August 2008 Update from the Field

Dear Friends of Radio Kahuzi,
Greetings from Bukavu!

Picture this, Rich and I arriving at our front gate, after our month in the States. We see Josephu flying towards us in his stumbling manner, unsteady because of polio in one leg, with the biggest smile on his face -- from ear to ear, actually; and he’s yelling out, “They’re back, they’re back!” It’s so good to see our friends again!

Josephu running to greet us when we returned home!

This past year has been the most awesome year of our lives! 2007-2008 will always stand out as experiences of a lifetime! After 15 years in the Congo without a break, and suddenly, three trips to the States (two in 2007 & one in 2008) is no small matter!

We thank each and everyone who helped make this all possible. From the East to the West, we were able to attend the Grace Family Bible Conference, and see our friends, some from thirty plus years ago, and visit family that we hadn’t seen for 15 years! We were able to visit so many churches and say, ‘Thank you’ to all the friends that coordinated all the travels!

We send a special thank you to all the pastors that drove us from their church on to the next church, sometimes meeting halfway in order to arrive for the Sunday or Wednesday services! We’ll be writing to each one, a special thank you letter!

For the rest of our lives, we Praise the Lord for Rich’s eye surgeries, that Dr. Thomas performed so successfully. Dr. Nancy Thomas was rejoicing that everything went so well, and so were we!! Praise the Lord for perfect corrected vision!!!

When all is said and done, we just want to THANK YOU, each one that had a part in making this all happen. We couldn’t have done it without you! You all are soooo special to us!!

Thank you each one, for all the trips you made to get us from one place to another, for taking us into your lovely homes and making us feel so welcome, like family, for all the wonderful times of fellowship, for all the wonderful food, and taking us out to those restaurants with the mountains of food!! What fun! And, we thank you for it all!!!!!!

“…That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" Eph. 3:17 BESI / Radio Kahuzi, P.O. Box 115, San Marcos, CA 92079

We covet your prayers, as usual, as you know this isn’t a normal, easy life out here. As soon as we got back, lots of things hit us, but the Lord has been our stay, and lots of things have been worked out. One of the problems was that the electric company had a brown out and our E-mail system was knocked out, so that took all this time – weeks for it to get fixed, yesterday. That’s why we didn’t write sooner. We’re so thankful to have it back!

Dry season is here, and that means less water in the lake and that means less electricity, which means the transmitters are running on the light plant much more. So it goes...for now.

Love to all,
Rich and Kathy radiokahuzi@yahoo.com

Feza, Gregoir and Danny kept Radio Kahuzi on the air while the McDonalds were in the States.

P.S. There are two new projects we are working on:

1. A rare offer of the complete French Bible! Rich called and ask if he could go ahead and purchase one Bible for each of our 300+ radio clubs. He is working out the logistics to get them across Lake Tanganyika, up from Uvira to Bukavu. He is working with a missionary contact in Tanzania who helped get other Bibles up and with the importer who helps bring in our radios.

The Bibles cost $1.50 each. If we only got 300 - one for each radio club - that would be $450; plus importation costs of $600—Total $1,250. Rich is very hopeful as there have not been any complete French Bibles available for years.

2. Another 1,000 Galcom shortwave radios are ready to ship from Canada, but we need to pay Galcom $1709.73 for the shipping to Kigali, Rwanda and another $600 from Kigali to Bukavu—Total $2,309.73.“…How shall they hear without a preacher…”

There are well over 10,000 precious souls in our 300+ radio clubs and over a million souls in Bukavu and surrounding area with no copy of the Word of God while we here in America have many Bibles in our homes that go unread. Let’s do our part as we see the day approaching and the “Appearing” of our Great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Keep Looking Up!

Harold Smith, President
E-Mail: radiokahuzi@sbcglobal.net
Website: besi.org and/or radiokahuzi.com
Blog: radiokahuzi.blogspot.com
Phone: 760.598.1190

(If you would like a copy of our DVD showing an overview of our ministry, just drop us a note.)

Rwandan Combatants Surrender to Government Forces

This is the beginning of good news! Wanted to share it with our readers!

Love,
Richard and Kathy

http://allafrica.com/stories/200808041551.html>

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 9:23 AM PDT
67 Rwandan combatants of a dissenting faction of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), surrendered their weapons, on 31 July 2008 in Kasiki, approximately 200 kms north of Goma, capital of North Kivu province in eastern DRC. They surrendered in the presence of a Congolese government delegation led by the DRC Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Please click on link above for the rest of the story.)

Report on Richard and Kathy's Visit to States

Above: From left to right: Harold, Kathy and Richard; Barbara and former employee of HCJB Global - Margaret Cook. Margaret arranged her trip to visit her family here in California to coincide with Rich and Kathy's trip in order to meet them personally.

Dear friends of Radio Kahuzi,

Greetings in His Precious Name!

Richard had both eyes operated on two weeks ago and now has 20/20 vision with glasses! What a wonderful answer to our prayers! He suffered with double vision for many years, and last year developed cataracts. So, you can imagine how elated we all are that he will return to Bukavu like a new man!

God is so faithful...He has and will continue to complete what He has begun. As we know, "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to HIS purpose."

The Apostle Paul prayed three times that God remove his "thorn in the flesh", but God chose to leave it there. We are so thankful that after 25 years of blurred and double vision, our merciful Heavenly Father has intervened in Richard's situation so that he can continue to serve unhindered.

We were fortunate to have Rich and Kathy with us for a few days here in California at the BESI home office (July 24-29) before they headed home to Bukavu. We had a blessed time together as a family and were able to celebrate Kathy's birthday and our son-in-law, Jared's birthday together. Here is a picture of Rich and Kathy enjoying a much-loved hot fudge sundae together on the pier in Oceanside during their visit:

As they return to Bukavu, they will be greeted warmly by our dedicated radio staff who have been "standing in the gap" broadcasting the Gospel of His Grace to our faithful listening audience!

With Love and Thanksgiving in our hearts for you,

Keep Looking UP!

Harold & Barbara Smith

EMAIL FROM RICHARD ON HIS WAY HOME TO BUKAVU:
Greetings from Kigali!

Kathy and I arrived in Kigali, Rwanda okay, but lost one suitcase - probably still on the plane as it went on to Entebe, Uganda with Brussels Airlines. We trust it will arrive Saturday evening.

We made a stop at the US Embassy to visit the Cultural Center - sorry, they erased my pictures for security reasons. It is a NEW and modern facility, so we are using the internet via the American Library/Cultural Center here.

It was so great to see each one and ALL this last trip home!! We were ready for the layover here in Kigali, as our plane got in after dark Thursday and we had the last bag to come down the chute about an hour or so later! Then a friend said our name was on the bulletin board for lost bags! The kind of new experiences one does not search to have!

In Elkhart, Indiana we had really good meetings with the technical staff of HCJB Global, who are going to prepare two more FM transmitters antennas for our relay network for several provinces.

The eyes are holding up fine, and Kathy is babying me with the eye drops twice a day for another 10 days.

We hope to make contact with the Cultural Attache - Directrice of the Cultural Center before going on to Bukavu. Maybe we will visit other offices downtown, where they broadcast the daily programs as we do.

Well, we'd better cut and send until another day.

Keep looking UP!

All our love,

Yours in Christ,

Richard and Kathy