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Press Room
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Welcome to the HCJB Global Press Room. Please bookmark this section as a key resource on all news updates and information on our organization and our global efforts.
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(May 11, 2012 - by Harold Goerzen and Beth Patton) Croatian radio partners Mario and Suzi Časni visited the HCJB Global Ministry Service Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., last month. Croatia, a small country in southern Europe that was part of the former Yugoslavia, declared independence in 1991. Here are some excerpts from an interview with the Časnis on April 20:
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Mario and Suzi Casni
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What is the spiritual climate in Croatia today?
Mario: Croatia is the least-evangelized area of Europe. They are only about 4,000 evangelical Christians among the country’s 4 million people—0.1 percent of the population. About 78 percent of Croats are Roman Catholic. When people there think of religion, they think of Catholicism which equals national identity—Croatian. For some this has negative connotations. People are looking for authenticity—something that is real. Apathy is spreading like a disease. Couples are disappointed that affluence or democracy did not bring happiness. Our mission is to present them with true happiness which can only be found in God.
How would you describe the people you want to reach?
Mario: We want to be part of the ministry to Croats, especially those between the ages of 18 to 35—generation Y. They’re open in general because they don’t have as much religious baggage [as older generations].
 Suzi: It’s a really good audience. Doors are opening. We want to target listeners with music and content of interest to this generation. The music will not only be Christian—in some cases secular, but carefully filtered. A lot of people in this generation are starting families. People are trying to figure out their lives. Often they have children before they’re married. We plan to give short lessons about marriage through the programs, giving listeners something that is needed.
What is your strategy for reaching Croatians for Christ?
Mario: Having a strategy is important, but mainly you need to show love to your neighbors as Christ exemplified in the Bible. You must be genuinely interested in them, spending time with them, calling them and overcoming your own prejudices. This only comes from the power of the Spirit. When you are available to your neighbor, he will start feeling something special. Be there to help and be empathetic. That’s when you become authentic, Christlike, taking practical actions with no hidden agenda. That’s when he’ll see something different about you and may ask, “Why do you care?” Go viral with God’s love!
What are the prospects for launching an FM station?
Mario: FM isn’t happening as quickly as we would desire. Croatia is a small country, and there are political issues to deal with, slowing the application process. We hope to start broadcasting on the Internet this fall and on FM maybe a year later.
 Do you have staff to produce the programs?
Mario: We have volunteers from churches in different denominations. Volunteerism is not part of the culture of Croatia, so in 2010 when we asked for volunteers from the 40 churches in Croatia, we hoped that three or four people would respond. But we got 100! Young and old … knowledgeable and not … technical and more artistic. This was huge! Half of the volunteers want to serve as prayer partners and counselors. The others are willing to serve in more technical roles, whether in front of or behind the microphone. [HCJB Global missionary] Roger Basick is helping with the training in the technical aspects of radio and announcing.
How did you first hear about HCJB Global?
Mario: I met Dave Pasechnik [from the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind.] at a National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention 13 years ago.
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| Mario Casni |
How will you handle follow-up?
Mario: The radio project is a pre-evangelistic tool. Fellowship and discipleship will be done by the radio volunteers from local churches. Discipleship is most effective when done personally rather than online. Some listeners will accept Jesus on the spot, and that’s where the churches will get involved—especially the prayer volunteers. We have also requested a partnership with the Jesus.net project, and we also hope to have a Croatian subpage.
What is your relationship with the private high school in Croatia?
Mario: After Croatia became independent, the government began allowing private schools, and the Croatian Baptist Church built a seminary in Čakovec. It later became a private high school. The Baptists own the school and manage it, but the government provides the teachers—not all Christian—and anyone can attend. In the basement of the school there is a recording studio where volunteers can produce evangelistic minute-long seed spots. These are entertaining, upbeat and listenable. This project is separate from the school—we just use their facilities.
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Soldiers guard the Croatian border during
tense times in the early 1990s.
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How did you come to Christ and get involved in ministry?
Mario: The first missionary to Croatia actually came to my grandparents’ village, and they got saved. I decided to follow Jesus when I was 12 years old. At 19 I served in the army during the war against Yugoslavia. That’s when I realized Jesus had a special purpose for my life as I God protected me in at least three life-threatening situations. Later I moved to Chicago and studied communications at Moody Bible Institute [on the suggestion from friends in Toronto]. After returning to Croatia I developed a career as general production manager at a leading TV network. God enabled me to gain communications knowhow so I could advance the cause of Christ by using media to reach Croatian and Bosnian families via Christian radio. My dedication is to help those families become followers of Christ.
