As our broadcasts continue to be on the air and more French-speaking people listen to them, we also start receiving questions by normal mail and also by e-mail. Our listeners ask questions about the teachings of the Bible, and I start devoting more of my time answering to them individually. To give you an idea of what they ask, here are a few of these questions:

- Does God see me individually, as a person, or does he see the whole of humankind as a global group?- Does the purgatory exist?

- Why does Paul teach in 1 Cor. 13 that love is greater than faith and hope, while he himself says that we are saved by faith? Since faith saves, it must be greater than anything else, isn’t it?

- In the last verse of 1 Cor. 14, Paul writes: “Do not forbid to speak in tongues”, but our traditional churches (Catholic, Protestant) forbid it. Why?

- What is the difference between the baptism of John the Baptist, the Baptism mentioned in Mat. 28 and the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

I have decided to start a series of radio-programmes devoted to answering these questions, so that more people may benefit from both questions and answers. This will also help to establish a more personal relationship with our listeners.

Recent feed-back from the Congo allowed me to see how much bibles in French (and other languages) are needed in Africa. We sent a box filled with bibles to our partners in Kinshasa (the huge capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and they distributed them to listeners of Foi et Vie Réformées there. People who received a copy of the bible sent e-mails to thank us for such a precious gift.

One of them wrote that it was so heartwarming to see how other Christians in the world cared for the spiritual well-being of their fellow believers. We still intend to order more bibles and send as many as our means will allow.

Still in Kinshasa, our programmes are running on several channels, among which the National Radio of the Congo (on Sunday morning). Many of our listeners follow the broadcasts on more than one radio station. May they find comfort in the Word of God, as they go through extremely difficult times (economically, socially, politically and –above all- spiritually).

Later this year (DV in June) I should go to West Africa for a two weeks visit, accompanied by a friend and solid supporter of the radio ministry. Among others this trip should enable us to explore possibilities for our broadcasts to run on stations in Cameroon, especially in the two big cities of this country, Douala and Yaounde. Pray that the preparation of this trip will go well and that the Lord will bless our endeavour.

As you easily can imagine, we have more and more information to deal with, more and more data to store and to administrate: we are therefore very thankful to have finally been provided with a computer data basis specially designed for the needs of our radio-ministry. At last there is now a way to store and retrieve these informations easily. The communication with listeners, correspondents and radio-stations airing our programmes should be greatly simplifed once all the data have been stored.

It makes me wonder even more about the greatness of our God and Father who knows everything about every one; He is not subjected to power failures, “computer bugs” or other viruses. He does not just embrace the totality of humankind as a group, but knows you and me individually, just as he knows every one of our listeners. May each one of you too live this year in the assurance that He watches over you: the very hairs of your head all numbered, therefore should not fear (Luke 12:7).

In Christ

Rev. Eric Kayayan