Chad (MNN) — Illiteracy is creating difficulty in sharing the Gospel with tribal peoples in Africa. Back to the Bible is assisting Mark and Diane VanderKooi missionaries with The Evangelical Alliance Mission, or TEAM to build a radio station in Chad to reach out to the Kwong people.
VanderKooi says, “For many years we’ve been a little bit frustrated with the fact that people can’t read, which means they can’t appreciate the Scriptures. We thought for many years that if they can’t read the Scriptures it would be very nice if they could listen to the Scriptures. And, radio was the obvious way to be able to do that.”
While the radio station has been tested and on the air, they plan to begin regular broadcasting at the end of the year.
Back to the Bible helped the VanderKooi’s in an important way. “They actually helped us mainly by raising the money to build this thing. They recorded four interviews with us and broadcast them on their broadcast with Dr. Kroll and the Lord’s people were very generous and responded.”
There’s about 15,000 Kwong speakers in Chad. VanderKooi says, “The Kwong are one of a group of very small tribes that are sandwiched between the very large non-Muslims in the south and Muslims to the north and they’re a very strategic place in the world. And, they’re farmers and they need the Gospel.”
VanderKooi explains what they’ll be offering on the only radio station on the FM dial: “We’d like to make it a combination of things. We’d like to broadcast Scripture and Bible teaching and then also have public affairs announcements that would draw the attention of non-Christians as well.” They would begin the broadcasts in two or three languages, with the goal of broadcasting up to five.