Suzi: My dad was a communist and didn’t care much about religion. I was baptized in the Catholic Church as a baby and always believed I was a Christian, but I had no idea you could have a personal relationship with God. When I was 17 I became friends with the daughters of an American Christian businessman in Croatia. I saw there was something different in these girls, and I was amazed at their parents—their marriage and how they showed love to each other. This family was open to us and shared how God worked in their marriage. That’s why I have a passion to work with families today. When these friends shared with me that Christ died on the cross for my sins, I confessed my sins and I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. The mother took me in and did Bible studies with me. I wanted to know Him better, so I attended Bible school in Sweden. Then I graduated from a theological university in Zagreb. After working at a secular company for several years, God called me to full-time ministry with my husband, Mario, helping Croatian families raise children of faith—a legacy that will last forever!
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The Casni family with children
Keona, 7, and Matteo, 4.
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Tell us about your family.
Suzi: Mario and I were married nine years ago, and we have two children, Keona, 7, and Matteo, 4.
How can we pray for you?
Mario: Pray as we continue our four-month trip in North America and return to Croatia in August. Pray that we would stay focused on the Lord. Pray for more financial support and contacts in general with people who want to hear more about the ministry in Croatia. Pray for the beginning of online broadcasts in October and that people would find and listen to the programs. Pray also about the government’s decision regarding an FM license.
Source: HCJB Global |
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(May 11, 2012 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) At Perry Beabout’s workbench in Elkhart, Ind., you won’t find him humming a classic rock tune, “If It Ain’t Broke, Break It.” Not at all.
When the song by Meat Loaf (Michael Lee Aday) became famous, Beabout was well into his engineering career. His musical interests don’t tend to rock and roll’s sometimes unsavory themes. Besides, to him meatloaf is … well, meatloaf.
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Making repairs to FM transmitter for the
CCM Radio station in Gliwice, Poland. |
Despite all of that, the HCJB Global engineer’s teaching approach in the town of Gliwice, Poland, was to break a transmitter that had been purring along perfectly.
His goal wasn’t to smash it to bits—only to leave it malfunctioning. Then to have Krzysztof, his Polish understudy in the April 10-14 training at partner network Radio CCM, diagnose what he’d put out of whack.
Of course “out of whack” isn’t Beabout’s way of saying it, at least in his report afterwards. “I installed various faults that caused the transmitter to not operate fully,” was how the engineer described the learning exercise. “Krzysztof was then given the task to diagnose the nature of the problem and then to figure out what was causing the problem.”
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Henryk Krol, CCM's chief executive
officer, in his office. |
“This not only gave him a better understanding of how the transmitter worked,” Beabout continued, “but also how to fix it when it did not work.”
Radio CCM operates a network of six FM stations in southern Poland along with a website. The network has a total weekly audience of nearly 600,000.
“They seem to be doing a great job and use the radio to point people to the website for more information,” Beabout observed. Launched in July 2008, the evangelistic website has netted a total of more than 1.3 million visitors. It’s the Polish version of the website, www.lookingforgod.com. The ministry maintains 14 websites, including Jesus.net, and each site seeks to reach a different niche audience.
 According to the ministry’s May 2012 newsletter, more than 16 percent of the visitors (228,000) have filled out a form saying they have prayed to commit their lives to Christ. Of that group, some 24,000 have requested at least one of the follow-up options offered by the radio network.
Statistics are not Radio CCM’s primary objective, according to Henryk Krol, chief executive officer of DEOrecordings, the network’s parent ministry which began in 1975. But in perusing the email messages the network receives, he sees God at work as Radio CCM seeks to use innovations to make the gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to the Polish people.
The ministry also offers additional resources on Polish versions of two websites (www.christiantothecore.org and www.christianityexplored.org), and more than 100 volunteers have been trained to follow up with website visitors.
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Cancer survivor Liliana became an e-coach
for Radio CCM. |
Liliana, a cancer survivor, was a new follower of Jesus when she made her way to one of the Radio CCM websites, where she was “e-coached” by an online counselor, Theresa. Liliana’s questions were answered and she took the online Bible study, “Why Jesus?” Upon Theresa’s suggestion, Liliana signed up for the Alpha course at a local evangelical church. The course focuses on the basics of the Christian faith.
