Time's flying here. We've been here at Radio-Télé 4VEH (notice the new "Télé" in the name, yes, TV!) in Cap-Haitien for more than five weeks, less than three weeks left. How did that happen? We've been busy, with not much energy left to blog, and not much cooperation from the internet to post much either. But today, so far, so good, so, here's the beginnings of a catch-up.
We arrived during the middle of 65th Anniversary week. I got called to go and meet a sweet lady who brought her donation to 4VEH for the anniversary. She wrote a note saying: "Thank you God for this radio, it's my university for life, it's listening to 4VEH I've learned everything in life". Bless her!
The girls did great during the 65th Anniversary thanksgiving service at 1st Baptist Church of Cap-Haitien, trying to sing along here. OMS field director Brett (on the right of this pic) was translating for the visiting team from Florida, in to help with the campus electrical project - and he needed a prod in the ribs from time to time to stay awake (he's a busy guy!).
A listener gave these lovely cakes. One of them ended up with us, yum!
Storly was, well, gorgeous - and did a fantastic job, as did the whole 4VEH team. Am proud of them all! Storly made two big announcements - the launch of 4VEH TV on a local Cap-Haitien channel (Channel 11), and the launch of 4VEH in Port-au-Prince, thanks to a new partnership between 4VEH, Radio Sentinelle 93.9 FM and the Haiti Baptist Convention. Both are big news, big answers to prayer. More on that later.
Key leaders from the evangelical community took part in the service too, and called Storly a visionary (which is true!) for leading the station into these two new areas, TV and into the capital city. As always, great to see and hear the support expressed for 4VEH, great to hear leaders encouraging everyone to be part of supporting the ministry in prayer and financially, great to hear the pride expressed in 4VEH.
And great to see the banners I designed back in Columbus were doing their job!
In the afternoon, the 4VEH family - staff, family and special friends of the ministry - celebrated together at a banquet held in the 4VEH auditorium (upstairs in the radio station). A jazz band did a great job!
It was fantastic to see these two big cheeses together! Storly and Gaudin Charles, the only Haitians to have held the position of Station Manager at 4VEH. Both well-known and -loved voices on the air too. Gaudin, who works from his home in Florida, (representing 4VEH among the Haitian community there, and producing radio programs for 4VEH) was the special preacher for the anniversary service. I had the pleasure of interviewing him on video too - he has some great stories about how 4VEH touches people's lives. He's worked at 4VEH for 50 years! And though we've worked together for a number of years, we've never been at the station at the same time.
The third 'launch' at the anniversary was the new Parole Vivante Living Word bible drama CD (produced in 1960s, still on the air, just released on CD). Here Gaudin, who was one of the voices on Parole Vivante, explains how they made some of the sound effects, clang, bang, clack....
One of the projects I'm working on is building repairs, renovations and remodeling, especially the 'public spaces' of the building, including the auditorium. The radio station, though called the 'new building' is now 15 years old, and has served the ministry well. But now it's time for maintenance, repairs, and updates to make it more functional, more attractive, and more inspiring.
The auditorium in particular is well used by the public - hundreds of people use it every week for weddings (sometimes two or three weddings a day!), conferences, and church services and celebrations. So as we've been using the auditorium, I've been taking special note of how it is used. Though we're still working on putting the official project together to raise funds and book teams to come in and help fix, repaint, re-carpet, we've made some progress already. You'll see some pictures of the progress soon!
Yum!
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