Nazarene Youth Offer A "Better Solution" in Timor Leste

If you were visiting Dili, the capital city of Timor-Leste, on a Saturday or Sunday evening, you might see (hear) a number of youth tuned into one of their favorite radio stations, 89.5 FM. And if you timed it right, between 5-7 p.m. each weekend, you would see young people riveted to the friendly voices, interactive dialogue, and popular music being broadcast through the Nazarene radio program Solusain Diak Liu (A Better Solution). You might even see some of those same youth calling or SMSing the station on their cell phones to request a song or ask a question about an important issue in their life.

Why is (A Better Solution) such a popular and important program to so many young people in Dili? Since 2005 this radio ministry broadcast in the local Tetum (or Tetun) language, has been a voice of peace and comfort, offering stable, consistent advice for young people caught in the midst of civil unrest and economic despair.

One such youth is Claudina Viana. Claudina was invited to attend a Nazarene youth camp. At that event she came to know the Lord and committed her life to serve Christ. As part of her early discipleship, Claudina was asked to join a youth radio team to assist and learn from her mentor, Acy Lodja. During this early exposure to writing radio scripts, researching topics, previewing music, and searching scripture for answers, Claudina began to grow in her faith. She was involved in the program for four months every Saturday, then she felt called to attend the Nazarene Bible College in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to get more in-depth Bible training. After graduating in 2009, Claudina returned to Timor-Leste and resumed her involvement with the radio ministry as one of the main program hosts.

Before the program began, Acy Lodja and other Nazarene workers in Dili had already developed a positive relationship with community leaders. Through their active compassionate ministries and English language classes, the Nazarene ministry team became widely known in the community as being a caring, committed group of believers. Based on this positive reputation, 89.5 FM (Radio Voice) offered them a two-hour free time slot every Saturday to discuss relevant youth topics. Then in 2009, impressed by the consistency and positive content of the Nazarene radio team, the station offered an extension of this free airtime to another two hours each Sunday.

According to Claudina, the purpose of their radio program from the beginning has been ?to reach new people for Christ, particularly to help youth with their problems and help them to grow spiritually, and to let them know about the Church of the Nazarene.? During each program, Claudina says they receive anywhere from 15 to 20 responses from listeners via SMS or cell phone. These listeners are then followed-up on electronically or through personal visitation.

A recent example of this type of interaction was reported by team leader Wira Yuli. On February 13, 2010, a young woman, Zefa, sent an SMS to Wira while he was on the air. Zefa confided that her father was very sick in the local clinic. She requested that Wira visit her father as soon as possible. Immediately after the program, Wira went to see Mr. Zoao and pray with him. The family was very receptive to his kindness and readily accepted a book from him on how to become a follower of Christ. Since then Wira and his wife have been in constant contact with them and continue to disciple them towards faith in Christ.

Wira, Claudina, and the Timor-Leste Nazarenes continue to dream big dreams for expanding their radio outreach to compliment the many other community ministries (English classes, tutoring programs, hospital visitation, youth camps, Bible studies, etc). This past month, Claudina attended the Indonesia Media Network Conference in Bali with over 100 other broadcasters, representing dozens of radio networks in Indonesia. At the event, she realized that her team in Timor-Leste, though one of the few Christian media ministries there, is not alone. She was able to connect with many potential training and technical partners through this event.

Pray that this core broadcast team of young disciple-makers in Timor-Leste, led by Wira and Claudina, will continue to increase not only their airtime hours and broadcast locations, but also their spiritual influence on the youth and families of Dili and the developing nation of Timor-Leste.

If you would like to partner with them, you can help provide training scholarships for others like Claudina to become involved in media ministries in Timor-Leste:

http://broadcast.nazarene.org/projects.aspx

--- World Mission Broadcast Asia-Pacific