“I learned to pray and read my Bible every day,” she said. “My participation in Mass changed. It stopped being stiff and standardized and became a meeting with the living God. I was born again!”
Several years ago a listener wrote to say that a Sunday radio program “helped me to see our Lord in other people, situations and events that I experience.” The listener specifically thanked a worker, Slawek, “for all he does on Radio CCM, pointing us to who (and not, what) should be the No. 1 priority in our lives.”
Source: HCJB Global |
(May 4, 2012 - by Harold Goerzen) A training event in Guatemala last month blended pastoral and radio training as an international group of five facilitators led a group of pastors, church leaders and radio programmers.
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| Roger Reimer |
Unlike much of the training held by HCJB Global, the conference “combined training on missions, spiritual formation and leadership along with workshops on radio (in the same event),” said Roger Reimer, former director of the Healthcare Division for Latin America, who led sessions on leadership.
“We have been working with this group of learners—mostly Quiché indigenous people and some Guatemalan mestizos—for two years,” added Américo Saavedra, director of Apoyo, the mission’s pastoral training and development ministry. “On previous occasions we combined the topics of leadership, radio and small-business principles.”
Twenty-three Guatemalans took part in the most recent conference—seven radio students and 16 leadership students. This event, held at the Guatemalan Evangelical Seminary in Chimaltenango from April 10-13, built on three earlier sessions and will continue with an event next October at the same venue. Chimaltenango is a city of 85,000 about 35 miles west of Guatemala City.
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Left to right: Facilitators Tim Dawson, Meison Missly,
Jhair Ramírez, Roger Reigmer and Américo Saavedra. |
Being involved in an Apoyo workshop was a first for Reimer, and the same was true for missionary broadcaster Tim Dawson from Quito who led radio courses along with Jhair Ramírez, a Guatemalan who works at Radio Cultural Amigos in Chiquimula. Saavedra taught the class, “Mission of the Church,” while Meison Missly, a Peruvian pastor who serves as the Apoyo coordinator in Guatemala, taught spiritual formation.
The leadership trainees—rural pastors and lay leaders—came from across the country, but all of the radio training participants were young people from Bethesda Evangelical Church in Quiacquix, Totonicapán, which operates its own radio station.
 The broadcasters face many challenges, “especially a need for training and more experience. Usually the stations we work with are staffed by volunteers, many who have other responsibilities such as their families, jobs and university studies,” Dawson related. “Another challenge is that radio isn’t easy to do well—it takes work and commitment. When we listen to good radio stations, we often think it sounds so easy, but that’s because the staff is good at what they do and they work hard at it.”
As one radio trainee put it, “Many announcers and producers do what they want on the radio, not what their listeners need, and they need to know and learn how to do what their listener wants.”
Reimer described the workshop’s format as “purposefully participative” as attendees applied the topics to the present-day situation in Guatemala. According to Operation World, the country continues to emerge from 36 years of guerrilla warfare (1960-1996) that resulted in 200,000 deaths, more than 40,000 “disappearances” and countless numbers of refugees.
“Guatemala is a country dealing with the crime of extortion, and the brutal realities of that environment reminded everyone of the divine protection we all need,” he said.
 One of the participants, Eliseo Tumax, son of Pastor Obispo Tumax at Bethesda, led an enthusiastic time of singing at the beginning of the morning and evening devotional times.
Another attendee commented, “It’s impressive how you’ve been able to teach in an understandable manner. I’ve been edified greatly. Your sensitivity touched my heart, and the Lord has taught us.”
Reimer said the event also had a personal impact on him. “The opportunity to invest my experiences as a leader in the lives of pastors and church leaders from around Guatemala was very encouraging. Their responses to me were gratifying, and I thank the Lord for this open door.”
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| Américo Saavedra |
“Good questions, good interaction, good fellowship, and lots of learning might be the best description of what happened,” added Saavedra. “The subjects taught were well received. I’m extremely pleased to see significant growth taking place in the lives of the participants, especially the folks from Quiacquix.”
“Pastor Obispo has done a remarkable job mentoring his people,” Saavedra concluded. “The participants’ quick, well-thought-out responses show that maturing is indeed taking place. The potential of making a long-term impact in their community is already here!”
