(March 9, 2012 - by Harold Goerzen) After a decade of dreaming and praying, the pieces are falling into place to launch an evangelical radio ministry in Croatia, a small, predominantly Catholic country, independent since the 1991 disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

Croatian broadcasters take class in June 2011.

"Christianity is nothing new to Croatia," said Roger, a HCJB Global missionary who led two weeks of broadcasting workshops in mid-January in two cities, for 13 young radio volunteers, most of whom had taken introductory training last June.

"The Bible says that the Apostle Paul and Titus visited Croatia (Romans 15:19; 2 Timothy 4:10)," he continued. "It was humbling to stand and pray together as a family in the old Roman coliseum [in the coastal city of Pula] in which many early Christians were literally torn limb from limb for the cause of Christ. Today though, religion is deeply political and nominal to the majority of the people."

Although just 0.4 percent of Croatia's 4.4 million citizens are believers, evangelical Christianity is growing at a rate of 0.6 percent annually, and churches are "popping up across the country," according to the 2010 edition of Operation World by Jason Mandryk.

"The Lord really impressed the book of Haggai on our hearts, and we reminded the team that when the remnant of true believers obeyed the Word of God, He sparked the enthusiasm of others who joined the work for His glory," Roger explained. "Lord willing, we will be able to visit again to help provide further training and development in the autumn and to see the launch of the online station." An FM station is also in the plans for the fall of 2013.

"This has been a dream of our Croatian partners for more than 10 years," related Roger. "Some of the obstacles have been overcome in recent years-namely finances, finding a location, construction of the studios and equipment. The main obstacles remaining are finances and personnel."

Roger said he was impressed with the attitude of the volunteers who took the training, diving headlong into their assignments and producing radio programs that were aired by secular radio stations.

"Most of the volunteers had no previous radio training," he said. "In addition to needing to learn the mechanics of the various aspects of broadcasting, they also have a desire to know the theory and philosophy behind creating compelling Christian content to reach secular audiences."

He added that the students were "very receptive" and quickly grasped how the Phase 1 training dovetailed with what they learned in January's Phase 2 training.

Roger taught courses on promoting programs (on and off-air), sharing the gospel in 60 seconds, creating and producing high-impact spots/advertisements, and basic interview techniques.

"They have already begun applying some of the training as they are now meeting on a weekly basis to produce 'seed spots'-creative audio gospel presentations/invitations in 60 seconds or less," Roger explained.

"They were also contracted to produce radio commercials to promote a stage play, and they did a fantastic job-the ads sounded very professional and were aired on a secular station! I'd also given them each an assignment of preparing and presenting a one-hour radio program. But three of the students went over and above by doing a full one-hour audio report on a Croatian Christian band, featuring sound from a live concert, interviews with the band and concert attendees, and mixed in both live and prerecorded music."

Source: HCJB Global