Preaching the Word of God through the radio is very much like sowing seed. Foi et Vie Réformées does exactly this: we sow a spiritual seed via air waves. This seed is even spread in areas we don’t know the name of. At the time we sow, we do not know who receives this seed, we know neither on what kind of ground it will fall, nor where the seed will eventually germinate and bear fruit. But we sow with the words of Isaiah 55:10-11 in mind: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
A bit more than a year ago, we sent several samples of our programmes to some Christian local stations in Haiti (West-Indies). For about eight months, we did not receive even a word to acknowledge receipt of our tapes. In February this year, we wrote again to the same stations, asking them to tell us at least whether they had received our audio-material. Four months later, a letter from one of these stations came to us, saying: “May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ -the author of our common salvation- be with you. We cannot thank you properly for the six tapes containing six messages each, which you sent to us. But we thank God who has put the seed of his Word in you. May God continue to spread his abundant grace on you. As soon as we received the tapes, we listened to them. The quality of sound being fine and the message being evangelical, we decided to broadcast them. The whole series was put on the air, but upon request of our listeners we had to resume the whole broadcast. Now we would like to receive new programmes as soon as possible. We hope that you will comply with our request; please accept our feeling of deep gratitude.”
Sowing the seed of the Word on air waves is also not an innocent activity. It can be a disturbing one for those who want to control the lives and minds of other people: one of our African correspondents lives in a country ruled by a dictator for thirty three years. Our friend wants badly to have “Foi et Vie Réformées” put on the air by a local Christian station. In his letter he warns me, though, that censorship is at work in his country: our messages will have to be played before being broadcast, and will possibly be censored here and there. In particular our messages on the theme of public justice, on accountability of public authorities before God, according to the Bible, cannot but be disturbing for ungodly political leaders who seek only to maintain their own power.
On a more humoristic note, the conflict in the heavenly realm between the celestial armies and the forces of darkness seems to take place also at the level of short waves: a German radio amateur sent me a reception-report of the first Foi et Vie Réformées programme broadcast by Deutsche Telekom earlier this year. Where he lives (near the Jülich station) the reception was not so good, he adds, due to interference with Radio Habana Cuba operating on 11705 kHz from Cuba to Europe…
Meanwhile, very positive responses start coming from different ends of the continent, in particular from Ivory Coast, where a Roman Catholic FM station gives one hour per day for our programmes. Here is an excerpt from a letter which I recently received: “I am a young man (36), I am a Muslim. I was the victim of an accident in 1994. Since then I have been paralyzed from the chest to the toes. I am on a wheelchair. Since my accident, only Christians have come to pray for me. Seeing the love that they display towards me, I want to become a Christian. Please send me books and documents which can help me to become a Christian, because I am interested by your programme (…) Really I am very sorry I haven’t known Christianity earlier. Today when I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus-Christ, it goes well with me.”
DV in a few weeks, Radio Fréquence-Vie from Abidjan -the huge capital of Ivory Coast- will also start broadcasting our programmes. This way most of Ivory Coast will be covered by these two FM stations. We also hope to finalize soon the beginning of our broadcasts from Kinshasa (Dem. Rep. of Congo). Millions of people in this densely populated area can be thus reached.
Will you pray with us that all kinds of material and logistic obstacles may be removed? But do give thanks to the Lord too, “for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever”.
In His name
Eric Kayayan