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

Update on Richard's SECOND Eye Surgery

We just received news that the second eye surgery has gone really well and the follow up checkup revealed that he now has 20/20 vision in one of his eyes - which is a welcomed blessing, as you can all imagine! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! Please pray for continued healing and that the remainder of their trip will go smoothly!

Again, we will keep you updated!

Update on Richard's Eye Surgery

Richard just called to ask for prayer. He had the first eye surgery on his cataracts this morning and was ill after surgery with upset stomach.

He apparently caught a cold while touring Boston in a trolley on the 4th of July, and is suffering today with congestion and a severe headache. As long as he does not have pain in the eye for the next few days that will be a good sign that all is well and there is no infection.

He undergoes the second eye surgery on Friday the 11th.

Please pray with us for these special needs. We will keep you updated!

Richard & Kathy - on their way home for a visit!

The following is an email we received from Kathy right before their departure from D.R. Congo to the U.S. yesterday:

"Just enough time to send this picture you might enjoy: Richard giving English materials to a group of students coming at the last minute from the ISP, the Teachers' College. Good thing he gave them four tapes and CDs with about 100 different messages, Radio Bible Class, A. Rodgers, Dr Dobson, and Dr Gangle. an English NT, GALCOM radios, and tracts in various languages, to share with any at the University who had need. As it ended, there were about twenty students who straggled by asking for materials for their English assignment. They were quickly satisfied that the resources were already on campus for their research into good pronunciation. Their professor really likes Radio Kahuzi."

And a note from Richard:

Here we are, the night before we leave Bukavu for the States !

Never know if we’re coming or going, with all there is to do to get the radio station and journalists and household, workers (three men who will guard while we’re gone) and animals all taken care of – and for the month of July -- before we leave. I don’t think we’ll go to bed tonight as usual with these long trips!

We just want to thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, for your wonderful gifts which have made it possible for us to get it all squared away, so we could make the trip! We were truly trusting the Lord – against hope with many details -- to help us; and He has helped us through you!! We know it’s all in our Lord’s Planning for each of our lives! How awesome are His Works!

You are in our prayers, too, and we ask for yours as we make this trip, a very important trip, and we Praise our Lord for your faithfulness to us and the work through the years!

Love and with Thanksgiving in our hearts,

Rich and Kathy

A New Milestone

Bercky, our Radio Kahuzi journalist during the wars (1996 to 2007 ) rejoices to receive and prepares to deliver the "FM transmitter in a suitcase" to Walungu, where he now directs his own FM station for the Mwami and will maintain and operate our relay station high in the mountains overlooking Bukavu and Lake Kivu. Re-establishing this Translator Site is the beginning of our goal to form an FM relay network throughout the region.

Bercky and the Mwami operated this same translator for us for about a year -- until the war in 1996, when that village and the FM translator were pillaged by the invading military. Today Bercky is installing a longer coax cable to place the antenna even higer for better outreach. He is also changing our relay from FM-to-FM to SW-to-FM to avoid interferance from other FM stations in Rwanda crowding our FM frequency.

Because there is electricity only part of the time, we are preparing a 4-battery bank with charger to run the system on 48 volts DC. Lord willing, in other sites in the different provinces, we will use solar panels to recharge the batteries.

Radio Kahuzi Journalist Traveling with Senators and Ministers

(Gregoire - left - preparing for journey with Senators and Ministers)

Gregoire, our journalist, will go with Senators and Ministers today and distribute 52 Shortwave to cover all the localities of the Fizi Territory and blankets for the vulnerable ones / retournees from Refugee camps. Gregoire will be recording the meetings for our archives and for broadcast to the population upon his return. One aspect of these meetings is to announce and plan the installation of our network, as well as to obtain commitments from representatives of each of the tribes / language groups to work with us to establish listener groups / radio clubs to record and send feedback to our broadcasts, to maintain and guard our equipment and to develop a site that is secure for each of our transmitters.

These government officials are willing to work with us to install 4 or 5 Relay Sites in that part of South Kivu. We will have pictures and video of this meeting and of all the leaders from Fizi Territory at Fizi Center, 11 -12 April.

Our plan is to purchase the first of five 250 Watt FM translators, which will pick up and reach further into the valleys of the Fizi Territory.

Please pray for the LORD's Wisdom and Direction.
Keep Looking UP! And Keep On Keeping ON!!

Love, Richard & Kathy

Another Request for Radios from Militia Forces!

Hi again !

What fast follow-up ! Praise the Lord for Samuel Katambwe, Coordinateur of the Kahuzi Radio Clubs developing at Kigalube and Kiluma.

He is back with the Pastor President of the radio club and another letter, this time from the Interhamwe Commander over Thomas. And another Activity Report from the club. They are opening radio clubs in several more villages with one requested by the Hutu refugees.

The Comandant Oscar at Kigulube thanks us for having the courage to greet them each time and to have sent radios to them. They have need of our programming and information and are committed to make it a must to follow our transmissions. He encouraged me to send another five Galcom short wave radios and he will give them to civilians and military under his supervision.

It is very positive to see that the civilians have the ok to form a listeners' club. With that there is the responsibility to have at least one community activity to help others near them that are in need. Now we will be more sure they are listening to a chapter a day from the Bible in their Kinya-Rwandan language. We are going through Romans again this week.

Lord willing, we will send radios, blankets, tracts, Gospels of John, a soccer ball, a ram of paper, some bics, etc. to help them organize the community radio clubs..

It's late. Shaking continues this morning, so Kathy is sleeping in the car...
I'm headed for the couch til morning.

Keep Looking UP !

In His Love, Richard & Kathy

Earthquake Update from Rich and Kathy

These last two weeks have been really stressful to say the least. Two Sundays ago, as we were getting ready to go to church; suddenly, the house started rocking back and forth with such force, I thought it was going to come down. The whole thing took 30 seconds, but it was so forceful, that the “experts say” that if that had gone on for any more time, Bukavu would have come falling down. I have never felt so helpless and scared in my life. It was just out of this world. Since Feb. 3, when it hit, we’ve had another big one and then, the after shock waves keep coming and coming. We’ve been kept busy, trying to get back to normal life, but always mindful, that anytime the tremors come and we have to run out the door. It’s really no fun and really sooo stressful. Yesterday and now today, the 20th, I haven’t really felt any, except once yesterday, I felt the house budge a little.

Quite a few new cracks in the walls, one that really expanded. Many houses that weren’t built properly came down, and even some of the old timer houses have big cracks and separations in the walls. After that first quake, when we went out into the street to see how the neighbors were doing, all shaken, we were surprised to see walls around the neighbors yards had fallen down, something we have never seen around here. Usually the earth quakes are just little so this all has been just devastating for so many folks.

This all reminds us of how when the rapture takes place. In a twinkle of an eye, just like this earthquake, without warning, it comes. Sure reminds us of how frail we are and how powerful God is and God’s forces are!!!

Anyway, today is much better, not so nerve wracking, still sleeping by the front door at night, just in case it comes again. A few nights, when the quakes were so bad, I slept in the car, that way when they came, the car just rocked back and forth, not the whole house. Got more sleep that way.

Thank you for your prayers, we truly have needed them these past two weeks, as always, but more so in this situation. They say the rocks in the rift shifted, and just have to get back in line again. This area is part of the great rift valley.

Better close and get some lunch ready. We’re o.k. and thanking our Lord that much more didn’t happen.

Love and praying for you each day.

Rich and Kathy