(August 12, 2011 - by Harold Goerzen) When HCJB Global radio trainer Allen Graham of Quito, Ecuador, took a month out of his busy schedule earlier this summer to teach communication students in Liberia, he expected to make an impact on budding broadcasters. But he never realized his efforts could help bring healing to a country recently ravaged by 15 years of civil war.

Allen Graham leads a communications class at African Bible College University.

"This was the first time I've been in a situation where the students had been directly affected by a war in their country," explained Graham, who taught announcing, voice and diction to 21 students at African Bible College University (ABCU) in Yekepa in June.

"The war just ended a few years ago," he said. "Many of the students had lived in exile in different countries or lost family members. "Although my students didn't have any physical wounds as a result of the war, they had emotional ones."

During one of the weekends, Graham joined a number of students and faculty members who traveled to minister to a large group of Ivorian refugees living at a camp near Bong. "We were enthusiastically greeted by the children," he wrote in his blog. "We held a concert, tent-to-tent evangelism and a soccer match (which the ABCU students won by the way)."

Boye-Nelson Kiamu and his sister, Leeneh, are both studying communications.

When Graham asked student Boye-Nelson Kiamu why he wanted to be a Christian broadcaster, he replied, "I want to be a part of ABCU Radio because I know that through it we can write a new page in Liberia Christian history through contemporary 21st-century methods."

His sister, Leeneh, a student at the same school, added, "Where my legs can't go, my voice will be able to go with the help of the radio!"

The school in northeastern Liberia, strategically located just minutes from the borders of Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), reopened in 2008 after being gutted during years of violence. Many ABCU students were refugees, and some had lost fathers, brothers or even children in the fighting. About 100 students are enrolled in the school.

While the fighting left the population traumatized, the students are brimming with optimism. "The thing I experienced with this group is that they realize their country has great potential," Graham related. "They know it won't be easy, but they're committed to using Christ-centered media to bring changes to their country and Africa."

ABCU students are enrolled in one of three majors-communications, education and now entrepreneurship (business administration) which launches this fall. ABCU will soon be home to its own campus radio station.

"Radio is a major mode of communication in post-war Liberia and having a Christian radio station will help reach others for Christ," Boye-Nelson wrote in his evaluation of the class. "I believe it will help improve journalism in Liberia, especially Christian journalism."

Joseph Kebbie, a native Liberian now based at HCJB Global's Sub-Saharan Africa office in Accra, Ghana, said ABCU has such a good reputation that the Liberian government approved its request for a radio license within three weeks after it was submitted.

The station will be in the university's communications building after construction is completed this summer. Radio equipment and acoustical treatments for the recording studio are being installed this month. Much of this work is being carried out by the students together with engineer Jeremy Maller and British missionary Alex who moved to Ghana with his family last year. Alex is spending all this month in Yekepa heading the studio installation practicum.

Plans are to go on the air this fall in French, English and local languages. The broadcasts will reach a wide area, including a number of refugee camps and even across the borders into neighboring Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire.

Student Julia Mulbah said the station will "make a difference in the surrounding areas, reaching the unreached." Another student, Arthur Trobeh, added that it will be the "only Christian radio station to be established in Yekepa after the war. It will be the source of truth that will transform the community."

Answering a question in his final exam about the role of radio and television in Liberia a decade from now, Boye-Nelson emphasized that the programming must relate to the audience. "I can see our media groups featuring reporters, anchors, broadcasters and even directors who are well qualified and meet international standards. Yes! I can see media entities, whether Christian or secular, practicing ethics that bring pride to Liberia and Africa as a whole," he wrote.

"It will be an era where qualifications, hard work and diligence instead of nepotism, tribalism or bribery will give Liberians their pride," he continued. "All this will happen 10 years from now because people like me who have experienced Christ's love and learned good broadcasting principles will teach, evaluate, help, pray and train others who can accomplish this dream. It will not be easy and it will begin from today, but then, 10 years from now, whether we are dead or alive, we will know that our days on earth were worthwhile."

Source: HCJB Global