RADIO LICENSE SIGNED 29 YEARS AGO
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
As we revisit the events of July 4,1991 during this current lock-down, Kathy and I are very thankful to have lived several zenith events where we have experienced the Holy Spirit's intervention. Despite our frequent incapacity and simplicity as we live through this Age of Grace, we realize we are nearing the End Times and the conclusion of the Holy Spirit's work here on this earth. We are very grateful to be a part of that work during this tumultuous time.
Choosing a Name for our Station
In our legal application to the government, we named our Christian Programming, "Cherith Radio" memorializing our difficult experience during that time, which seemed to parallel the Prophet Elijah's tutoring by the Holy Spirit at Cherith Brook near the Jordan River. We named our development programming, “BEST Radio” or “Bukavu Extension Service - Technical Radio”.
Later, Fred Bahler, Kathy's father, nick-named it Radio Kahuzi after Mount Kahuzi Parc National de Kahuzi-Biega, the highest peak and home of the silver-backed gorilla located near Bukavu.
Choosing a Name for our Station
In our legal application to the government, we named our Christian Programming, "Cherith Radio" memorializing our difficult experience during that time, which seemed to parallel the Prophet Elijah's tutoring by the Holy Spirit at Cherith Brook near the Jordan River. We named our development programming, “BEST Radio” or “Bukavu Extension Service - Technical Radio”.
Later, Fred Bahler, Kathy's father, nick-named it Radio Kahuzi after Mount Kahuzi Parc National de Kahuzi-Biega, the highest peak and home of the silver-backed gorilla located near Bukavu.
Our Cherith Brook Experience
Kathy and I, along with Fred Bahler, had begun our "Tent Making Ministry" (self-support), with the Lord's direction, which took us through the Cherith Brook experience with very little food or funds, bringing into our lives a professional couple, Wim and Lita, of Coca-Cola Company, with facilities in Bukavu.
Missionary, and friend, Doctor Barlow asked us to follow-up on his ministry to this special couple. They were of two different world religions, and considered us as "Holy People." However, the Lord used them to minister to us physically with food and fellowship as we shared the Gospel and Christ's presence and testimony. They also listened and were ministered to by our radio broadcasts, which had just begun.
Encouraged by the "Widow of Zarephath"We chose our logo for BESI, representing the "Widow of Zarephath" and her dying son written about in I Kings 17: 1 - 12. She is carrying a bundle of sticks and the embers on her head with which to start a fire and prepare their final meal. Having only a handful of flour and a little oil she shared and ministered to Elijah the Tishbite during his time of discouragement and famine. The story teaches us to keep our eyes, our heart, and our mind on Jesus Christ, so that the Holy Spirit can walk and work effectively beside us, and that the Lord will supply what we NEED to serve Him.
President Mobutu Grants First Radio License
Kathy and I, along with Fred Bahler, had begun our "Tent Making Ministry" (self-support), with the Lord's direction, which took us through the Cherith Brook experience with very little food or funds, bringing into our lives a professional couple, Wim and Lita, of Coca-Cola Company, with facilities in Bukavu.
Missionary, and friend, Doctor Barlow asked us to follow-up on his ministry to this special couple. They were of two different world religions, and considered us as "Holy People." However, the Lord used them to minister to us physically with food and fellowship as we shared the Gospel and Christ's presence and testimony. They also listened and were ministered to by our radio broadcasts, which had just begun.
President Mobutu Grants First Radio License
Though we had requested and developed the "dossier des lettres" for a broadcast license over five years working through each layer of the administration, local and national, Kathy and I had no reason to hope and no real idea what the Holy Spirit was preparing for the DRC, (formerly, Zaire) until the 4th of July, 1991, when we saw the American Ambassador, Robert Oakley, and the Cultural Affairs Officer on National Television, saying Good-bye, and presenting a golden Fishing Eagle to President Mobutu, as he prepared to leave the country.
Richard shaking hands with President Mobutu
and asking for permission to begin first free radio.
Mama Mobutu smiling and shaking hands with
African citizens paying their respects.
Our Permit, signed that day, July 4th ended the state monopoly on television and radio! We believe that the Lord led President Mobutu to end the Party State and change the Constitution, opening the Nation to multi-party elections and to establish Freedom of the Press, with BESI's permission as a private national broadcaster in Shortwave and FM.
However, after a few years, a Minister petitioned to close all Private Radios, Radio Kahuzi in Bukavu and in Kinshasa! This led to a Supreme Court intervention, where the Chief Justice wrote that they could NOT close Radio Kahuzi, because he had earlier given as proof that they were a Democracy: the existence of OZRT (RTNC Radio Television National of the Congo) and BEST Radio (Kahuzi)! "If they closed Kahuzi, he would have to resign as Chief Justice, because they would no longer be a Democracy!”
Mai Mai Commandos Believe on Christ
On Christmas Day in 2000, after a third of Bukavu had fallen into their control they listened to the Word of God in their own heart language over Radio Kahuzi and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ! They returned home to the Fizi Territory some five hundred kilometers to the South. There they constructed a church to the Praise of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God."
Romans 10: 17.
Thank You for "ComingAlongSide."
Serving in His Grace,
Richard and Kathy McDonald
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