Coastal Ministry

Hi all,

On Wed last week, I took a trip to the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador to visit our FM radio station HCJB-2. Several of us traveled from Quito to celebrate Luis Mora's 25 years of ministry with HCJB-2. Luis is the station manager for HCJB-2, which started in 1972 and which now has a repeater station in Machala, south of Guayaquil. We had a great time of fellowship and celebration with the staff there.

There are several Christian radio stations in this port city, however HCJB-2 is distinctive because of its central doctrinal position and solid Bible teaching. Many listen to the station for the Bible teaching. In a very diverse and divided city doctrinally, HCJB-2's mission is to unite the body of Christ see them work together as the body of Christ.

HCJB-2 is located in the poorer south-end of the city. This gives them a special ability to reach their neighbors with the Gospel. They will soon begin a clinic on their property, once again putting into action HCJB Global's two main ministries of Healthcare and Media. A local Christian doctor has already been enlisted and the rooms for the clinic are being refurbished and readied for the staff.

Mision Compartida (our radio-thon) for HCJB-2 brings in over $60,000 per year from donors who want to get behind the station. Most of these donations are small ($5 or $10 a month), and don't cover the operating costs of the station. However Luis and his staff are working with 2 pastoral associations and several Christian businessmen to improve the financial position of the station. One the ideas these businessmen are interested in is starting a new business, but the profits from the business will support minsitry. This is a new concept in missions today and we hope it proves effective in supporting HCJB-2.

You can check out HCJB-2's web site and even listen to their live stream. Their most popular program is from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (EST) on weekdays when they can receive up to 250 SMS text messages from their listeners. They also use a live chat with listeners during the program.

Doug

Voice and Hands Working Together

Hi all,

Got a couple more stories for you... The first one is from a faithful listener for some 40 years. Recently she had throat surgery in HCJB's Hospital Vozandes. She described her recuperation from surgery as "incredible". She did not expect to be able to talk afterwards, but she gives praise to God for completely restoring her. Because of that, she came to HCJB to give her donation to the radio ministry. She says,

"Today I have come first to give to the Lord before going to my medical appointment in Hospital Vozandes because I am so thankful. I believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and not in religion. Although I am a Catholic and not going to change, HCJB is a blessing in my life."

The second story comes from a young man who would be the equivalent of a Senior in High School. He tells us that He was returning to Quito with some schoolmates when their bus had a serious traffic accident. Renato found himself trapped in the bus for 8 hours before rescuers could free him. He was told at the local hospital that he would lose both of his legs, and was sent to HCJB's Hospital Vozandes in Quito. Renato told us,

"Later in the ambulance returning to Quito, I lost all vital signs and was dead for a time, but thanks to God my life returned. At Hospital Vozandes, the doctors knew the chances for saving my life were very slim, but for God nothing is impossible and I am still alive. Although I have had 23 operations and had my left leg amputated, I have never given up."

The doctors thought Renato would never walk again, but with the help of a prosthesis, he can not only walk, but run. Renato gives all the glory to God his Savior. He finishes up his story by saying,

"The strangest part of all this is that before the accident I was very, very atheistic, and my whole family was too. But when I was trapped in that bus waiting for the firemen to arrive, I thought that I would die. I asked Him to not let me die and I asked forgiveness for not believing in Him and He has saved me, and now my Mom, my brother, my Grandmother and all of my aunts are Christians."

I hope this encourages you this week as you remember what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross some 2,000 years ago. But He didn't stay dead either, and raised Himself from the dead three days later so that anyone who believes can have eternal life with Him.

Doug

Prayer and Impact

Hi all,

Wow, how the time flies. I have several cool testimonies to share, but let me do just one now and then share a prayer request with you.

One of our radio programs on our AM station is called "Hymns of the Christian Life". It is the only program we have dedicated to playing the old hymns of the faith. Well, a week ago we invited our listeners to come to HCJB and spend a night together with us listening to these old hymns, sung by several local Christian artists. We gave out free tickets in order to control how many people might show up.

One 66 year old lady came by for her tickets and told us that she has been listening to HCJB for about 6 months, ever since she ran across "Hymns of the Christian Life" on the AM dial. She has been teaching women's groups in her church for many, many years. The day she tuned in, Candice, the host of the show, was sharing with her listeners about how they could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and be saved from an eternity in hell. This dear lady had never heard that before and decided to pray and accept the free gift of salvation that very day. She has since become a very faithful listener to our programs.

With this in mind, I would invite you to pray for our producers this week. This is Holy Week and we have prepared many special programs that will emphasize the events of this week some 2000 years ago and point our listeners toward Jesus as the one who paid our debt for sin and allows us to live for eternity with Him in heaven once we die. Pray that our producers will impact our listeners through their words and testimony, and that many new listeners would find us on the radio dial this week, just as this lady above did.

Pray also that our equipment will run without problems. Often during our special Christmas and Easter programs, our equipment has problems. Our transmitters fail, or our studios have problems, just when we are sharing the most important events of human history with our audience. So let's pray in advance that the Lord will "put a hedge of protection" around our equipment and keep it running throughout this Holy Week.

Thanks,

Doug