Ministry Brings Gospel Radio Waves to Indonesian Tsunami Survivors
by Allie Martin
February 16, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Christian broadcasting ministry is delivering thousands of radios to areas of south Asia that were hard-hit by December's tsunami disaster. The Far East Broadcasting Company is shipping 10,000 high-tech radios to Indonesia for distribution to the needy.Those who receive the radios will be able to hear Christian programming in 13 different tribal languages spoken throughout the country. Greg Harris, president of the Far East Broadcasting Company, says a single radio can reach many individuals with the gospel. "We have seen throughout the world that people overseas listen to radio in groups," he notes.
The organization is careful to distribute the equipment thoughtfully and efficiently, Harris points out, thus maximizing the outreach potential of each unit. "We generally pre-qualify the people that get these radios," he explains. "We don't simply walk down the street and hand out a free radio. We try to give them to people that are really interested in hearing our programming and who need them."
According to the Far East Broadcasting spokesman, the project involve a substantial expense. It costs $30 to deliver each radio -- that's $30,000 to put all of the high-tech radios in Indonesian hands. And, he adds, an evangelistic project in a Muslim and Hindu dominated region is not without its risks.
"This is a part of the world that we have to deal very carefully with -- how we work and the way that we come into the area," Harris says. "As people have been reading in the newspapers, this is a part of the world that has not been receptive to Christian work or Christian workers."
For that reason, the ministry spokesman emphasizes that everyone involved in the project needs to be lifted up. "We really do need to pray for the people giving out the radios as well as the people that are receiving them," Harris says. In the newspapers he mentions, and in other media reports, reports of foreign-based Christian missionaries and relief workers in southern Asia experiencing anti-Christian hostility and even physical violence are increasingly common.
K.P. Yohannon of Gospel for Asia reports that six of his seminary students in southern India had to be hospitalized after they were attacked, kidnapped and beaten last Sunday while they were out evangelizing. The ministry founder told Associated Press that attacks by militant Hindus are increasingly common in south Asia, where at least 12 of his missionaries have been killed in the past decade.
Yohannon observed that hostility towards Christianity in the U.S. and Canada is on the rise as well. Also, he said some media have criticized his group for mixing evangelism with tsunami relief, even though the ministry's aid has never been contingent on a needy person's acceptance of the gospel.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
