The following praise and prayer items have been received for the fourth quarter of 1997. We praise God for what He has been doing to open closed doors and continue to be encouraged to intercede on behalf of those people groups and languages still need to have the gospel available to them.
| by Arnold Remtema
International Radio Research Office World by 2000 7899 Lexington Drive, Suite 200B PO Box 62577 Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2577 USA |
Phone: +1 (719) 548-7490 Fax: +1 (719) 548-7491 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.wb2000.org |
BEJA (Eritrea and Ethiopia): Members of Feba's Africa team recently visited the Beja people, a Muslim group located in Eritrea and Ethiopia. They report:
"We had an excellent visit to them, using someone who spoke Arabic and Tigrinya. They are very hospitable, friendly and open. We felt that perhaps their allegiance to Islam could be found wanting. The Beja themselves know very little if anything about the name Beja which somehow is not used by them. The ones we met were the Hedareb group who speak the language of Bedawit.
"We are in touch with an outgoing church in Eritrea that is keen to reach the Beja. There is another international radio organisation involved with the church and the Beja and we are closely cooperating with them. Another possible track is to prepare radio programmes in Tigre, which is spoken by one of the Beja groups (the Beni-Amer) and understood by other sub-groups. This would be easier to get going as there are Tigre speaking Christians whereas we do NOT know of any Bedawit speaking Christians."
Items for prayer:
Pray for the church in Eritrea as they make decisions regarding the next step in reaching the Beja. This could well include putting an evangelist near to the Beja to learn the language and communicate the Gospel.
Pray for the cooperation of the two international radio missions and the church in Eritrea.
Pray for the setting up of a studio in Eritrea for the production of cassettes and later radio programmes.
Pray for the many overseas groups that are taking an interest in the Beja particularly in praying and most probably later on in supporting the outreach work.
Pray that the wider church in Eritrea will take a deep interest in reaching out to the peoples of their own land and in particular the unreached people groups.
We have removed the programmes from the air as the programme sponsor ran out of airtime funds but also the programmes had been repeated many times. We are looking for partners in seeing how to develop the ministry among the Afar. The church we are in contact with re the Beja also have church groups in the Afar region.
We are looking to expand these to a seven day per week broadcast. Pray for funds to enable this.
Please continue to pray for expansion in both languages to seven days a week.
Praise God that the long-awaited 3rd programme of Baluchi is now ready. Programmes are ready to go on air, in November or at the latest December, God willing. God has arranged for the production and airtime. PTL!
Pray for the suppliers, the producer and the team of artists. One presenter has received threatening letters and they need your prayers for their security and safety.
Pray for the Audience Relations team, especially their mobile team which goes to meet the listeners in their reception areas.
Pray for the balance of funds needed to put Brahui on air in December. Pilots have been tested and evaluated. We are in the process of producing some music for it. Pray too for a co-ordinator for the Brahui Working Group.
AZERBAIJANI SOUTH (AZB) - around 14 million speakers in Iran We have now been on air on short-wave for over five years and have had little letter response. We are actively pursuing a medium-wave alternative.
Pray for these negotiations.
KOMERING: Give thanks that the new Komering broadcaster has received basic program production training at YASKI (FEBC Indonesia) in Jakarta. He is enthusiastic about the radio project and is anxious to get programs on air starting in a few weeks. Pray for the logistics of getting programs recorded while living a long way from Jakarta. He will need to make monthly visits to the Jakarta studios for recording the broadcasts.
GORONTALO: Praise God for good response to the broadcasts as a direct result of innovative programming directed to this Muslim group in N.Sulawesi (Indonesia). I am planning a visit there in early February to learn more about the broadcasts and how they are making an impact on this group (writes F.Gray). It could yield useful information as a case study on outreach to Muslim groups via radio in a contextualised manner.
MAGUINDANAON: Because of security limitations it is not possible to report in detail on recent developments except to say that they are encouraging. A community development project is providing the forum in S. Philippines.
DAI LU: Praise God that we seem to be making progress once again in this area. Recent contacts in Thailand have located two pastors interested in resuming production of Dai Lu programming. Pray that production will soon be able to begin again once training is done and that broadcasts will soon be on air.
MON: Pray for Mehm and Ruth Tun Thein who work in Thailand where Mehm produces the Mon broadcasts for transmission from Manila. He is most encouraged by the response from listeners and is now getting a number of Mon in Thailand to volunteer their skills. However, Ruth has been recently been afflicted once more with a lung condition which threatens her health and jeopardises their work. They have asked for our prayer at this time. Ruth writes:
"I am really scared. There's no way I want to endure what I faced last year again. We believe as much as ever that this is the place to which God has called us and the work that He has for us to do. So, please pray that He will heal me. Just a few days ago, we made some significant steps forward.? Mehm also needs prayer for physical strength. He took a bad fall yesterday and was plenty bruised, but he seems a lot better today."
FIRM FOUNDATIONS RADIO: Pray for Janice Reid who is developing a radio series (based on the proven New Tribes Mission chronological teaching) using distance learning methods. She will begin conducting workshops in 1998 on the use of this material which lends itself extremely well to Wb2000 language situations.
FM license for Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa
Short-wave license in Bolivia, South America
A small group of concerned Liberian Christians are looking to the Lord to provide so that they can establish a FM Christian radio station in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia.
Pray for the peace of Liberia and the newly elected President
The government recently published rules and regulations for private radio and television. Pray for the Lord's guidance as we investigate the possibilities of establishing a radio station in Benin in cooperation with the SIM-related UEEB Church and HCJB World Radio.
Thank the Lord for the new production staff we have in this vital radio ministry.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will use the radio programs in a renewed way to bring the Gospel to the Somalis, the majority having access to the Word of God only through the radio programs. Pray that the scattered Somali Christians will be strengthened in their faith through the broadcasts.
Praise God that we got a sponsor for the Maithili broadcast for 1998.
Pray for the producers of the WB2000 broadcasts and especially for good health.
Continue to pray for a sponsor for one more fifteen minute Konkani broadcast.
Pray for sponsors for Tibetan, Gondi and Kui broadcasts.
Webmaster
10/20/97