Sources: HCJB Global, Operation World (7th edition) |
(May 4, 2012 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) Perhaps Margaret Corin’s words seemed altogether too blunt: “I’m going to be praying for you. I don’t want to see my secretary go to hell.” But the Hospital Vozandes-Quito (HVQ) secretary, Mélida Logacho, saw tears welling up in Corin’s eyes, demonstrating her genuine concern. And Logacho herself had sought out Corin when truths learned in Bible study had unsettled her.
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Margaret Corin
1945-2012 |
Logacho now considers the intimate conversation a turning point in her life. Speaking some 30 years later at the Ecuador-based hospital’s anniversary observance, Logacho told her listeners that she received Jesus Christ as Savior. She described salvation as representing to her “a precious gift for my children and for my husband. We’re all Christians now.”
Born Jan. 31, 1945, in New Zealand, Margaret Lois Corin put her nurse’s training to use for God by joining the agency, Christian Missions to Many Lands, which in 1974 loaned her to HCJB Global. Working at HVQ, she went on to become the facility’s director of nursing.
“Margaret Corin was a typical matron (supervisor) and demanded high standards of care from her staff,” said Sheila Leech, HCJB Global’s vice president of international healthcare. “She led by example. She was famous for making spot checks on her staff at 2 or 3 a.m. to ensure that nurses were not sleeping at their posts!”
“She taught her staff the importance of spiritual care of the patient,” Leech continued. “She pioneered the concept of ‘total care of the patient’ by nurses. This was a new concept in Ecuador and became the gold standard of care for nursing throughout Quito.”
“We worked together for many years in nursing,” added Nancy Larson Olen, Corin’s predecessor as director of nursing. “Her expertise was in obstetrics and nursing leadership. She was very committed to excellence in everything she did. We shared a home together for two years.”
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| Margaret Corin teaching in Samoa |
Formerly the director of the Healthcare Division and fellow missionary, Roger Reimer, called Corin’s leadership “a blend of high commitment and heartfelt compassion for her nursing colleagues.”
The hospital's former administrator, Gary Gardeen, observed Corin’s pursuit of developing national nursing leadership. “When Margaret left Ecuador she had prepared the way for Marianna Ruiz to take over the position of director of nursing, the first Ecuadorian staff member to do so,” he said.
Corin worked with Gardeen’s wife, Mary, to initiate a new service in Quito. “Margaret was an avid learner, continually bringing new ideas for nursing and patient care to the hospital,” Mary recalled. “She emphasized and personally facilitated strong spiritual care. It was Margaret who challenged me (with Betty Van Engen) to begin home healthcare at HVQ. Her vision and encouragement made a big impact on my life as a young missionary.”
During the 1970s Corin helped to launch a Christian nursing organization in Ecuador, Movimiento Ecuatoriano de Enfermeras Cristianas (MEDEC), which translates as Ecuadorian Movement of Christian Nurses, and made involvement in the group a requirement for HVQ leadership, according to MEDEC representative Faviola Hidalgo.
“She was not only a close personal friend, but also an inspiration to me as a young missionary,” said Leech. “And she was the one who encouraged me to go back to school to become a registered nurse.”
Still serving in Quito in the mid 1980s, Corin was loaned to another organization, the London-based Nurses’ Christian Fellowship International, and served as the representative in Latin America for Nurses Christian Fellowship International (NCFI), known regionally as Comunidad Internacional de Enfermeras Cristianas de América Latina (CIDEC-AL).
Corin resigned from HCJB Global in 1991. Seventeen years later in 2008 she returned to Quito as a guest speaker at the First International Nurse’s Conference. She noted afterwards how rewarding it was to “see how God had worked in the lives of so many people through either being on staff at the hospital or having been influenced by the hospital.”
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Margaret served as a volunteer advocate
as well as a board member with Citizen
Advocacy Auckland Inc., a private-sector
entity that stands up for the disabled. |
Speaking on global issues surrounding gerontology, Corin, a mentor of many nurses, attributed her own learning to Ecuadorian colleagues. “I was well aware of how much I had learned all those years ago from the Ecuadorians about caring for the extended family,” she said at the conference.
The MEDEC group was reignited at the urging of two nurses (Grace Morgan and Carmen Zambrano) from Colombia who also attended the conference. “After a good time of prayer and feeling within our hearts this same desire, six of us began a new group,” said Hidalgo. “In July 2009 we held our first meeting, led by [nurse] Betty Van Engen. With God’s help, we’ve been meeting since then.”
