Participants:
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS001002B
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00:09 Welcome back to the historic city
00:11 of Mainz, Germany. 00:13 And we continue our journey to various parts of the world 00:16 to see how the Seventh-day Adventist Church 00:19 is using various media to touch the lives of people 00:22 where they live and where they work. 00:24 Next up, Gina Wahlen visits South Sudan 00:27 and 94.0 Salvation FM. 00:32 Thank you, Gary. 00:33 We're here in South Sudan. 00:34 And I have the wonderful pleasure 00:37 of introducing you to Dominic. 00:39 Dominic is the chair 00:41 of the only Seventh-day Adventist radio station 00:45 here in the country of South Sudan. 00:48 Dominic. Yes. 00:49 Could you tell us 00:51 how did the vision for this radio station 97 Salvation FM, 00:57 how did it begin? 00:59 Well, the vision of this radio 01:00 has started with our retired pastor, 01:03 Pastor Fulgensio Okayo. 01:05 And he thought that it was good for the ministry 01:09 to be accomplished quicker 01:11 by having a radio station and television 01:15 at the same time. 01:17 But the government gave us a license 01:19 for the radio station until the radio is on, 01:22 then they can be able to give us 01:23 a television licence. 01:25 So this is how it all begun and he begun to actually 01:30 give these things from his family. 01:32 He start contributing from them, 01:34 bring it to the church 01:35 and the church board form a formal committee 01:37 that I am part of 01:40 and then to see the work continue to go ahead. 01:43 Now I heard something 01:44 about loud speakers on top of his house. 01:48 Could you tell me a little more about that? 01:50 Yeah, the time we begun, he was imitating 01:53 what Muslims were doing, 01:55 having horny speakers on their mosques 01:57 and they, every morning at 6 02:00 they begin to share a message 02:03 and people wake up and disturb people around, 02:06 sleep-- no sleep well. 02:07 So he also bought his loud speakers, 02:11 these horny speakers and put them on a tree 02:14 and then his room has become his broadcasting room 02:20 where he broadcast from, the living room. 02:22 And then many people listen early in the morning at 6. 02:25 They wake up to listen to the message. 02:28 And from there, that's when he began to think 02:30 we need to develop this 02:32 just more than this horny speakers a home 02:35 to add frequency and go wider. 02:39 And so now you have gone wider 02:42 and how is the community here in South Sudan. 02:45 How they reacted to Salvation FM radio? 02:49 Well, the community are very much blessed 02:51 and it is the only radio station 02:53 that gives a pure, clean music, music, 02:58 Christian music, not mixed with any other secular music 03:01 and they also give 03:03 a spiritual messages that builds people 03:10 and give hope and family life and health. 03:14 All these messages, 03:16 you can't get them in the other radio station. 03:18 That's why we became very much popular in the country. 03:22 And can you tell us about some of the feedback, 03:24 some of the reactions 03:26 that you have heard of community people 03:28 who have listened to the radio station and what, 03:31 how that it has changed their lives? 03:33 Well, some of them have been hearing to this message 03:38 and some of them came to the radio 03:41 and get some counsels for their marriages that are broken. 03:46 Some of them, they are being prayed for, 03:48 it was long time they are not giving birth. 03:51 Like a woman have been 17 years but after being prayed for, 03:55 she came with the child to the church 03:56 to be dedicate it. 03:58 And we have one presenter now working with us 04:04 who also came through the radio and got baptized 04:07 and now we trained him 04:09 and he got his certificate from AWR 04:12 and now he is working here with us 04:14 in then program for the youth. 04:16 And so we are very much blessed 04:18 with what the radio is doing to the community. 04:21 Most of them even like our international program 04:24 which we relate from Hope Channel directly. 04:27 And these programs are programs for Mark Finley, 04:31 programs that are for Sabbath school, 04:34 Hope Sabbath School 04:36 and programs also for Elder Douglas. 04:40 These programs, people like them so much. 04:42 And they always attend to these programs 04:44 and some preachings 04:46 that are coming from Hope Channel. 04:47 We have that slot in our radio. 04:50 Fantastic. 04:51 Now this radio station 04:53 that started in this pastor's home 04:56 with loud speakers in the trees. 05:00 I see you are no longer broadcasting from the trees 05:04 but from this lovely building. 05:06 Could you tell us a little bit about what this is 05:10 and how you've transformed it? 05:12 Well, this shipping container, we, 05:16 our former chair person Pastor Clement, 05:18 when he was a associate country director for ADRA. 05:22 So he requested from ADRA 05:24 so that we can be able to start to begin. 05:27 It was hard to collect money, the same time to get frequency, 05:31 to get equipments from US based company 05:34 and then to build a house for a radio. 05:40 So we just thought we can be able 05:41 to start with this container, fabricate it into three rooms. 05:46 We have the control room where all the machines 05:48 and there a controller sits 05:51 and then we have an on air studio 05:53 which is in the middle 05:54 and then we have a reception slot for reception 05:59 to cause our guests that will come 06:01 before they go to their time for their studio. 06:03 So we had to paint it 06:06 and it has to communicate to itself by-- 06:10 when somebody comes here, 06:11 he knows this is 94.0 Salvation FM, 06:14 the voice of hope and they contact all here. 06:18 So and then we had to put a roof 06:20 because this is a container. 06:22 Somehow this roof reduces 06:24 the level of heat that also comes in. 06:27 So this roof, we have put here 06:30 so that we can be able to at least see that 06:34 it's a bit cooler and then they AC. 06:37 We have put ACs 06:38 and to put also the sound proof inside 06:41 so the room is, the temperature is very cold as in here, 06:45 anywhere, any building. 