4 June, 1948, 6 pm. FEBC Philippines’ first station, KZAS “Airways of Salvation” – now known as 702 DZAS “Agapay ng Sambayanan” successfully went on air, opening its maiden broadcast with the triumphant song, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”. 75 years later, FEBC Philippines’ single-hearted calling remains unchanged – communicating Christ to the world.
And God has given the increase.
From one studio and one antenna, the Gospel went out to the unreached in the Philippines and beyond. Portable Missionary (or ‘PM’) radios were distributed to places where people otherwise would have none. Mr. and Mrs. Para were amongst the Philippine’s inaugural religious station’s first listeners. The radio broadcasts of DZAS reached their island Mindoro, where there were no other Christians or missionaries. The couple shared in their own words, “The Spirit of Truth came upon us.”
Portable Missionary (or ‘PM’) radios then and now still reaching the unreached in hard-to-reach places.
Reaching 65% of the Philippines
Today, God’s story is heard in 65% of the country. 13 AM & FM radio stations and numerous online platforms weekly broadcast 1,500 hours of Christian content on-air, and 1,200 hours online. Biblical teaching, Papuri music (original Filipino Gospel music), and community-based and biblical lifestyle programs are delivered in 26 local languages. Each unique people group hears about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their own heart language.
Like God, who wants none to perish, the team’s heart is for no tribe to be left out. The team still distributes PM radios and sometimes critical supplies to the unreached and hardest-to-reach people groups. The areas are so remote that helicopters are used! Listeners in mountainous Ambaguio, Nueva Vizcaya were so impacted by the Kalanguya language broadcasts that they built the first church in the area.
FEBC Philippines’ stations across the country.
Reaching China and Southeast Asia
Even people groups outside the Philippines are being reached. One of the main motivators that started the ministry was to communicate Christ into China, which was closed to foreign missionaries. That broadcast started in 1949. Seven decades and five years later, the team weekly transmits 286 hours of shortwave broadcasts in 42 languages. The broadcasts reach an astonishing three billion listeners (approximately) in different people groups within China and Southeast Asia. One listener sent a photo of her well-worn handwritten Bible, which was her grandmother’s. Her grandmother had copied it down through a Bible dictation program titled ‘The Bible at Dictation Speed’.
Within the Philippines, 30 out of 202 people groups remain unreached*. Some live in deaf spots, which occupy 35% of the country. But as the team’s chosen verse for the 75th anniversary says, "What we have done, You have done” (Isaiah 26:10), God has grown the reach of the ministry. He’ll surely bring it to completion.
* Statistics from The Joshua Project.
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