One day, when saints from every tribe and language and people and nation gather at the throne of the Lamb, a saint from the Middle East might tell how he heard the story of salvation through a radio broadcast.
A woman from China could tell how she discovered Bible teaching on a Chinese-language website.
A child in Brazil could tell about the television program that inspired her interest in the Bible.
The Back to God Hour’s international media ministry leaders met in Palos Heights, Ill., in May and reported on how people’s lives are being changed by the gospel through radio, TV, the Internet, telecommunications, print, and training workshops.
“The language ministry leaders hadn’t been together as a group for three years,” noted Rev. Robert Heerspink, director of the Back to God Hour. “It was a time to catch up and compare notes. We talked. We shared. We laughed. We prayed. And we gave thanks to God for the way he is using the ministries of the Back to God Hour to tell the news of Christ.”
“Hearing the reports from all the fields of the Back to God Hour, you know you are part of a global gospel movement,” observed Rev. Victor Atallah, Arabic-language ministry leader.
Rev. Paul Mpindi, who broadcasts to French-speaking countries in Africa , the Caribbean , and Europe , said “Our ministry is about touching lives and saving souls.”
Rev. Masao Yamashita, Japanese-language ministry leader, described how the wife of a Buddhist monk happened upon his morning radio program, Asa no Kotoba (“The Morning Word”). The woman contacted the follow-up center and was connected with a Reformed church near where she lives. She must worship in secret, but does so with a heart committed to Jesus.
Rev. Atallah told how Christian brothers and sisters in Yemen also must worship in secret and whisper their songs of praise, but they have access to the gospel through radio and Internet ministries of the Back to God Hour.
“Each of us spoke with a different accent,” Heerspink commented. “Each of us casts our messages a little differently to speak pointedly to the challenges we confront in different cultures.
“But each of our ministry leaders is serving up heaping helpings of the nourishing food that feeds human hearts—the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
About the Author
Nancy Vander Meer is a staff writer with Back to God Ministries International in Grand Rapids, Mich.