Corin died unexpectedly in her home on Wednesday, April 25, in Auckland, New Zealand at the age of 67. She is survived by a twin sister, Dr. Dorothy Howie, and other immediate family members, Frank and Sylvia, Clive (Rutherford- Corin), Russell and Christine, Jill and Doug (Shortt) as well as nieces and nephews. A memorial service in Auckland on Thursday, May 3, honored her life.
“In CIDEC-AL we give thanks to the Lord for having met Margarita Corin, for her exemplary life, her love and service in NCFI with other nurses from Latin America,” said Alicia Angélica Yañez. “Now she rests in the arms of the Father.”
“I think Margaret could do anything she was asked to do. She was a happy worker and a wonderful nurse,” reminisced Ron Cline, global ambassador for the mission. “The world needs more people like her.”
Source: HCJB Global |
(April 27, 2012 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) A pause. Then uttering a quick proviso that “this will sound absolutist,” Wheaton College professor Robert Gallagher launches a passionate appeal for his listeners’ perspectives on cross-cultural missions to be more broadly heard. He wants this from his crowd writers, theologians and in effect, world changers.
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| Dr. Robert Gallagher leads a class in Quito. |
In the next several minutes, what followed was a reasoned appeal for theological viewpoints of those from the “Global South” during Gallagher’s April 12-14 course, “Theological Foundation of Missions,” in Quito, Ecuador. The course was offered in conjunction with the Wheaton College Graduate School with academic credit available. It’s the sixth year that HCJB Global’s community development department has offered graduate-level courses in Quito.
With indigenous churches maturing throughout the years, the church of the Global South (Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia) has become a driving force in missions. Referring to a “starving” need for missions texts unfettered by a Western paradigm, Gallagher said that he’d discerned the crowd’s depth of thinking, its wisdom. Uniquely suited to voice their views on communicating the gospel across cultural contexts, participants had offered “insights about the Bible that I don’t hear at Wheaton College.”
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Ecuadorian participants dig into the
Scriptures on the theme of missions. |
He demanded a wider audience for their message. As velocity and intensity of Gallagher’s speech increased, HCJB Global’s Nancy Cortez valiantly strove to keep pace in interpreting into Spanish. By then it was the course’s third day, and she and interpreter Mónica Ortuño had become accustomed to the Wheaton professor’s Australian accent.
As course participants listened, Gallagher dialogued on the hurdles to publishing. “You say, ‘What can I write about?’,” he offered, then pounding his hand into his palm, replied, “You can write about the cross-cultural connections of these people. All of these people [whom we’re studying] are in cross-cultural connections in the Old Testament. And there’s nothing being written about it.”
“Abraham, Moses, Jonah!” exclaimed Gallagher as he listed the Old Testament characters he’d discussed. “Esther! Ruth! Nehemiah! You name one Old Testament character who’s not in a cross-cultural relationship.”
 “I’ve read a little on cross-cultural mission. There’s nothing out there!” he fairly shouted. Widely published in everything from books to articles and much in demand as a speaker, Gallagher then made the goal within easier reach of the group members, only a few of whom had published anything beyond a blog or prayer letter.
Instead of books, he requested just articles to present missions concepts from the Latin American mindset. Then quickly pacing his listeners through the stages of publishing, he reiterated his claim of a spiritually starved culture and urged, “We need you! We need you!”
Gallagher, an associate professor of intercultural studies, then contrasted the superficiality of U.S. Christendom with the giftings unique to his Ecuadorian, Peruvian, British, Dutch and U.S. conferees. At one point he emphatically and specifically petitioning that “women! And women! And women … and men” offer their views. “This is missional revelation,” Gallagher said. “America’s not doing it. Australia’s not doing it.”
 Earlier, via discussions, forums and even skits, the learners covered several Old Testament personalities. Central in the discussion were 12 covenant relationships that tie the Old and New Testament together and are instructive and viable yet today, according to Gallagher.
Continuing to voice the vision, Gallagher offered to use articles cast in a Global South missions perspective as reading material in his graduate level courses, then proclaimed. “I’ll also introduce your articles to 100 doctoral students of the Assemblies of God denomination and Fuller Theological Seminary who are missionaries all over the world!”
“I feel very strongly that you need to do something,” pleaded Gallagher. “Your writing can touch hundreds—hundreds!—of Christian leaders.”
Source: HCJB Global |
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