary of the city of Quito and to honor our Lord's birth. The concerts were presented on Thurs, Fri, and Sunday at a local theater in the heart of colonial Quito. HCJB has used the birthday of Quito as a pretext for sharing the gospel since 1965. This year the concerts included a strong gospel message which tied Christ's birth to His redemptive work on the cross in a very clear presentation. We pray that many will be impacted by this message and search for the Lord during this Christmas season.

Today, the same choir that did the concerts, was invited to the presidential palace to sing for the Vice President and the palace staff. The President of Ecuador is not in the country today. We were invited as part of a catholic tradition called "The Novena". Each day for nine days, some different part of the birth of Christ is presented. Today was the first day of the Novena. We pray that our participation in this celebration of Christ's birth will impact our leaders to follow our Lord as they govern the country.

Tomorrow the churches of Ecuador have organized a breakfast for the Vice President and many government officials. The pretext is the presentation of a new book by Alberto Montessi, a Christian author and Bible teacher. HCJB will sponsor two tables at the event. Again the goal of this breakfast is to impact our political leaders with the gospel of Christ. Please pray for that impact.

Finally, Mision Compartida 2008, HCJB's annual fund raiser event, begins on Thurs this week. During this event we have thousands of listeners who visit the radio station, many of whom give financially to the ministry over a period of 3 days. Please pray that we can be a blessing to all those who come to visit us from Thurs through Sunday.

Thanks,

Doug

Leadership Summit

Hi all,

Yesterday and today I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit here in Quito. The summit is actually done in Aug and then recorded and translated into Spanish. It is translated into many languages and presented all over the world in 52 different countries, if I remember correctly. This is the first time I have attended the summit. Last year was the first year we had the summit here in Quito.

Several of my radio team members also attended the summit. Leadership is a big topic in Latin America, just as it is in north America. I have spent a lot of time reading leadership books over the years, and after a while you begin to figure out that everyone basically says the same thing. You also begin to figure out that Christian character is probably the most important ingredient there is for leadership.

If that is true, where are all the Christian leaders? Shouldn't we be leading the world? Shouldn't we be leading the best corporations? Shouldn't we be impacting the world like no one else has?

I don't have the answer to that question. But it sure makes you stop and think a bit. If my Christian faith is really the best basis for leadership, then I should probably stop spending so much money on leadership books and start spending more time reading and studying my Bible. No wait... maybe I need to start applying what I know from my years of studying the Bible to the real life situations that I run in to every day.

There are so many ways that we could start moving into the future. There are so many paths that are available to us these days in media. There are so many audiences out there that have never existed before. So which direction do we go? Who do we go after first? What technology do we use to reach them? I have lots of ideas and dreams swimming around in my head. Will you pray for direction for our leadership team? We need the Lord to direct our steps and to provide the financial and personnel resources we need to move in to the future. We need your prayers for God's guidance in a world that keeps creating new ways to communicate with each other.

Doug

Are You Ready?

OK, so earlier this week I had a guy come in to my office, pull out his bible, and begin to show me from his Bible that Jesus is coming back on Nov. 15, 2008. Although I did not agree with his interpretation of the scriptures on various issues he was nonetheless convinced that he had discovered the secret of the date from the scriptures themselves. He even claims to have found another man on the internet who has arrived at the same date, but by a completely different method.

Although I did not buy his arguments, it once again made me ask myself "Am I ready for Christ's return?"

Spiritually?..... yes.

Personally?..... well I would like to see my kids grow up a little more. I would like to play with grandchildren someday.

In our Ministry?..... Wow! There is so much more that I would like to do. So many more ways that we could tell people about Jesus, especially in this fast moving world of technology and communication.

I have to admit that at first I thought "hooray! Now I don't have to worry anymore about my budgets!" But there is so much more to the ministry than that. What my encounter with this man did for me was put everything back into perspective again. It isn't about budgets. It isn't about meetings. It isn't about employee/employer conflicts. It is about saving the lost and getting them the message in time for them to make a decision for Christ. This was a reminder for me to "Keep the main thing, the main thing".

Doug

"Tiroteo"

Defn. "Tiroteo - firing, shooting"

On Monday, a couple of friends and I were on our way to the little town of Shell, Ecuador to visit HCJB's hospital ministry there. On the way, we found ourselves in a little adventure that we would just as soon not experience again in the near future.

As we headed around one of the towns along our way, we noticed two police cars headed down our highway in the opposite direction at high speed and with their lights flashing (no sirens). We thought that a bit odd. Within seconds we discovered another police car, a double cab pick-up truck, parked across our freeway lanes. An officer beside the truck was signalling us to stop our vehicle. We did. But before we could stop, two motorcycles with two men on each passed us at full speed.

