What has been happening in the world of UCB Asia Pacific recently…
Good question! Let’s have a quick look…
The Word for Today
2022 is the third year for the 12 month edition of The Word for Today in many of our pacific nations. It is the first year we have done a version for Nauru and, of course, the first time for our Indonesian language edition for Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
The total print run was 43,000 copies – which is pretty exciting!
Getting Together
Continuing on from where we left off in 2021 we’ve been holding our monthly UCB Family Get Togethers on the 3rd Friday of each month.
They have been a great time of sharing, fellowship and an opportunity to pray for each other. A real highlight has been for everyone to hear first-hand reports about the struggles and victories the other groups are experiencing.
Recordings of these events are in the UCB Team area of our website (pops up when you log in)
Website Content
Speaking of websites we have been busy adding more content and resources to the Team UCB area of www.www.ucbasiapacific.org
So if you’re looking for the manual for your transmitter, or you remember I sent you an email hint on fundraising you want to read again, or you want to print your The Word for Today poster or… it’s all there are easily searchable.
Cook Islands
The local Life FM station is still off air, but hopefully not for too much longer. At long last they have received the new antenna to replace the rusted out one. All we are waiting for is a window of opportunity for us to visit and help with the reestablishment of the station.
Fiji
Some things are more tricky than a tricky thing 🙂 This seems to be the case with registering UCB Fiji as a not-for-profit. 12 months into the 2 week process and we might be getting somewhere. Hopefully a few more weeks should see it done 🙂
Meanwhile we are busy buying the transmitters, antennae etc, and putting the radio audio programming together ready to launch brand new Life FM Fiji stations in Suva and Nandi/Lautoka.
Indonesia
Obviously the launch of Renungan Hari Ini (The Word for Today) has been an exciting way to kick off 2022. But there’s a lot more going on too, and we are looking forward to helping with upgrading a number of the local Christian stations to Station Playlist automation – amongst other things :).
Nauru
After this year’s successful launch of The Word for Today in Nauru this year we are hoping to also establish a Life FM station this year. We still have a ways to go but again, we ordered a transmitter and antenna in faith so we are ready to jump when the opportunity presents itself.
Nepal
It is exciting to let you know that Message of Hope Nepal have (finally) regained full operational control of the Christian radio station in Butwal – Radio Chhimeki. This has been a looooonnnnngggg time coming requiring a lot of work, patience, wisdom and diplomacy by our local team.
We are looking forward to working with them in the coming months to help put together a radio station that will have a wonderful impact for the nearly 500,000 people living in Butwal. And of course the flow on effect for other broadcasts and broadcasters in Nepal.
Greetings! I want to thank you for providing us with the Word of God through Aajako Bachan booklet and your radio and television programmes. By reading the devotional booklet, I have come to understand that human life should be a model and given to doing good. I also understood how I can present myself unto the Lord, and that to follow the life of our Lord Jesus is the greatest goal of life. I want to encourage you all that if we set half an hour apart in the morning and/or evening daily, it will greatly help us to comprehend the things of God and maintain an intimate relationship with Lord Jesus Christ. It will also help us live a disciplined life, and the light in our life will shine among the people.
Sima Nepali
Papua New Guinea
Electricity – who needs it? Oh wait, we do! Our team in Wewak have daily power outages from 8am – 4pm most days and there is no long power supplied to the main town broadcast site at Mt Miru. Kind of puts ‘a spanner in the works’ for running a radio station hey!
But despite the challenges, God has His hand on our ministry. A recent interview with the East Sepik Governor Allan Bird saw him so impressed with the work Laif FM is doing, he promised a generous donation which will enable them to upgrade their computers and office furniture.
This year we also hope that our Laif FM Port Moresby station will get on air and we’ll be able to get our Mt Hagen station back on air too
Philippines
We are working with a couple of ministry friends in the USA to explore an opportunity to help establish a new station in the northern village of Kabugao in Apayao. Why there? Good question! It simply comes down to – that’s where the opportunity is.
We have also built them the bare bones of a new website. Raymond (head of UCB Philippines) found a local guy who he’s handed the development over to so www.edgemedia.ph should soon become their new website in support of their wider ministry, dishing up good helpings of Christian radio and The Word for Today to the people of the Philippines.
Samoa
Our partnership here is based around giving them The Word for Today each year and we’ve been building their website. www.laufou.org You can listen live to the guys and girls on Laufou O Le Talalelei from anywhere in the world
Solomon Islands
As if freight isn’t expensive enough, there are no guarantees with actual delivery times. The Word for Today left Sydney on a ship in August 2021 bound for Honiara, it finally got there in late December! Two weeks ago we sent (by airfreight) two brand new 250w transmitters to replace the broken ones in Honiara and Munda. Looks like they are happily renting an apartment in Sydney! You can’t rush a good thing!
The local team has also made good progress with completing the studio complex in Honiara, so hopefully we may be able to kick local broadcasting into action this year.
Timor Leste
Our guys and girls have been working on their website www.radiovozfm.com – translating The Word for Today into Tetun and adding daily local news articles in Tetun.
The Indonesian language edition of The Word for Today has also been enthusiastically received and opened up a whole raft of new opportunities, including giving away copies at the local prison.
Recently they were able to successfully commission their new 1kw transmitter in Dili, bringing Radio Voz back to full power. This year they have a big task ahead of them to upgrade their low powered (15w) stations to 100w. The transmitters and antennae for this project should arrive later this month.
Vanuatu
We are so close we can taste it! After years of setbacks and delays ,2022 will be the year that we get Laef FM on air at 250w in Port Vila, Luganville and 100w in Ambrym (he boldly proclaimed with a large dollop of faith 🙂 ) We will also be trying to re-establish the low powered Laef FM stations at Hog Harbour, Samaria and Lenekal.
These radio stations will complement UCB Vanuatu’s The Word for Today daily devotional ministry that has been really growing across the nation.