06:47 So how creative. 06:49 You take a shipping container and you transform it 06:53 into a wonderful radio station for Salvation, Salvation FM. 06:59 You've painted, you've put your information, 07:02 a roof over it and you are ready to go. 07:04 Yes. 07:06 And then on date, by the 12th of, 07:11 the 1st of December 2012, 07:16 that's the day that we went on air. 07:18 Okay. Yeah. 07:20 And each year we celebrate because of what God has done 07:24 through all of us in the ministry. 07:26 Dominic, thank you so much for being with us 07:29 and for sharing what you're doing 07:31 here in South Sudan. 07:32 Amen. Thank you. 07:33 And it's been a privilege 07:35 and I bounce it now back to you, Gary. 07:39 Thanks, Gina. 07:40 As you can see mission is on the move through print, 07:43 radio, television and so many other means. 07:47 Our last stop on today's program 07:49 is the country of Switzerland, the place where 07:51 the first official Seventh-day Adventist missionary, 07:55 Pastor J.N. Andrews was sent. 08:04 I realize words like rogue and missionary 08:06 don't seem like they should go together. 08:08 But Michael Czechowski was like Indiana Jones or Han Solo. 08:12 He was, "a stubborn, impetuous man 08:15 who refused to take advice from Ellen White." 08:19 History gives us the sense 08:21 that he was a charismatic swindler. 08:22 Yet, without him, 08:24 many Adventists would have gone on believing 08:25 what the Review and Herald printed in 1869. 08:30 "It may not be necessary to preach the gospel 08:32 in any country besides our own. 08:34 Since our land is composed of people 08:36 from almost every nation." 08:39 If we reach the immigrants within the US, 08:41 they'll witness to their friends 08:42 and families overseas, 08:44 the Great Commission will fulfill itself. 08:47 The church's first big push 08:49 for foreign missions came in 1871 08:51 when GC delegates voted to send J.G. Matteson 08:54 to witness to the Scandinavians and Danes of Wisconsin. 09:00 Czechowski, however, was no Millerite. 09:02 He was an ex-Catholic Polish priest 09:05 turned obsessive Sabbatarian. 09:07 He was young, idealistic, 09:09 fluent in seven or eight languages 09:11 and terrible with money. 09:13 James and Ellen White were so besotted by his personality 09:16 that they helped him pay all his debts 09:18 and funded his travel from Battle Creek back to New York. 09:21 Later, Ellen would receive a vision 09:23 telling her to stop supporting him. 09:26 Czechowski left a wake of burned bridges 09:28 and bad business deals behind him. 09:30 Though he hated taking advise, he didn't mind taking money. 09:34 So when the SDA church wouldn't support him 09:36 as a missionary to Europe, 09:37 he found another denomination that would. 09:39 Czechowski used their money 09:41 to share Adventist's beliefs in Switzerland. 09:44 However, he failed to inform 09:45 the Swiss congregation of the home church in America. 09:48 It wasn't until a church elder 09:50 found a copy of the Review and Herald 09:51 that Czechowski's secret came out. 09:54 The congregation was shocked. 09:56 Naturally, their trust was bruised. 09:59 The Swiss leaders wrote to the GC 10:00 asking for a replacement missionary. 10:03 Adventist historian David Trim writes, 10:06 "Adventists in America were actually 10:08 sort of embarrassed to learn 10:09 that there were already Adventist believers in Europe." 10:13 The Americans invited the Swiss Adventist 10:15 to send a delegate to the 1869 GC Session. 10:19 Though he arrived too late for the session, 10:21 he stayed long enough to return as an ordained minister. 10:25 Elsewhere, Czechowski's tactics finally caught up to him. 10:28 His bank roll was revoked. 10:30 Disgraced, he left his family and moved to Hungary 10:33 where he would later die at 57 reportedly from exhaustion. 10:38 But the Swiss church still sort a missionary. 10:40 And that is how John Nevins Andrews 10:42 became the first official 10:44 Seventh-day Adventist missionary to Europe 10:46 as a replacement for the rogue missionary. 10:49 The spirit of spreading the three angels' message 10:51 began to intensify 10:52 within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 10:55 Even J.G. Matteson got to move on 10:57 from the wilds of Wisconsin to his home country of Denmark. 11:00 His work would lead 11:01 to the first international Adventist Conference, 11:04 the Scandinavian Publishing House 11:06 and Mattson Institute in Mysen, Norway. 11:09 The American Adventist Church was beginning 11:11 to catch a glimpse of the possibilities, 11:13 the gospel preached to every nation, 11:16 kindred, tongue and people, a world church. 11:20 But we still lacked a key component. 11:33 Well, thank you so much for joining us 11:34 on today's program 11:36 and I hope that you've been inspired and challenged 11:39 about what you've seen and heard. 11:41 Here in Mainz, Germany, 11:42 we see the tremendous history going right back to Gutenberg 11:47 and his printing press and it reminds us 11:49 of the importance of media of communication. 11:52 And we're bringing this as far as South Sudan 11:55 and various places of the globe where the good news 11:58 about Jesus Christ is being shared in very creative ways. 12:02 And thank you so much for your continuing support of mission, 12:06 through your prayers, through your personal finances 12:09 and through your own involvement. 12:11 Before we go, you may have been wondering 12:13 what I am holding in my hands here. 12:15 Well, these are chopsticks. 12:16 And I'd like to send you a pair. 12:19 These are not expensive but a little reminder of Mission 12:22 and so next time you're eating a tofu 12:25 or stir-fried vegetables or whatever, 12:27 you can remember Mission. 12:29 It has the Adventist Mission website 12:30 on it too to remind you. 12:32 Thank you so much for joining us 12:33 on today's program. 12:34 And I hope that you can join us next time right here 12:37 on Global Mission Snapshots. |
Revised 2016-03-03