April 3 2000

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Radio broadcasts using novel technology and pioneering partnerships are bringing the gospel into unexpected places in Africa. Trans World Radio (TWR), for example, reports that in Zambia a witch doctor became a believer through listening to its radio programs. Now the new convert has built a church and many are becoming Christians through his testimony.

The use of new resources and new methods for religious programming is bringing new people into African churches. "I have come to realize that radio is the unique and wonderful tool to bring the gospel to our people in Africa," admits Michael Cassidy, executive director of Africa Enterprise. "Radio is the tool for evangelism."

Christian broadcasters have applied state-of-the-art broadcasting technology in specialized ways, bringing more programs to even the remotest areas of Africa.

Recent innovations have addressed two long-standing problems: a scarcity of broadcast-quality studios and a lack of reliable power for radio receivers.

Focusing on the need for studios, TWR in Mozambique converts surplus oceangoing shipping containers into small broadcast studios. The need arose to get staff into remote areas to produce programming for the nearly 5 million Makhuwa people, the largest animistic unreached people group in Africa.

TWR outfitted the shipping containers with studio equipment in South Africa and transported them to the northern Mozambican village of Mocuba. The studios save construction costs and extensive commuting time for radio producers traveling to and from the southern capital city of Maputo.

In Angola, TWR partner churches and organizations distribute windup radios, which have come on the market in recent years. These receivers are small ...