Radio Ministry in South America | Interview w/Russell Stendal & David Witt (Episode #7)

this is atrisk Radio welcome to atrisk radio where we talk about leadership in the persecuted Church internationally I'm your host Mark Stafford and I'm here today with Russell stendal Russell is a missionary in Latin America and the director of s so International in Latin America now Russell you're involved in the distribution of a lot of really helpful things you've been giving people eyeglasses and clean water and you edited the Jubilee Bible you've authored dozens of books but you also have a huge passion for radio so explain to me why radio why is radio so important in the areas that you are doing Ministry in well first of all we can produce a lot of radio for the same budget as say a minute of video and we haven't had the the kind of resources in fin es to do a big uh TV Ministry although occasionally We Do videos that go on TV and stuff and that all has its place but we've been extremely effective doing radio and we feel that's our primary uh call from the Lord people don't see our face so um we can travel around and still be more or less Incognito which wouldn't be the case if we had a big TV Ministry and um the uh it's it's extremely coste effective we can produce our program so that they can be used over and over again and not be dated in other words Timeless programs dealing with certain issues themes or portions of scripture and um in rural areas there's a lot of places in Latin America where there is no TV or where TV is hard to come by or it has to be satellite TV that kind of thing and would only be for Elites but for the average person U it's not available and um then even where there is a lot TV available radio I mean look at how much look at how effective talk radio is in this country and so there there's definitely an itch for radio that's that's important the drive time for people going to and from work uh there was a friend of mine who's a Catholic priest in Columbia named rapael Garcia Ros and he felt bad because back in the late 40s and through the 50s there had been a lot of persecution of evangelicals by Roman Catholics and um so he made a promise he made a vow to the Lord he said if he ever got a FM radio station he was going to go find a Protestant and give that Protestant a chance to preach on the Catholic radio station and lo and behold somebody One Soul donor wrote one check and put him on the air with a very powerful FM radio station in bogat and guess who he picked to be the Protestant preacher to preach on his radio station was that you that was me so tell us about that what was it like uh preaching uh on the Catholic radio station what kind of impact did that have oh it had a tremendous impact and I mean every now and then I would say something that fell a foul of the priest that actually managed the station and I would get uh taken off the air but my friend would always listen to me and and and he would always go back and after things died down he'd put me back on again and so um he did that for8 years until he passed away in in 1994 but that's what got me going in radio and that program became the most listened to program radio program in Colombia oh wow and outr the news and everything else uh during AAA drive time in the morning and in the evening and so um that's that's what showed me how effective radio can be so you went on to acquire now dozens of transmitters throughout the area and you're reaching thousands of people uh every day on on various transmitters going into uh mostly remote Villages tell us a little bit about the radio Ministry that you have right now throughout South America yeah our um radio programs are all you know on our web pages and on Spotify and other things and so anyone that wants to download them or anyone that wants to take one of our internet radio feeds and just U reut it you know on reair it anywhere and so we've lost track of how many stations we're on right now but all I know is that there are individual messages of mind that have been AED more than 1,000 times over different radio stations all over the place that's tremendous yeah um so when somebody is uh listening to you during drive time in in Bogata uh which is again as a radio guy that's unbelievable to me because there's not a lot of preaching during Drive times um tell us a story about how that has impacted people how that imp impacted lives well it can even impact me one time I was driving down the road about ,600 km from home to be about 1,000 miles from home and I drove into the City and I was you know like I always do you know running through checking the radio stations and here there's a guy preaching and so I listened you know I thought this guy isn't too bad you know I could almost agree with him and then it on to me it's [Laughter] me well now some of your radio programs have come from your books or it's the other way around some of your books have come from radio program so tell us a little bit about the uh writing Ministry that you have in addition to your radio Ministry yeah the Bible commentar that I've written have all started out as radio messages preaching Through the Bible in the war zone and um and then having the messages transcribed and having them formed the basis of the book you know it has to be necked down it has to be changed you know in the style but um it uh lays the outline for for the book mhm and um and because of the needs of the people in those circumstances where you're dealing with churches where the pastors don't have a good education where maybe somebody's got a sixth grade education and so he got elected to be a pastor of a 100 people and nobody has a Bible in the whole place that kind of stuff abounds and so um you know they they they need to um be able to go through the scriptures you know phrase by phrase word by word and be able to uh Define the terminology and um and not take things out of context and U you know learn some basic things because otherwise um it could easily go off the rails so Russell has written dozens of books at this point uh many of them uh were started as radio broadcasts now we do have many of those books up for sale and as we come back into our next section of uh programming we'll be talking about uh how you can get a hold of some of those books and every time somebody purchases one of Russell's books it goes to further his ministry and the radial impact that is happening right now throughout South America we'll be back can you imagine trying to disciple a church with only one Bible this is Mark Stafford