(Jan. 27, 2012 - by Harold Goerzen and Ralph Kurtenbach) For many people, life’s most difficult transition is dying. But you wouldn’t know it from the cheerful conversations and group activities held at Hospital Vozandes-Quito’s (HVQ’s) day clinic in Carapungo, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Ecuador’s capital city.

Each Wednesday volunteers come to HCJB Global Hands’ clinic to encourage patients who have mere months left to live, treating them to activities such as live music, crafts, special meals, snacks and Bible studies.

The volunteers, who are responsible for their own transportation, organize all the activities. They may help patients assemble a jigsaw puzzle or make beautiful flower arrangements, giving them a break from the daily routine while providing a much-needed day off for the full-time caregivers.

“Palliative care is all about symptom control—pain relief and quality of life,” explained Sheila Leech, HCJB Global’s vice president of international healthcare. “We pray for the patients, many who are going through chemotherapy and radiation.”

It’s all done for patients for whom healing or therapeutic care is no longer possible. “They are in the last stages of life; they are dying,” Leech related. She helped raise funds in her native England for the hospice clinic which first opened in 2002.

While the temporal benefits of hospice care are evident, volunteers most remember those patients who found the Lord before dying—receiving eternal benefits. One patient, Gregorio*, surprised many when he gave thanks to God for his cancer diagnosis because he saw the illness as a key step in his decision to put faith in Christ.

Pedro* is a14-year boy with an inoperable brain tumor who has far outlived all expectations since his original diagnosis. “He loves to play Mexican Train with the volunteers, and recently we took him to the zoo,” Leech said.

Maria* was a patient who had a hankering for ceviche, a favorite Ecuadorian appetizer with shrimp marinated in citrus juices and seasoned with local herbs and spices. “So we got shrimp at the market,” she related. “It was so good, and now the patients often ask for ceviche!”

Mario* was another patient who has also fared much better than expected since being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. “He is on fire for the Lord, and His insight into the Scriptures is incredible,” Leech said.

“He was featured on a local television program, and a local construction company offered to build a three-bedroom house for his family,” she explained. “This was a direct answer to prayer. His wife was recently contracted by the hospital in the environmental hygiene department, giving her a stable income as Mario is no longer able to work.”

While there are hospitals in Ecuador that treat the terminally ill, the concept of hospice care is relatively new for the country. “The goal is to meet unmet community needs, and I see care for the dying as one of those needs. HVQ serves as a model for other ministries and services in Ecuador,” Leech said.

The clinic also does what it can to help patients stay home with their families, even renting out specialized medical equipment to families that need it.

*Pseudonyms used to protect the patients’ privacy.
Source: HCJB Global

(Jan. 27, 2012 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) As Larry Buckman reminisced several years ago with leaders of Brazil’s Terena people, they remembered the impact of his parents’ tireless work with this Brazilian tribal group to give them education.

Win and Francis Buckman

The Terena were not just looking back, however. Anticipating future ministry, they asked Larry to return and help strengthen their Christian congregations for mission work among neighboring people groups.

The conversation occurred on the sidelines of an anniversary celebration of the school founded by Win Buckman Sr. and his wife, Francis, in the village of Taunay in Mato Grosso do Sul state in southern Brazil. Already working with another tribal group in Brazil where they arrived in 1943, the senior Buckmans agreed in 1956 to respond to a request from the Terena people for a basic education in Portuguese.

Today, five decades later, many Terenas are trained professionals in different disciplines. “We have pilots, doctors, lawyers, pastors and politicians,” Larry said. The Terenas, however, again asked for help with education, this time from the younger Buckman and his wife, Fay. Church leaders wanted further training on how to share the gospel among hard-to-reach tribes hidden in the Amazon rainforest. This meant not only embracing Larry due to his parents’ work, but also welcoming him as a leader among them.

