May 21, 2020

Source: HCJB Global (written by Jean Muehlfelt)

Most churches never get the opportunity to experience firsthand what it's like to work alongside the missionaries they financially support on the mission field.

That wasn't the case when Walnut Hill Bible Church from Baraboo, Wis., took up the challenge three months ago and sent a work team from its congregation to assist two of HCJB Global's missionary families (Muehlfelts and Masons) that it financially and prayerfully supports. The church not only sent a 12-member work team, but it sent money in advance to help pay for the materials the team would be using.

In February the church team joined the four-member, Elkhart-based HCJB Global Technology Center team in Saipan. All brought their own tools, skills and a desire to help the front-line missionaries at the Far East Broadcasting Co. (FEBC) shortwave radio station in Saipan.

From the small remote Pacific island, FEBC missionaries have been broadcasting the gospel in at least 16 languages for almost 25 years, reaching many Asian countries. According to FEBC, the broadcasts can be heard by more than 1 billion people.

"The idea of taking a work team with us began last year," said Ed Muehlfelt, project coordinator at the Elkhart office. "FEBC is a radio partner of HCJB Global, and we've been helping them for years at that site. In recent years their missionary staff has been dwindling, and my wife and I decided to ask our home church if they would join us as we go back to Saipan to help FEBC with maintenance projects."

The church took up the challenge and mustered the involvement of cooks, plumbers, welders, carpenters, electricians, masons, a nurse and its senior pastor. The participants' skills and gifts blended well during the marathon three-week outreach. Team members targeted 16 projects, and they were able to finish many of them.

"I was so pleased to see how well team members worked together," Muehlfelt said. "Working in the extreme heat and humidity of tropics can test any personality-especially a bunch of business-owner contractors who are used to doing things their own way. We were all pushed physically and mentally."

Pastor Dave Hutchens, the spiritual leader of the work group, said, "We learned that when significant things are done for the sake of Christ's kingdom, the spiritual battles become more intense and can take the form of project delays, broken equipment, blisters, cuts and exhaustion. We are starting to understand the frustrations the missionaries deal with every day."

Team members said it was enlightening to know how God could use their gifts on the mission field in the future, and all agreed that they grew spiritually and expanded their horizons.

When asked, FEBC's director at the site said it was a wonderful learning experience for all. They had never had such a large work group before with so many skilled workers. He felt the whole trip was a success, and his engineering staff was able to focus their God-given skills to keep the station broadcasting the gospel into Asia. He also invited the work group to return.