Partner Station Goes on the Air in Ghana, Fulfilling Pastor’s 35-Year Dream Source: HCJB Global (written by Harold Goerzen)
A 35-year dream by a pastor serving in one of the least-reached areas of Ghana was fulfilled Saturday, July 31, with the official launching of a community radio station in the remote city of Bolgatanga.
Broadcasting to the city of 60,000 in a predominantly Muslim area, Word FM officially went on the air after nearly four months of test broadcasts, answering decades of prayer by Pastor Peter Awane.
“It wasn’t until 2008 that we heard about Pastor Awane’s dream and began partnering with him,” said Jeremy Maller, HCJB Global’s projects coordinator for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region. “He is very excited that this new station has become a reality.”
Word FM, broadcasting at 88.3 MHz, is making Christian broadcasts available to the Frafra people in northern Ghana, an ethnic group with “little access to any Christian influence,” Maller explained. “The station will also be providing community development programming such as basic health education.” Programs go out in the Frafra and English languages.
Hundreds of people from the local community, including government officials and about a dozen community chiefs, were on hand for the festive dedication ceremony on July 31.
“Pastor Awane feels that the radio station will be used greatly for God’s kingdom since there are no other Christian radio stations in the region,” Maller added. “Once the station went on the air, people began calling the studio saying they were listening, excited that the station is giving them programming in their own language. This station means so much for God’s kingdom because it is reaching out to a virtually unreached people group. Frafra listeners have even been calling in from southern Burkina Faso, voicing their support for the new station.”
HCJB Global Voice provided studio equipment for the radio station as well as technical assistance during the installation and training for the studio staff.
In preparation for putting this station on air, training coordinator Joseph Kebbie visited Bolgatanga in 2009 to train the radio presenters and workers of Word FM. “I helped them become good and effective communicators using the tools of radio,” Kebbie said.
Eight months later, a team of two from the regional office in Accra, Ghana, made the 14-hour drive to Bolgatanga to install the equipment. After four days of working to install the antennas and set up the studio, Word FM was ready to start test transmissions.
In February 2010 HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson visited the station when it was still being built and was named an honorary “co-chief” by the local village chief. Allen Graham, who directs radio planting and development in Latin America, led additional radio training in Bolgatanga last spring.
HCJB Global is planning two more partner stations in Ghana. One is a third station with partner Theovision in the town of Saboba, and one is with another partner in a security-sensitive area of northern Ghana.
Feb. 26, 2010
Partnerships, Mobilization Yield ‘Concrete’ Results in Ghana and Ecuador Source: HCJB Global (written by Ralph Kurtenbach and Harold Goerzen)
As concrete blocks are tossed and plumb lines are stretched, the values and strategies of HCJB Global played out in the nitty-gritty of manual labor, medical work and play while teams ministered in Africa and Ecuador the last three weeks.
Partnership—a mission core value—was most evident in Ghana with the confluence of a three-way partnership for construction and medical work. A 12-member team from Woodmen Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs, Colo., linked up in Ghana with physicians from Ecuador. Coordinated by HCJB Global’s Nate Dell, the combined teams were hosted by a national partner, Theovision, based in Accra.
When the medical team arrived on Saturday, Feb. 13, the Woodmen group had just finished its construction efforts at the Tree of Life Health Post with local Ghanaians. “We met our construction goal for the day [building the clinic’s exterior and interior walls four blocks high] shortly after lunch,” blogged a Woodmen team member, “just in time for a 30-minute flag football game that ended up a combination of football, soccer and rugby.”
Tasked with mobilizing Latin Americans into cross-cultural missions, Quito-based team leaders blended the Ecuadorians into the medical team. Tired but enthusiastic, they all arrived in Accra after a 28-hour trip.
At a Sunday church service, HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson preached a sermon titled, “Love God, Love Your Neighbor.” African dance accented the service, too, as a least two Woodmen team members—Deb Brown, the church’s global impact coordinator, and Mike Thiessen, co-offensive coordinator of the Air Force Academy football team—dared to join in. “Mike, especially, blended in remarkably well,” wrote a fellow team member.
In the ensuing days of 90-degree heat and high humidity where Ghanaians in dusty, remote settlements greeted the visitors with both smiles and symptoms, this ad hoc team of Ecuadorians, Ghanaians, and U.S. citizens staged mobile medical clinics. Team members saw more than 2,500 Ghanaians, treating many of them for a wide range of health disorders such as malaria, parasites, iron deficiency and skin problems.
