(June 19, 2014 - by Janice Reid and Ruth Pike)  Day after day Christian radio announcers in Indonesia faithfully work to reach people in their villages, towns and cities. With consistency and integrity, local radio partners of Reach Beyond (formerly HCJB Global) sit in studios throughout the country, carefully building bridges of friendship.

Some listeners are isolated believers, grateful to be able to hear teaching from the Bible.

“We like being able to hear the Lord’s Word daily, especially in the mornings,” wrote one group of listeners to their local Christian radio station. “The broadcasting of Scriptures is important to us.”

However, many listeners are not followers of Christ. In fact, some are antagonistic, especially about the idea of Jesus being God.

From time to time the announcers who do this critical work need some refreshment. They need new ideas and an infusion of strength to help them continue on. Recently two trainers from Reach Beyond’s Asia Pacific team led the advanced “Radio 201” class at a central location in Indonesia. The weeklong course is designed for experienced announcers, providing them with new skills and refreshing old ones.

The 10 students led daily worship, but Reach Beyond instructors provided guidance on a range of topics that would help participants develop skills to feed their station’s ministry and outreach. Topics included topics such as writing radio scripts, doing interviews and hosting on-air phone competitions.

One important focus was on a much-needed skill especially in understaffed stations: how to record voice announcements and place them in a prepared program so that the program sounds “live” even when no one is in the studio.

Students were assigned a major project at the beginning of the week and encouraged to work at it throughout the five days of training. They were asked to develop a concept for a new series that they would put on air when they returned home.

Bringing personnel together also provided an ideal opportunity for giving out boxes of SonSet^® radios to each announcer so they can distribute them to local people. These handheld, solar-powered radios are fixed-tuned to the frequencies of community FM radio stations. The stations are operated by the participants, providing a means of sharing the gospel to people living in remote areas of Indonesia with limited access to electricity.

“We live in a rural area of Indonesia, and the radio station helps us feel more connected to each other,” wrote a group of radio listeners to their local station. “We appreciate that the station invests in our community.”

Now back at their radio stations, the announcers have a fresh vision and desire to reach out in new and creative ways to those who live nearby.

Source: Reach Beyond