let's be social!
Unfortunately, we are still in Kampala waiting on and praying for the day when everything in South Sudan calms down enough for us to get back to Nasir. Fortunately, while we are here in Kampala, we have been able to take part in Every Village’s radio training.
Let me explain a bit.
Every Village currently has three radio towers up and broadcasting in South Sudan: Aweil, Tonj, and Nasir. The tower in Aweil is shared with a partner organization called Cush4Christ. They run Wëër Bei FM (in Dinka, wëër bei means “redemption”), which is a Christian radio station that is already capable of producing content and broadcasting live. The tower in Tonj is maintained by our partner organization, In Deed and Truth Ministries. While there isn’t live broadcasting yet in Tonj (there will be soon), In Deed and Truth helps ensure that Every Village’s pre-recorded content is broadcast daily. Finally, the tower in Nasir is also still broadcasting pre-recorded content, but as soon as we are able to return, Blaise and Jared will have the big task of transforming our little radio building into a studio, which will then be capable of producing and broadcasting live content.
In November, we had three visitors come to Nasir: Peter, Andrew, and Daniel. They came with the mission of interviewing and hiring men who would work in our radio station in Nasir (and they went to Tonj to interview and hire men for that station, too). Amazingly, even with the conflict in South Sudan and travel incredibly limited throughout most of the country, almost all of the men hired were able to travel by bus from South Sudan to Kampala the weekend before radio training was scheduled to begin. One man from Nasir was unable to leave, and at that point, cell phone towers were already down and we had no way of communicating with him. However, our other radio guy from Nasir was already in Kampala and he, along with our team, will be able to relay all of the training to John Palek once we return.
So, the training is six weeks long and features a new guest speaker each week, mostly from other radio organizations (like HCJB Global and KSBJ in Houston). They touch on topics ranging from the technical aspects of running a radio studio (mixers and transmitters) to the basics of being an on-air radio announcer (how to relate authentically to your audience, how to pray on air, etc.). It has been really neat to get to know the five South Sudanese men better and to learn more about running a radio station. While we do wish we were in Nasir right now, we are very thankful for this opportunity to fellowship with our colleagues from all over South Sudan!
Here are a few pictures from radio training last week with Jon Hull, from KSBJ Houston.
This is Daniel Lual. He’s been on this blog many times before, but he heads up the radio program on this side. He’s incredibly gifted as a radio personality and has one of the biggest hearts around!
Kang Deng Ruey is one of our radio personalities in Nasir. He, along with John Palek, will be starting our live broadcasting as soon as we’re up and running.
And, of course, you all know Christina. She was a good student and volunteered answers at training.
The man in the middle is David, and he is from Tonj and has actually gone through In Deed and Truth’s pastor training. The man on this end is Albino, and he is also from Tonj. These guys each bring something unique to the program, and it’s really neat to see how God is and will continue to use them.
This is Marko, also from Tonj. He’s incredibly sharp and like the others, has a unique set of gifts that he brings to radio.
Please pray for these men as they finish training in the coming weeks and head back to South Sudan.