One motorcycle tried going around the back of the police truck, the other around the front. There was not enough room around the back of the truck and the first motorcycle slid to a stop, dumpinig its passengers on the road. The next thing we know, the police officer has his gun drawn and pointed right at the two men as they unfolded themselves from around their bike. Their hands went into the air in surrender.

The second bike was able to squeeze around the front of the police vehicle and continue its flight up the freeway. The police truck jumped in to gear and pulled itself around in hot pursuit of the second motorcycle. Relieved that our little adventure was over, and the police had everything in control, we headed on up the highway again. Within seconds we were back in the thick of it.

As we approached an interchange on the highway, we were suddenly surrounded by policeman again, this time on motorcycles. One officier was indicating that we should take the right exit ramp. Another officer indicated that we should stop. We decided to stop. Almost immediately we heard shots from a pistol. Then we saw the second motorcycle race over the overpass in front of us. More shots were heard. A nearby officier instructed us to exit our van and get behind it for protection. At the same instant the other motorcycle policemen disappeared in pursuit of the fleeing motorcycle.

The newspaper yesterday reported that the 4 men had stolen $21,500 from a local businessman as he was taking the previous days earnings to a local bank. All 4 men were eventually apprehended and the money recovered.

I was quite impressed with the police response during our little adventure, even though they were not quite in control of the situation yet. They were well organized and obviously in constant communication with each other. However, this experience is just another example of how quickly we can find ourselves in situations beyond our control. It also highlights the importance of prayer for God's protection over us. So don't forget to pray for God's protection over your missionary friends no matter where in the world they serve, becuase you just don't know what they might be driving in to around the next bend in the road.

This and That

Hi all,

I have a couple of things to share with you quickly. One is a new video on YouTube about the 50th anniversary of the Hospital Vozandes del Oriente. This will show you some of the history of the hospital. You will have to open your web browser and then copy and paste the following link into your browser. The video can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUpUBODssBw&sdig=1

Second, we often get questions about the HCJB Global Technology center in Elkhart, IN. Well this week an article came out in Radio World, an industry newspaper, which I thought some of you might want to read. You can click on the following link to read that article....

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.15789.html

Finally, please be praying for the people of Ecuador as they go to the polls on Sunday (Sept 28) to decide on whether they want to adopt a new constitution for the country or not. This is an important decision that will influence the direction that the country will take in to the future. Obviously everyone wants the best for the country, but it is difficult to know how decisions made today will affect our lives years down the road.

Thanks,

Doug

HVO 50th Anniversary

Hi all,

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 50th Anniversary of our Hospital (Hospital Vozandes del Oriente) in Shell, Ecuador. We arrived on Friday afternoon just in time for an official civic celebration called a "Ceremonio Solemne". Dignitaries from surrounding towns were in attendance including a Mayor and several councilmen and councilwomen. In the evening we also attended a dinner nearby in honor of the hospital. In attendance were some of the Hospital's very first patients, including patient with chart #10.

Hospital Vozandes del Oriente started in the small town of Shell as a simple clinic. It was the dream of Nate Saint, missionary pilot at the time, to have a clinic where habitants of the jungle could come and receive medical care. That small clinic eventually grew to be a hospital that was built right across the road from the airstrip used to bring the sick in from the jungle. Both Nate Saint and Roger Youderian helped in the construction of the hospital before they were killed in the Ecuadorian jungle.

Later, through a gift from the Swedish government, a new hospital was built within walking distance of the first building. The new facilities were larger, more spacious, and modern. It even included a tuberculosis lab, one of the first in the jungle region. The old hospital became a guest house for the many tourists who visited the region until it had to be torn down a year or so ago, having lost its battle against the jungle termites.

We praise the Lord for the many years of service the hospital has enjoyed in the region. Many people have come to the Lord as a reuslt of this important ministry to both the physical and spiritual needs of Ecuador's jungle dwellers.

Doug

Summer HMA!

Hi all,

We have had quite a summer! Lots of traveling and visiting with many of you. We have had a great time, but we are feeling a little exhausted as well. We only have a couple of weeks left before we head back to Ecuador.

We had a great time on our "East Coast" trip visiting folks in Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio. We also spoke in two churches along the way and had a great time with the folks of Northern Neck Baptist church in Virginia. What a great bunch of people out there.

Becca went along with us only as far as the first day. She stopped off in Ohio, stayed for a couple of days with a friend, then took the bus back home to Grandma's house. What an adventure she had on the bus! You have to get her to tell you about the people she found on the bus. Sounds like something right out of a TV sit-com.

