Christian Radio Station Planned for Muslim Area of West Africa

Christian Radio Station Planned for Muslim Area of West Africa
Source: HCJB Global

HCJB Global Voice recently signed a final partnership agreement with another organization in West Africa, to start a radio station in the area. HCJB Global Voice expects construction to be completed in the next few weeks with plans to be on the air by Christmas.

After “Pastor J” and his team complete the building of the radio tower, HCJB Global Voice will donate the radio equipment needed and will also assist in the installation of the equipment. When the radio station is in place, the mission plans to help train the staff on the technical and programming aspects of the radio station, giving local partners the ability to run the facility on their own.

Pastor J, born in West Africa, was raised and trained in Islam. As an adult, he became a science teacher at an Islamic school. During that time, a Christian couple led him to the Lord. In 1983 he dedicated his life to reaching out to Muslims and has been serving as a missionary and strong spiritual leader ever since.

Christian Fellowship Church in Ashburn, Va., describes him as “a unique visionary and a strong Christian leader of exemplary faith … an effective evangelist with a heart of compassion for Muslims…and an astute, entrepreneurial businessman who continually applies his skill to spreading the gospel.”

Pastor J’s ministry focuses on providing schools, water wells and small-business opportunities for local communities. The station will be the first Christian outlet in this primarily Muslim area of West Africa, and will reach out to people who may otherwise never hear the Christian message.

HCJB Global is also involved in other community development projects that integrate both the voice (media) and hands (healthcare) aspect of ministry.

Towers come down at Pifo

Tall Towers Removed from Radio Station HCJB’s Site in Ecuador
Source: HCJB Global

Crews removed the last of the tall antennas and towers at Radio Station HCJB’s international transmitter site in Ecuador, the height of which would obstruct the flight path of the future international airport for the capital city of Quito.

Under earlier agreements between the Quito Airport Corporation (CORPAQ) and HCJB Global, the towers were removed prior to a December 31st 2008, deadline.

“The last of these tall towers were taken down on Dec. 24 at 9:30 a.m.,” said Geoff Kooistra, operations and engineering director for the station.

Christmas is noteworthy in the station’s history as its first program went on the air on Christmas Day, 1931. The first broadcasts from the international transmitter site in Pifo, just east of the capital, began in 1953.

With 14 other shorter antennas and towers still standing, the transmitters at Pifo continue to broadcast 60 hours per day with targets throughout the Americas. Trade languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and German still air, as do indigenous languages such as Quichua (Ecuador), Waorani (Ecuador’s Amazon region), Cofán (Andean highlands, Amazon region and northern Ecuador) and Kulina (Brazil and eastern Peru).

HCJB's Pifo site has previously delivered the stations programming to locations all over the world.

“We also continue digital shortwave broadcasts both to Brazil and to Europe,” Kooistra said.

The station transmits 56 hours of analogue signal and four hours of digital shortwave, according to Steve Sutherland who manages the Pifo site and staff.

However, all shortwave broadcasts from Pifo are projected to end no later than April 1st 2010.

Apology Demanded from TV Presenter

Venus TV is a satellite television station focused primarily on British Asians in the UK and Europe with the aim of combining the best Asian cultures and heritage and its connection to Asian generations in the UK.

Ashar Mall, a Pakistani Christian who who hosts a regular weekly program on Venus TV, has been asked to apologise over hosting a program on Venus TV on October 3 in which Australian based Pakistani Christian evangelist, Daniel Scott, attempted to address Muslim misconceptions about the biblical concepts of atonement, redemption and salvation.

Mr. Scott in the past was taken to court by Australian Muslims on charges of "vilification of Islam", and was found not guilty by the highest court in Australia.

Ahar Mall reported that in recent weeks his program had come under fire from Muslims as they started asking aggressive questions about the validity of the Bible, the deity of Christ and the nature of God in Christianity.

In the October 3rd programme Daniel Scott very academically dealt with such subjects without being aggressive or insulting to the religion of Islam.

