Dec. 11, 2009
Sources: HCJB Global, Believers Express Service Inc.

Radio Kahuzi, HCJB Global's partner ministry in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, was forced to go off the air for eight days in mid-November following a misunderstanding about paying a communications tax and questions about the content of the programming.

On Monday, Nov. 9, the right to continue broadcasting was challenged by a local government official after 17 years of airing Christian programming and news updates.

"Under a threat to confiscate the broadcasting equipment and arrest our journalist, Pastor Gregoire, we shut down the station on Nov. 19 and didn't go back on the air until permission was granted on Thanksgiving Day," explained Station Manager Richard McDonald who serves as a missionary with his wife, Kathy.

Radio Kahuzi, a ministry of U.S.-based Believers Express Service Inc. (BESI) since 1992, operates on FM and is within hearing range of some 500,000 people in the Bukavu area near the border with Rwanda. It also broadcasts on shortwave, reaching the region and beyond.

"The Lord was gracious to us in all of this, allowing us to make contact with many that we would never have met or contacted," McDonald said. "The chaplain of the provincial governor's staff and police requested a Swahili Bible, and we were contacted by many in all walks of life who expressed their gratitude to God for Radio Kahuzi."

Government and military leaders as well as judges from some territories also expressed concern when the station was off the air, saying their "only source of news and programming had been cut off," he added.

Radio Kahuzi is continuing with a full schedule of Christian programming and "hopefully soon" will resume news and reports from Voice of America, helping keep people informed in a country that has been wracked by civil war for more than a decade.

Before these events began, National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) President Frank Wright announced that Radio Kahuzi will receive the 2010 NRB Media Award for International Impact. The presentation will take place at the international luncheon during the NRB's 67th annual convention in Nashville on Monday, March 1.

"We do not want to make claims for ourselves and prefer to have the applause of the Lord Himself," McDonald said.

Radio Kahuzi was one of the first stations to be established through HCJB Global's radio planting ministry.