from atrisk radio and our conts in Venezuela are telling us incredible stories about people coming to know Jesus all the while pastors are missing Bibles for their people after receiving a Bible from our ministry one man said with tears in his eyes no one has ever given me such a beautiful gift at risk radio in our partnership with s International is working to bring 2 million Bibles into Venezuela for more information about how you can help go to atrisk radio.com welcome back to atrisk radio I'm online with David wit David Whit is the CEO of s so International now David in your experience how does it transform a village when they finally get a Christian radio station there well yeah it's it's it's a whole change I mean starts at the heart of people of course Mark like anything um you know first people are curious they start listening in but the you know we the the word of God never returns void so what we see is when people begin to listen to God's word they begin to you know little changes they begin to think about the things of God they can begin to literally change their mind which is what the word repent comes from and so then when someone really accepts the gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ and their lives are changed and the fruit of the Holy Spirit starts uh working then the other villagers will note uh you know what a change and in their life and they're not living maybe under the fear and just the curses and the uh stress of life and so then more people will want to be curious and say what's that all about and it's great we are giving them the tool everybody body else could tune into the radio and begin to hear God's message and so that's how we could begin to see kind of like a virus a good virus it begin to affect a whole Community um but it starts with just that seeds of people listening in and then spreading now one of the tools that you've used over the years to really get the uh the radio stations out to the people have been uh gcom radios now uh tell us a little bit more about these amazing little devices yeah we we love our partnership with galcom their focus is on the communication of the Gospel through technology and they are fixed Channel radios solar powered with a battery that lasts we found between 10 and 15 years they're actually been engineered and and made in Israel uh so we thank God for the continual blessing coming out of Israel and God's hand there uh they fixed channel so that people can't get them and you know turn them into their own radio and you know we spend this investment you know Kingdom fonds and then turn it into their own radio now they're fixed on the frequency that we have the radio broadcast in these areas and we can choose uh a few different frequencies if we have a few different channels and then on top of it Mark what's great is uh we also are able to put a chip in it in some specific teaching that could really bless them encourage them in for context to where they're at so it's a it's a huge Tool uh it's it's about a $40 investment for us but what we've seen is that when uh people have it they the the device itself they find can you know you can get in a room and up to 30 people can sit there quietly and listen so certainly it impacts families even small communities and then they could share it so uh we could you know one radio can impact dozens and dozens of people yeah that's incredible how that happens and like I said in the first uh section that it's uh really phenomenal that Russell has been able to keep a radio Ministry going that is uh so popular that's popular in Drive times people are listening to their cars they're also out in the Villages listening to it with groups of people gathered around the radio it sounds like something right of a 1950 sitcom but in some of these Villages that's the reality of their life that they don't have a lot of media they don't have a lot of technology and a gcom radio um with a Christian radio station is hugely valuable to them your ministry carries an a number of Russell's books um tell us a little bit about one of Russell's books has there been one that has been particularly impactful for you well people have not read rescue the captors they need to because that's his Flagship book that talks about when he was taken hostage uh he was tied to a tree uh in the jungle and he admits not with the best attitude he had prayed for the park to come to Jesus and to change their lives and to bring an end to the Civil War and the violence there and then when God sent him and was taken hostage he said God what are you doing and the Lord reminded him of those prayers and so God you know said hey you know you you prayed that the gospel come to the Fark I've sent you so he he he requested a typewriter and he start started writing that book Rescue captives he literally while he was held captive for five months it's incredible fascinating read God used it uh it really exemplifies the heart of the Gospel uh the message that certainly Spirit of maram represents so the number one book I would recommend is that the biography rest chapters 2 we have and then he um my my favorite theological book of his is Beatitudes book and they can find a lot more at just go to atrisk Radio there's a link there connects to our whole store that's probably the easiest place to find it but we invite people we give away our books uh we at donation I mean there's no price on it we want people to take books resources that they will be blessed by and feel like they can pass on to others to be a strong witness that's great and there are just a plethora of resources there at uh the spirit of modern website and again go to atrisk radio.com and we can link you over to that there's also an opportunity to sign up for a newsletter that talks about um all the things that are happening all over the world in the spirit of Mar's Ministry um we're excited to be a part of what God is doing how God is unpacking the gospel in many of these persecuted Nations uh Colombia being one of them and we have a huge push in getting Bibles into Venezuela as well and so we want you to be able to be a part of what God is doing all over the world and H we want you to be able to be a part of suppor the persecuted church so to be kept up to date about what God is doing within the church at risk all over the world go to atrisk radio.com and sign up for the newsletter I'm Mark Stafford and this has Ben at risk radio you've been listening to atrisk radio for more go to atrisk radio.com atrisk radio is a production of s International [Music]