However, some leaders within the Muslim community are complaining about the programmi, claiming that it contained wrong information about their religion and was anti-Islam propaganda.

In Pakistan, the Urdu language newspaper "Daily Jang" contacted community leaders and Muslim scholars in the UK and quoted them as saying that attempts to accuse the person of Prophet Muhammad, and distorting his sayings posed grave dangers to the peaceful environment of European society.

Mr. Qazi Abdul Aziz Chishti, Chief of the Central Party of Ahle-Sunat of Britain and Europe, was quoted as saying: "We outrightly condemn it. A meeting of the party would soon be convened and we would take legal action against it."

Imam Qasim, a prayer leader of the Akhir Foundation, told the Daily Jang that he disagreed with the Christian concept of salvation and demanded that "Christians should call Prophet Muhammad's name with the same degree of respect which is attached by the Muslims when they speak about Jesus Christ".

Anwar Khokhar, a leader of Tehrik-e-Insaf Britain, was quoted as having urged Muslims to write letters to register their protest with the TV channel and "concerned authority".

• See also Christian Radio Presenter Disciplined and Suspended

Christian radio engineer goes to be with his Lord

Source: HCJB Global

Duncan Bell, an HCJB Global missionary engineer for 18 years before retiring in 2006, died of an apparent heart attack at Hospital Vozandes-Quito in Ecuador on the morning of Friday September. 26th at the ago of 77.

Born in Hamilton, Scotland, on Aug. 4th 1931, Duncan married Wilma Chapman in Washington state in 1974 and have two children, Duncan and Shona, 28.

In his application to join HCJB Global, Duncan wrote:-

“For most of my life I believed that Christianity was old-fashioned and that in this modern era that we had outgrown the need for superstition and religion,” Duncan wrote in his application to HCJB Global. “I believed in a god because I assumed that it all had to have come from somewhere, but the god that I believed in was one of my own imagination and certainly not the God of the Bible. I had no need for the person of Jesus Christ.

“Twelve years later [at the age of 43], I started attending church to please my wife, and after two years I was converted, having seen for the first time my fallen life, my despair and my need for a Savior, Jesus Christ.

“My almost immediate action was to serve directly then in the work of the church. Wisely, the pastor recommended that I wait on God and get involved in Bible studies. I rejoice to see the path the Lord has led us in the past 10 years.”

The Bells’ first exposure to missions and Hispanics took place when they got involved in an outreach with a missionary in Tijuana, Mexico. “The local missionary challenged us by asking what we were doing among the Hispanics in Los Angeles. We enrolled in conversational Spanish and completed the available three semesters.” Then they began attending Spanish-language church called Iglesia Bautista Bethany.

When the Bells joined HCJB Global in 1988, Duncan already had 28 years of experience as an engineer in Scotland and in the U.S. His last job before joining the mission was at Hughes Aircraft where he had worked for eight years.

Upon arriving in Quito, Duncan served on the development team in the engineering department, working alongside engineers such as Charlie Jacobson, now manager of engineering and development at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind. “I appreciate people like Duncan who, after serving in a career in industry, came to Ecuador to use their electronic skills in missions to make an impact for Christ,” Jacobson said.

After the Bells retired from HCJB Global in 2006, Duncan went on to serve with ASOMA, a Christian television ministry in Quito started by HCJB Global two decades earlier. He also taught at the Berean-affiliated Buen Pastor school in Pifo. He enjoyed bird watching, and he constructed at least two homes—one in California and one in Ecuador. He held passports from the U.K. and U.S. as well as residency status in Ecuador, and he never entirely lost his Scottish accent. His wit was quick and he enjoyed a laugh with friends.

A service to remember Duncan was held the morning of Sunday, Sept. 28, in Yaruquí, a small town near Radio Station HCJB’s international transmitter site in Pifo. Yaruquí is also where Duncan and Wilma made their home and had many friends and church family.