Radio Lumiere - Haiti

Radio Lumière (French for light) in Haiti was founded on February 20, 1959, by West Indies Mission (now World Team).

As the country’s main Protestant radio station, Radio Lumière is known as the voice of the Protestant church in Haiti and covers more than 90 percent of the country with Christian broadcasting.

The station airs from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. seven days a week. At any one time, Radio Lumière’s audience varies from several thousand to more than 1 million listeners.

The station’s programming is Christian and family oriented, with a strong emphasis on evangelism and Christian training. The network also provides educational broadcasting, Christian music and entertainment, a complete news service, and a personal announcement program in which Haitians use the station to send messages to family and friends in rural areas who do not have telephones.

The ministry of Radio Lumière is vital as more than 40 percent of Haiti’s approximately 10 million people are Protestant Christians. Most of the three to four million Protestants tune in to the station from time to time while many listeners never move their dial.

Radio Lumière is the institution behind which all of Haiti’s churches rally and which they all respect and depend upon. The radio is also a powerful tool for evangelism, often reaching into homes the church cannot. For instance, it is not unusual for a witch doctor to be converted as a result of the radio’s ministry. Radio Lumière also plays an important role in encouraging, training, and building up Christians, as the church in Haiti is growing very rapidly and there are not enough trained pastors to disciple each new convert.

In the beginning, there was only one station at Les Cayes on the southern peninsula of Haiti. This installation was crippled by a major hurricane in the late 1960s, prompting the station to move its center of operations to Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti.

In the mid 1980s, Radio Lumière was nationalized and officially turned over to the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti (MEBSH), the Haitian denomination started by World Team. It is still owned and operated by MEBSH, but its ministry and support base include all of the evangelical churches and denominations in Haiti.

The Radio Lumière network now has nine stations, with the main station and studios and a television station located in Port-au-Prince. The network’s other eight stations are located at strategic points around the country.

Web Links

• Radio Lumière