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(The following was written by Bro. Pedro (Pete) Etabag, Lifeword Asia/Pacific Director and speaker of the Illongo broadcast based in the Philippines. He explains how a village 15 miles away from the Pandan radio station and over mountains was discovered. Young people could hear gospel programming on their phones and began to text the radio station. No one in the area even knew there was a village in that location. Because of these young people and Lifeword Community Radio, a new mission was started and a village was reached for the gospel.)

ANOTHER NEW MISSION STARTED BECAUSE OF OUR COMMUNITY RADIO

September 1, 2015 we visited another new mission in Hilongga, La Castellana , Negros Occidental, Philippines as a result of our Community FM Radio in Pandan, Pontevedra

This place is around 25 kilometers away from our radio station in Pandan. In the past months, Pastor Jonathan received many texters from Hilongga. Every night during their live program, young people from this place who call themselves “Super Heroes” sent text messages to greet their friends. Pastor Jonathan Arturo, our station manager and Pastor Rex Soriba, our pastor in La Castellana  traveled the distance to find them and found out that they are only listening through their mobile phones because they don’t have radios. They also don’t have a source of electricity because they are very far from the main road, and for years, their request for electric power had been forgotten. They said that they would walk to the nearby village to charge their phones everyday and pay some amount. Like Manara, we thought of extending a Solar Power System in this place to at least give them the source of power that could charge their phones and also their flashlights and batteries for their household lights.

The following pictures show us the place and the people who are hungering for the touch of God which is being answered by our Community Radio. When I shared to them our plan to start a mission there, we saw their excitement. The mission there will be taken cared of by our Local Church in La Castellana under the pastoral care of Bro. Rex Soriba.

After our visit, we visited the Mayor of La Castellana and shared to him our purpose in Hilongga. He was very happy that we are helping and offered to help us with the installation of the Solar Power in this place. I will post this plan and project later on when it will be materialized.

EIM (Evangelistic International Ministries) shared 10 fm radios only. too few of them. Pastor Jonathan will bring an additional radios from EIM this week to give to some of them who were present at our first meeting. Of course this is not enough because there are more than 50 families in this village. We are praying that somehow the Lord will provide more radios so they can listen to our Community Radio everyday.

The fastest way to spread the gospel in these last days is through the radio. As of now, we already have started 4 missions and many churches are being revived and challenged because of the ministry of our Community Radio.

Please be involved in these blessed ministry by praying, and if it be possible, help in the FM radio project by giving. The needs that you can pray about and share with are the Solar Power Project and FM transistor radios. We have already distributed many radios and we don’t really know the extent of how it is touching lives. Many of us can’t go to these remote places, but the radio can penetrate places beyond our reach. We are only surprised when we receive text messages from places we don’t even know. Only God knows how many lives were changed because of this ministry. There are thousands of places that are unreachable that can only be reached by radio.

PRAY, GIVE, GO! We have a mandate to fulfill and we should do this before the Lord finally returns!

(This addendum to Pastor Pete’s article  was written by Maira Ferrer, the wife of the pastor of the mission church -Open Door Community Church- in Hilongga, La Castellana, the church that will plant a mission in the newly discovered village.  It is the same story, but from a different perspective.)

We had a wonderful opportunity to visit our avid listeners of Sitio Hilonga La Castellana (the name of the Lifeword broadcast). 14 kilometers via motorcycle going to Hilonga and we walked 2 kilometers to reach their place..our heart melts as we saw them waiting for us. with Pastor Rex Soriba one of the anchorman of 90.7 community radio.  these are the people  (we) reach out (to) thru open door community radio despite of the fact that their is no electricity in their place but the eagerness to listen to the radio program everyday touches our hearts through cellphone only. 15 young boys gathered together to listen and texted us every night.  they called themselves “THE SUPERHEROES”. everyday they pay 5 pesos to charge their cellphone.  they walked 1 kilometer so that they can continue listen to our radio program. These are the precious souls ready to harvest. And praise God we met them personally. What a great impact of 90.7 community radio to the community of Brgy Hilonga we are so overwhelm By God’s grace that these brgy (the people group) of the mountainous part of la castellana has been reach out. Please help us pray that mission soon will be rise in this place. Glory to God in the highest.