A 500-watt FM transmitter at Horeb Bible Radio, an outreach of New Tribes Mission (NTM) in northern Bolivia, was damaged by a lightning strike six months ago. The staff borrowed a smaller transmitter to go back on the air, but a larger, more powerful transmitter from HCJB World Radio is on its way to increase the station's effectiveness.

NTM missionary and radio technician Bruce Johnson and his family were slated to return to Bolivia this week with a new 2,000-watt transmitter designed and built at the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center in Elkhart, Ind. The new equipment is expected to greatly increase the signal coverage area.

Horeb Bible Radio broadcasts in Spanish and several tribal languages, and the new transmitter will boost the station's continued, far-reaching impact. There have been encouraging testimonies from several tribes that show the effectiveness of the radio ministry. The damaged 500-watt transmitter will be repaired by HCJB World Radio engineers and returned to NTM for use in another part of Bolivia.

HCJB World Radio has worked with various local radio partners to plant local AM and FM stations in the Bolivian cities of Santa Cruz, Tarija and Tupiza. Four stations with eight transmitters in four cities (La Paz, Caranavi, Santa Cruz and Sucre) are also affiliated with ALAS, the ministry's Latin American satellite radio network that makes Spanish programs available to local stations 24 hours a day.

Sources: Mission Network News, New Tribes Mission, HCJB World Radio