Understandably, Larry’s leadership style differs from that of the Terenas who arrive at decisions by group consensus from a starting point that is more egalitarian than in many Western cultures. In this context, Larry’s doggedly determined way of doing things has earned him the title, “Larry the Tractor.”

“They don’t mean that in a bad way; they do have community tractors in their villages,” he chuckled, observing that a transition from ox-drawn plows hastens agricultural work. “It’s the speed of change that bothers them—not that they don’t want change. Gradually we are finding the right speed for change that does not violate their culture but keeps the movement going forward.”

For his part, Larry spent decades working in film, photography and video at HCJB Global in Quito, Ecuador, where Fay also taught school, and they raised two sons. The Buckmans were on loan to Miami International Seminary (MINTS) for five years before making the move a year ago to work directly under HCJB Global’s Corrientes (Currents) initiative that seeks to mobilize Latin Americans for cross-cultural mission work worldwide.

This July the Terenas will observe the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the gospel in the area via Scottish missionary Harry Whittington. “Not long ago a chief from another tribe in the neighboring state of Paraná asked one of our chiefs why the Terenas were more advanced and professional,” Larry observed. The young chief replied that in Bananal, Mato Grosso do Sul, where Whittington’s work began in 1912, the Terenas were the first tribe to embrace Christianity.

Larry said the young chief offered that “the missionaries gave us a complete education when no one else valued our tribe.” The surprising statistic is to see the number of Terenas competing for positions in secular universities. All have plans to return to their tribe to develop their own people as well as other tribes.

Today, even with Bible translations under way and the New Testament available in 30 languages spoken in Brazil and another 50 tribes having the gospel and growing churches, some 121 language groups still haven’t heard the name of Jesus. Embracing this reality, the Missionary Union of Indigenous Evangelicals of South America (UNIEDAS) has set a goal to “prepare the Christians tribes to reach other tribes.” This year the Terenas anticipate opening two Corrientes-style training centers with biblical, vocational and trans-cultural education.

Terena believers are also passionate about reaching other indigenous groups via radio. Three tribal groups are pursuing licensing through the Ministry of Communications in Brasilia. All these tribes have already received radio training through HCJB Global Voice.

Source: HCJB Global

(Jan. 20, 2012 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) From a temporary radio installation in Niger’s capital of Niamey, a new partner station is sharing the eternal message that people may find peace with God through Jesus.

This message was also shared in person as missionary engineer Jeremy Maller and two of HCJB Global’s African partners were setting up the broadcasting equipment in the West African country. A young man stopped by the home of a Niamey pastor who directs the partner ministry that operates the station.

“The man was not a believer, but he’d been seeing the pastor in his dreams and had come because he wanted ‘peace,’” Maller recounted. The man had dreamed of seeing the pastor’s daughter and a man dressed in white beside her. After the pastor counseled the man that God was using dreams to lead him to Himself, he suggested they pray together.

“The man prayed with all of us there, accepted Christ and then thanked us and left,” said Maller. “I noticed how the expression on his face changed after the prayer. He seemed very tense and even afraid before he prayed, but very relaxed and at peace afterward.”

Granted a license in July, the local partner had just six months to get the community station on the air in Niamey where most of the residents are Muslim. Nationwide, Muslims represent some 98 percent of Niger’s population.

Maller arrived in Niamey on Nov. 28, 2011, with Rocky Wilson, the head technician from Theovision, an HCJB Global partner in Ghana. As the two men and the pastor set to work installing a 300-watt transmitter and a small antenna to put the station on the air, they were besieged by problems including a broken antenna connector, a transmitter circuit board failure, and an electrical failure in the city that cut power to the studio for three days.

“God provided an answer to every problem we faced,” said Maller. “Despite the challenges, the station is now broadcasting in Niamey!” The station went on-air Monday, Dec. 12, the day after the three-day power outage. It is not Niamey’s only station with Christian content, as Maller knows of at least one other—and possibly two—Christian-run stations. Broadcasts are in French, Fulfuldé and Tamajeq.

