Massive 75-metre tall antennas pierce the Philippine sky, with multiple kilometre-long transmission lines still relaying messages of hope decades after their construction. This is just one of the lasting legacies former FEBC Australia missionary Chris Cooper left in FEBC Philippines. Chris and his wife Marlene Cooper and their family of five children served in the Philippines and Singapore between 1997 and 2014.
Missionaries: Chris and Marlene Cooper
Dates of service: 1997–2014
Location: Philippines, Singapore
Roles: Project Engineer, Project Manager, Broadcast Director, Schedule Manager
It all started with a single presentation in a church service where a representative spoke about shortwave radio penetrating the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union. Chris was so determined to contribute that he asked the speaker what he should study at the university, shaping his life’s direction.
Chris and Marlene operationally supported FEBC broadcasts in 80 languages for approximately 80 hours of daily programming through multiple stations. The sophisticated antenna systems Chris helped to set up could reach from Indonesia to Russia, from Myanmar to China, with signals that could be adjusted to penetrate specific regions.
Throughout his service, Chris witnessed God's provision in extraordinary ways. "God kept sustaining the ministry, even though our budgeting didn't predict that we could. And that was a great testament to God's faithfulness. In our ways, that wouldn't have gone ahead,” Chris reflects. “Uncertainty in mission is not all bad - God can use it to increase people's faith. We need to leave space for God to work, though not recklessly," he shares thoughtfully.
Serving the locals and the persecuted
For Chris, local broadcasters – men and women whose lives read like those we read about in the Book of Acts inspire Chris’s service. "It was a great privilege to serve them in reaching their own people," Chris shares humbly. Many of the locals he worked with “had sacrificed a great deal to do what they were doing."
One unforgettable broadcaster from northwest Myanmar reminded Chris of the biblical David, having killed a lion with his bare hands and walked ten days just to reach school.
Reaching deep into places where traditional ministry couldn't penetrate was another motivator. "There were many stories of people who were shut up for one reason or another and only had a radio," Chris recalls, his voice carrying the weight of countless testimonies. Through crackling airwaves and despite hostile jamming signals, God's message found its way into homes where no missionary could enter.
The Hmong ministry particularly captured Chris's heart. He worked alongside broadcasters who had endured severe persecution yet radiated joy as they shared Christ's love through the airwaves. His passion grew as he considered the unreached Hmong in southern China: "A population of one to two million people who didn't have any real Christian witness," he explains. "They didn't even have a broadcast because they were a minority in China, but would be a really large people group anywhere else."
Years after his time in the field, Chris met Hmong believers whose first encounter with Jesus came through those very broadcasts – precious moments of seeing the fruit of the labour.
The antenna towers Chris helped establish are more than mere technological achievements; they stand as beacons of God's faithfulness, broadcasting hope to those who need it most, just as they did when Chris first helped establish them over two decades ago. As the internet and mobile signals join in the chorus of gospel broadcasts, Chris’s legacy lives on in countless stories of transformation – testimonies that demonstrate how God can take an engineer's practical skills and use them to broadcast His extraordinary love to the ends of the earth.