“Our vision is to develop at least ten such partnerships a year in Latin America,” Koenig said.
That kind of help pays off in making a Christian radio station more influential. “I want to know how to better reach my listeners, and the workshop helped me to do that,” said 16-year old Sebastián Nestor Nicolas Meza who hosts a daily music program for youth and a weekly program answering letters from listeners.
Radio Veca has developed an on-going relationship with HCJB. A gleaming satellite dish with the ALAS logo sits outside the studio, receiving programs from Quito that the station uses for several hours a day. “We receive the news from ALAS and that helps us to keep people informed,” Sarmiento said. “We do some local news as well.”
The pastor is interrupted frequently throughout the day as Puerto Cabezas residents arrive at the studios on foot, by bicycle or taxi to deliver announcements that they want to be aired on the station. Many are personal messages to family members in the rural area advising them of family illnesses or other events about which they need to know.
“We are the number one station in Puerto Cabezas,” Sarmiento says. There are seven other stations in the community.
“It’s important that we address spiritual concerns,” said Anatacia Maybit de Lopez after presenting an early morning Bible study in the Miskito language. “We want to encourage the church and help people to know that they will belong to God,” she said.
Maybit, who grew up in Puerto Cabezas and now ministers at the 5,000-member Braeswood Assembly of God church in Houston, Texas, said that the needs and aspirations of her people run deep. “Illiteracy is a big issue here, there is little education. But, we now have both the Old and New Testament in the Moskito language.”
Maybit visits her home town once a year and presents Bible studies on the radio stations when she is here.
Also at the heart of Miskito needs is the memory of mass killings by Sandinista military groups during the country’s civil war in the 1980s. Pastor Sarmiento remembers those times well. “During the war many people from the country came here for safety. The Sandinistas thought that we would oppose them because many of the Miskito people want their own autonomy. If fact, the people supported the overthrow of the Samoza dictatorship. But, all we wanted was a government of peace and prosperity.”
Sarmeinto said that Sandinista forces raided local churches (the majority of Miskitos belong to Moravian congregations.) “They killed many people in the churches, many people disappeared and many were thrown into jail.”
“I was in jail for over one year only for being a pastor,” he said.
Today, the pastor is working to bring hope and a better way of life to his people. But, he said, to do that for effectively, he needs help. “We need financing to operate the station, we need a recording studio, we need funds to help us set up an internet station to receive programming and we need a new control board.
At the end of a long day, Pastor Sermiento looked forward to resuming ministry the next morning. “What is in my heart is to broadcast the Gospel,” he said.
This news story is supplied by Missionary Journalist. Used with permission.
For further information, contact missionaryjournalist@gmail.com.
