Christian Radio in Tonga
Vava'u
from www.pacificpartners.org/Section?Action=View&Section_id=19&Story_id=1135
06 May 2005 - A New Christian Station in Vava'u (Tonga)
My phone rang at 5:00am a couple of Sundays ago. It was a friend from America. "Graham, I see on the internet there is a radio station with a house and small factory building for sale in Vava'u (Tonga)!"
Vava'u is one of the prettiest places on earth. It's described as the second best recreational boating harbour in the world. The land and ocean is beautiful; the living is slow and easy; and property is cheap, and by mid-afternoon there had been 967 visitors the web page advertising this property.
Throughout Sunday I tried unsuccessfully to contact the seller by email and phone (nothing ever happens in Tonga on Sunday). So my friend and I knew I had to get to Vava'u as quickly as possible if we were to have any chance of buying the radio station.
I often tell people that 99% of serving the Lord is being faithful to
do the ordinary things - the other 1% is an adventure! My trip to Vava'u
was in that other 1%!
I already had travel booked Thursday, so that only gave me 3 days. I flew
out of New Zealand late Sunday night, arriving in Nuku'alofa at 2:30am
to discover that the DC3 (yes, from the 1930's) that normally flies to
Vava'u was grounded. (I'd not been able to make onward travel arrangements
because it was Sunday.) Loni said a plane from Samoa was flying between
Tonga and Samoa via Vava'u on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but it
was always booked out.
The next flight was 5:30am so we hung around the airport in case a passenger didn't show up. It didn't look good. There were about 50 people waiting around for one small aircraft, and sure enough - it departed but I stayed. Then we heard it was making another round trip at 8:30am so we went to Radio 93FM in town, lay down for an hour and returned to the airport for more waiting. Same thing again. The plane was fully booked.
What were we to do? I had to be in New Caledonia on Thursday, so Wednesday would be too late to fly, and the next ferry didn't sail until 2:00am Tuesday morning.
Loni and I were just getting back into the car to see if we could charter a light plane, when the check-in lady came looking for us. She said all passengers were checked in and they were below the weight allocation for the plane (yes, passengers are weighed along with their baggage on these flights). She said they would weigh me, and if I didn't take the load over the weight limit, I could have a seat. They did; I didn't; I was on my way to Vava'u at last!
And just as well I went when I did. I looked over the property with the owner, and we discussed politics, religion and Christian radio for a couple of hours.
Then he told me another purchaser had already wired his deposit (US$45,000) and asked if I had any money to put down. "I can get $500 from my credit card in the morning and ask my friend to wire the rest of the deposit from America" I told him. "Good enough!" he said, and told his agent we were the new owners!
So
36 hours after hearing about the opportunity (without any sleep - and
worse, without a shower!) we were the proud owners of another radio station.
I got back to New Zealand in time to catch my plane to New Caledonia on
Thursday.
You can imagine how excited the staff at Radio
93FM in Tonga are. They've prayed a lot for a station in Vava'u over
the years, and we've made three attempts to get something started there
but the door has not opened - not until now, that is. Praise the Lord!
Loni has a couple of faithful young people in Nuku'alofa we can send to Vava'u. One at a time each month, to oversee the new station and develop local programming. Loni can also send Tongan language programs from 93FM in Nuku'alofa, and we will supply music and English language programming over the satellite network.