“Almost every belly I felt had a large spleen, the telltale sign of living in a malaria zone and getting malaria over and over,” wrote Dr. Steve Nelson, a longtime family physician in Ecuador. “These kids average around 10 episodes of malaria a year, so they probably have more than the average number of challenges in fighting off infection.”
A general diagnosis of malaria for all fevers was tempting, but Nelson’s inquiries revealed just one school child death to malaria in the past year. “I have been trying to figure it out, based on any other possible reasons for their fever,” he wrote.
A Ghanaian translator, Alfred, had never allowed drudgery to creep into his work with Nelson’s numerous medical consults. As symptoms were recited again and again, many complained of back pain—the result of endless field labor with a hoe. Alfred’s energy never flagged and “in fact, once he had heard my routine about dry itchy eyes a few times he would just launch into the remedy on his own,” Nelson said.
Pederson also spoke at dedication services for two partner radio stations, the result of persistent and faithful work of Theovision. Last weekend the combined teams were on hand for the inauguration of stations in Asamankese near Accra and in the central Ghanaian city of Assin Fosu. Both started test broadcasts in December 2009 and officially went on the air just days before the dedication ceremonies.
“It was great to see how our radio and healthcare ministries are working together,” Pederson said. “In the markets you could hear the programs playing on radios everywhere. This was Assin Fosu’s only local community radio station, and the signal is reaching nearly 80 miles!” He added that the “Woodmen team was great, working morning to night and never complaining.”
Dell added that “local officials, pastors, leaders, businessmen, the Muslim imam in the area and dozens of taxi drivers and dignitaries joined the tribal leaders in lots of speechmaking and hoopla to kick off the station.” Dancers moved with rhythms as the air was punctuated by the sounds of traditional drums, Dell said.
Among the HCJB Global entourage were family physicians Paola Vélez and Fernando Espinoza, both recently graduated residents of HCJB Global’s Hospital Vozandes-Quito. It was their second such trip, whereas Manolo Córdova from the jungle town of Macas had left Ecuador for the first time. He assisted Nelson’s wife, Dorothy, with children’s ministries.
About this time in Ecuador, the mission’s staff members were wielding shovels in another missions endeavor—this one high in the Andes. On Feb. 22 they left their Quito offices for six days of manual labor in Lirio San José, a community in the highland province of Chimborazo. Working on a project that may take months to complete, they helped area residents protect and direct spring water to service the community.
Unique to this was the combination of HCJB Global Voice (mass media) with HCJB Global Hands (community development) in a joint effort. Hard labor at high altitudes was integrated with thought-provoking devotional times led by staff members from Vozandes Community Development.
Buffeted by wind and cold in the Andes or sweating in sweltering sunny Ghana, these two teams plunged ahead wholeheartedly in ministry as the Voice and Hands of Jesus.
Local Church and HCJB Global Begin Shared Ministry Effort in Ghana
Source: HCJB Global (written by Ralph Kurtenbach and Harold Goerzen)
An HCJB Global ministry trip with members of the Colorado-based Woodmen Valley Chapel congregation is giving team members varied opportunities to serve as the Voice and Hands of Jesus in the West African country of Ghana this month.
“This is the church’s first partnering trip with HCJB Global,” said Deb Brown, global impact coordinator at Woodmen Valley in Colorado Springs. “And it’s the church’s first team to go out to conduct mobile medical clinics.”
The initial eight-member team from the church arrived in Ghana on Feb. 6 to help build a facility called the Tree of Life Health Post. The clinic is next to the offices of Theovision, a partner ministry that is hosting the team in Accra.
This weekend the group will be joined by a seven-member medical team from Ecuador along with Brown and three additional members from Woodmen Valley. For the next two weeks they will help conduct mobile medical clinics in rural villages and hold vacation Bible schools for local children.
HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson is scheduled to help dedicate two partner radio stations during the team’s time in Ghana. Both stations—one in Asamankese near Accra and the other in the central Ghanaian city of Assin Fosu—went on the air in December 2009.
“Pray that the radio stations’ launch will successfully draw many listeners to Jesus,” Pederson said. “Pray that the construction of the clinic will be financed and completed by the end of the year.”
“We’re excited about what God is doing in this partnership,” Brown added. “The church supported media ministries in the past, but now to come alongside HCJB Global, both with the radio ministry and reaching out in healthcare, it’s a more holistic approach. Our desire is not only to reach people spiritually, but to meet their needs physically as well.”
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