The boys were pretty content on the journey. We had a TV in the car so they watched videos on most of the trip. We did get to do some fireworks on the 4th of July at the house we were staying at. They thought they were going to miss fireworks this year.

We have also been in northern Illinois, speaking at a camp there. It was a good time meeting those folks from the United Brethren In Christ churches in that area. We have also been all the way up to Traverse City Michigan to re-connect with one of the work teams that helped us build the El Tablon church building. Last weekend we spoke at College Park UB church. I also had a reunion of my High School youth group. The youth group had quite an impact in the 70s on the lives of those in the group and it was good to reconnect with many friends that I have not seen in many years.

Rachel is is getting ready to start College. Soccer practice starts in a week or so. She has been working out for more than a week already. We checked out her room today so she can start thinking about how she might want it set up. She also just received here new computer and has been getting it set up just the way she wants it.

Well, that is about it for this time.

Doug

Hi all,

Just a note to let you know that we are back in the states this summer. It will be a quick trip as we have to be back in Ecuador in time for school to start. We have already touched base with several of you, but we look forward to seeing even more. We head off next week for a short trip out to the east coast and to visit some of our supporting churches in Ontario and Virgina. Most of our weekends are filled up now with church engagements. We are free during the week most times though, and hope to fill in some other meetings along the way. If you have some place that you would like us to present our ministry, we would be happy to try to fit that into our schedule.

One of our activities already this summer was to get Rachel through Registration Weekend so she can attend University next year. She is excited about doing that. She also has a driver's permit now, and is taking driver's lessons. I was out with her just last night and she is learning fast and getting more comfortable behind the wheel.

More later.....

Update

Wow! Has it really been 2 months since the last time I posted an update? Where does the time go...??? Well lots of things have been happening which is why I have not had time to update the blog. Let me see if I can give you a bit of an update without writing a novel.

Thursday before Easter, we arrived home to find that the front door to our house had been forced open and we had been robbed. Our bedroom was the most disturbed. That is where we kept most of my "boy toys" - several radios, GPS, etc. It is the first time we have been robbed in this country. We knew we were way overdue for a robbery. Rumor has it that they have caught the guys that did it. They have been robbing houses in the surrounding communities for a couple of years. We didn't recover anything though. We are just grateful that no one was home at the time of the robbery and that we are all safe.

ALTECO - ALTECO is a consortium of mission organizations that get together once a year to network on how best to cooperate to reach the remaining "unreached" tribal groups in the Amazon Basin. Numbers range from 150 to 350 tribes that exist in the Amazon that have not been reached with the Gospel. In fact, CNN.com had an article just this last week about a new tribe that has just been found in the Amazon. It is believed that this group has had no contact whatsoever with the outside world. Hard to believe that those groups still exist, doesn't it? HCJB hopes to cooperate with other mission organizations to get radio programs in native languages on the air as a means of reaching into some of these remote areas.

In April, Daniel's class at Alliance Academy Int'l performed the play "No Strings Attached". It is the story of Pinochio, but not the Disney version. Daniel was "String Bean", Pinochio's wayward friend who eventually helps Pinochio earn his donkey ears and tail. Dan did a great job. Dad was asked to video tape the performances and make a DVD of the show for the kids and parents. I had never done that before, but we have the software, so I gave it a shot. The kids did a great job! The DVD came out OK too. The high school drama teachers told us they have their eye on Daniel already. I guess he impressed the critics even at this early age.

Becca decided that she wanted to celebrate her 16th birthday this year by inviting a bunch of her friends on a overnight camping trip. So we found several more adults to help us out, loaded up about 20 teenagers into several cars, and headed out to HCJB's antenna site. It was a great time. The kids stayed up half the night and went on a hike into the canyon the next day. Mom made lots of special food for the occasion. The rain held off until the very last minute when everyone had to scramble to get the tents down and stay dry. Everyone had fun! The trip was the talk of the school for several days so I guess everyone had fun. Several of the kids had never been camping before.

Most of the month of May, we have been working on budgets for the radio station. That is about all I have done this month. I have a lot of budgets to review, check, correct (read "cut expenses") for radio, even though I have a number of people helping to prepare the budgets. It is quite the process. We hopefully will have them all done by the time we leave to furlough this summer.

David got a unique opportunity to drive a "tractor" recently. Some of the workers were demolishing an old building on the HCJB Quito property. Since we know the workers, they invited David and Caleb, a friend of his, to help them out. David actually had his hands on the controls by himself for a bit. He had a great time even though he didn't probably help a lot in the destruction and clean-up of the building. You can see David sitting on the operators lap in the picture.

Well that is probably enough for now. Thanks for praying for us! We hope to see many of you this summer when we are in Indiana and on the east coast.

