When Bob Bowman, John Broger, and William Roberts followed God’s lead to start a missionary radio to share Christ with the world, they had one particular country in mind – China. Hence, Far East Broadcasting Co. (FEBC) was born.
Their very first broadcast was aired from Shanghai. But by 1948, China had closed its doors to foreign missionaries. Yet airwaves can travel where no missionaries are allowed to tread. So FEBC moved its base to the Philippines, where the broadcasts continued to reach the unreached in the communist state.
When FEBC started its broadcasts, many unreached Chinese,
especially the women, were illiterate. ‘Bible in Dictation Speed’
was a key program that brought God’s Word to listeners.
Three Generations Touched
Song was one woman who heard the broadcast. One day, her husband brought home a radio set from Shan Xi province where he used to work. It was momentous as radios were expensive then. Song came across Radio Liangyou and started listening to it. She heard about Jesus in her language and received Him into her life.
Thereafter Song would summon the entire family to listen with her, including her grandson Wai. “Listening to the messages was like going to childcare. They accompanied me as I grew up,” Wai shared.
The Nanjing Tai Dong Seminary choir
provided FEBC with music for its broadcasts.
Song would often share these messages and her testimony with her family and other villagers. She would include Biblical truths in her reasoning to her grandchildren. “Her teaching was always very rational. Whenever my older brother and I got into an argument, her admonition became very helpful,” Wai recounts fondly.
“He saved my life”
“Under Grandmother’s influence, as well as regular listening to Liangyou programs, I began to know God in a real sense as early as my senior high years. He saved my life.”
Wai was riding a motorcycle to church one day when he came across a speeding truck. Just as the truck sped through the red traffic lights, Wai heard a voice charging him, “Get going, quick!” “I went as fast as I could, and because I did, I escaped being hit. That’s when I knew without a doubt that the God my grandmother and I believe in is a true God,” Wai voiced in awe.
"As a bonus, I came to know my wife through my Christian faith. Now our whole family are Christians, all because of grandmother’s Gospel radio. For that, I am grateful to God.”
Today, millions more ethnic Chinese living in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and around the world have joined Wai in listening to Radio Liangyou. Programs are available online, on traditional radio, and web app, in eight different languages. It is an exciting journey for FEBC’s Chinese Ministries to see generation after generation reached.
Facts:
441 people groups remain unreached in China (The Joshua Project).
FEBC broadcasts in 23 languages into China.
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