“The thing we heard from people is that they were grateful for the Christmas music that the station played when we first went on air. They do not hear much of that in Niger,” said Maller.

An earlier endeavor, partner Radio Espoir (Radio Hope), was Niger’s first Christian-owned radio station and broadcast from Niamey for five years before ceasing operations in 2009.

Future plans for the new station include boosting its power with a 2,000-watt transmitter and a 300-foot tower, according to Maller. He added that he and Wilson gave some on-air training, but HCJB Global anticipates providing further training sessions with help from yet another African partner, Togo-based Mediafrique.

After concluding their work, the two men faced challenges in returning to Ghana, home of HCJB Global’s Sub-Saharan Africa office. Their initial Dec. 6 departure date was postponed by the transmitter problem, plus one additional day due to a scheduling error by the airline. Then a canceled flight delayed their departure two more days.

“On the morning of Dec. 11 on the way to the airport, the driver’s truck broke down so we needed to find a taxi quickly,” Maller recounted. “That was also the morning the president of Niger was leaving for the airport so he had blocked all the roads and soldiers with machine guns lined the streets!”

Stalled at a blocked intersection, Maller resigned himself to another trip delay, but then traffic began moving and they made their flight back to Ghana. “I have personally never seen so many problems come up in a single installation trip,” he said. “This just confirms to me that God will use this partner station in a great way for His purpose.”

Source: HCJB Global

(Jan. 20, 2012 - by Debbie Lockey and Harold Goerzen) HCJB Global’s Lee Sonius was pleasantly surprised when he discovered that his recent visit to the mission’s partner station in the tiny country of Lesotho coincided with a special meeting of the ministry’s program producers.

“Attending this meeting was the highlight of the trip for me,” he said, adding that the meetings are only held once or twice a year. Sonius, director of the mission’s Sub-Saharan Africa Region, is based in Accra, Ghana.

The event was organized by partner Harvest FM for local pastors in Maseru, capital city of the small landlocked country surrounded by South Africa. Most of the attendees were men and women who produce programs for the station.

“There seemed to be a real sense of unity and friendship among them,” Sonius related. “The station is doing very well with a good staff that seems totally committed to the station.”

Harvest FM is also one of our few African partners that does streaming on the Internet 24 hours a day. The station broadcasts at 98.9 MHz, airing programs in Sesotho and English.

Malichaba (Mary) Lekhoaba

Some 35 people, including more than 20 senior pastors and some associate pastors, took part in the four-hour meeting that included lunch. “The purpose of the meeting was to have an open forum of discussion on matters concerning the radio station and the pastors’ programming,” Sonius explained.

On the invitation of Malichaba (Mary) Lekhoaba, the station’s visionary founder and leader, Sonius provided words of encouragement to the pastors at the beginning of the meeting.

He added that he was impressed with how well Harvest FM is doing under the leadership of Lekhoaba who has had a passion for radio broadcasting since she was in her late 20s. She helps with the day-to-day scheduling of programs and serves as the acting administrator and marketing manager, facilitating operations of the station. Assistance also comes from her team of staff members and volunteers along with board members who have expertise in different fields.

He described Lekhoaba as someone who is “very well known and respected around town. It’s quite obvious that everyone knows her.

Harvest FM began broadcasting in May 2003 under the guidance and assistance of HCJB Global. Its signal reaches about half of the country, but Lekhoaba has a vision to enlarge the station’s coverage via satellite.

The ministry also has plans to buy land where it can build a facility for Harvest Media House, start a business unit which will generate sufficient income to sustain the station needs and further development, and run home-based healthcare centers that provide primary medical care in rural areas.

The station’s vision is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to disciple those who accept Christ as Savior to grow in grace, in witnessing, in being active in a local church and being responsible citizens in their communities.

Sources: HCJB Global, www.harvestfm.co.ls