Doug

Flood Waters

Hi all,

For weeks now the rivers along the Ecuadorian coastline have been flooded due to the excessive amounts of rain that have fallen on the country. Even here in Quito the rain has been unusually heavy. We have never experienced so much rain in our 17 years of living in Ecuador. As a result, many people on the coast of Ecuador have had their homes flooded. Many of them are in isolated areas where it is difficult to even find food. Clean water is just as scarce.

Some of you may know that HCJB Global has often participated with Samaritan's Purse in disaster relief efforts around the world. This time the disaster relief is right here in our own back yard. As a result, HCJB Global has banded together with other Christian organizations and the Ecuadorian church to collect and distribute food and clothing to those affected by the flood waters.

For weeks now HCJB has been announcing to our listeners that they can bring food to one of 3 drop off points, where volunteers will collect their donations, sort them, and prepare bags for distribution to those who need them on the coast. And people are responding. We have sent several truck loads of food to the coast and more keeps pouring in. Click on the following link to see a video on YouTube of the work that we are doing on the coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-01_cdpeWw

Doug

Baptism in the Mountains

We drove over the mountains this morning to a little community called El Tambo. The trip was made by members of three churches, Mulauco, Chuchauco and El Tablon. What is special about El Tambo? Well, first of all, El Tambo is a sister community to El Tablon. It is all part of the same comunal land organization and many of the people who own land in El Tablon also own land in El Tambo. El Tambo is known for its volcanic hot pools, making it favorite spot for baptisms.

The Mulauco church organized the Baptism, but invited me to participate in the baptism, along with himself, Clemente, and Clemente's son-in-law. It was a privilege for me to be invited to help with their baptism ceremony. We divided into two groups, Clemente and I together, and rotated the baptisms between the four of us, baptizing a total of 11 people. One of those was Luz Marie from our El Tablon church. Luz has been coming to our church for quite some time but had never taken the step of faith of being baptized. Several of our El Tablon families were there to witness the event. Two of the others were family members of Clemente and Cecilia.

After the baptism service was over, those in attendance were invited to swim in the pool and many did. Afterwards a meal was served before everyone headed back to the other side of the mountain and back to our homes. We are thankful that Luz Marie took this important step in her relationship with Christ and pray that others will follow her example in the near future.

Carnaval!

Hi all,

Here in Ecuador, we celebrate "Carnaval" on the Monday and Tuesday just before Lent starts. Traditionally the event is celebrated with water... lots of water. In fact, you better be careful just walking down street because someone is likely to take the opportunity to launch a water balloon at you from a nearby house. So every year we get a group of friends together and head out to our shortwave transmitter site for a giant water fight in honor of the tradition.


This year we had one of our largest "parties" ever with several families bringing along extra kids to share in the fun. Water balloons, squirt guns, buckets of water and even the garden hose are appropriate weapons on such a day. More recently the government has attempted to limit the amount of water that is used, so "foam" has become a popular addition to the armament. Usually by the end of the day you have some very soaked and foamed kids.

Afterward we had a picnic lunch/BBQ for everyone involved. Everyone brought a dish to share , so there was lots of food after all of the fun. The kids had a great time. The parents did too, although we mostly stayed inside until the water part was over.

Doug

Happy New Year!

We want to wish you a Happy New Year for 2008.

HCJB Global Voice has just added another digital short wave radio broadcast yesterday. We have been doing a digital broadcast to Germany for several months already. Yesterday we began a transmission in Portuguese to Brazil. The HCJB Global technology Center in Elkhart, IN has developed and provided the equipment so that we can do these broadcasts.

I recently recorded an audio clip that I recorded here in Quito, Ecuador. The broadcast originated in Canada and the program was created by a European broadcaster. The broadcast is in short wave. Usually when you listen to a short wave program you hear lots of static, fading, etc. The quality is generally less desirable than what we are used to on the local AM bands. However, when we jump to digital, the audio quality becomes almost as good as local FM reception. In fact, if you listen carefully, using quality headphones, you can hear the stereo effects in the audio clip.

Digital short wave uses a digital standard called DRM. This is different than HD-radio which many radio stations in the USA are beginning to use. DRM is the only digital radio standard that works in the short wave bands. Many broadcasters around the world are now using DRM technology to broadcast in short wave. DRM allows us to broadcast long distances but with the quality of FM audio. The problems right now is receivers.... there aren't many available in the world just yet. In fact, we only know of 3 DRM receivers in the entire country of Brazil. That's OK... Clarence Jones, founder of HCJB, started his broadcasts back in 1931 with only 6 known receivers in the country. So how might God use this new technology to reach the world with the message of salvation??

Doug