Today, hundreds of people remain in public shelters. Thousands have no electricity or running water. “Buildings have been flattened, and infrastructure has been completely torn down to the ground,” Trans World Radio’s Daryl Renshaw says.

“Parts of Guam look like a warzone.”

From Guam, TWR broadcasts the hope of Christ throughout Asia, reaching places like China and North Korea. Believers in these countries “greatly rely on the broadcast we do each night because some of them have no other way to hear the Gospel,” Renshaw says.

Mawar battered TWR equipment, taking programs off the air for several days. More about that here. TWR’s team quickly took action.

“Over the past two and a half weeks, they’ve been moving broadcast projects to other service providers. Many of them [are] in different parts of Asia, and one in the northern part of Australia,” Renshaw says.

Super Typhoon Mawar mangled all five of TWR’s antennas, damaging two beyond repair.
(Photo courtesy of TWR)

Global intercession began as Mawar approached Guam in late May and after the storm passed. Thankfully, the Lord hears the prayers of His people. “[Last] Thursday night, our Guam station came back on the air with one of the antenna systems, and that’s been a big help,” Renshaw says.

“We’re hoping to have another of the five antennas up by the end of this week.”

Use the prompts listed alongside this report to continue praying for Guam. “The number one prayer [need] right now is for God to encircle our team with His protection and minister to them and their families,” Renshaw says.

“Our team members perform these repairs at an elevation of anywhere from 100 to 150 feet
above the ground.”

Help TWR get the hope of Jesus back on the airwaves here. Super Typhoon Mawar presented the ministry with an unforeseen major expense. TWR must raise $338,000 to cover the costs beyond what insurance will pay to fix the extensive damage.

“Several years ago, our stewardship team concluded that it made good sense for us to accept some risks to keep the premiums for insurance at a lower level,” Renshaw says.

“We took a higher deductible, and as a result, we’re trying to cover that deductible amount through donations.”

In the header image, a team member shows one of the broken wires left behind by Super Typhoon Mawar. (Photo courtesy of TWR)

Initial reports from TWR staff indicate that a last-minute turn to the north seems to have allowed our broadcasting facility on the southern end of the island to escape severe damage. That’s incredibly important news for the millions in countries like North Korea, China and India for whom KTWR is a rare – and in many cases the only – source of solid Gospel teaching.

While there were concerns that Mawar would bring 150 mph sustained winds to the transmitting facility, the highest gust measured [locally] at 108 mph. Media reports said winds on the northern end reached 140 mph.

Steve [Brunson] is the chief engineer at KTWR and has kept us updated via his contacts 8,000 miles away. Showing us the tracking of Mawar on his phone app, Steve said, “You can see that it was headed in here to bull’s-eye Guam, and then it did this little jink to the north and the eye passed north of the island. God’s hand!”

Guam (MNN) — The National Weather Service expects Super Typhoon Mawar to reach peak force today in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.

This little island nation is an essential location for Trans World Radio. “That’s where we broadcast [to] most of Asia – China, North Korea, India – and we have big listening audiences in those countries,” TWR President/CEO Lauren Libby says.

Gospel programming is off the air until Mawar passes. “We’ve shut the station down and moved everybody to high ground,” Libby says.

“They’re anticipating five- to six-foot swells, 150- [to] 160-mile-an-hour winds. Our towers are only certified for [winds at] 130 mph.”

Super Typhoon Mawar’s expected path.
(Graphic courtesy of National Weather Service via Twitter)

Mawar became a super typhoon early on Tuesday, meaning it has sustained winds of at least 150 mph. That’s the equivalent of an intense Category 4 hurricane.

As long as Mawar stays on its forecasted path, it will be the most significant storm to hit Guam since 2002.

Pray that the Lord will have mercy and spare Guam from severe damage. “This is where God can move, and we’ve seen this before,” Libby says.

“There was a typhoon coming through about 15 years ago in Guam. People went to prayer, and literally, it moved 15 miles north. There’s no reason why it should have happened.”

Pray the TWR station and equipment will not need repairs.

“We will probably have to repair antennas because shortwave antennas differ greatly from medium wave or F.M. antennas. Then, we have to reload all the programming with our playout system,” Libby says.

“It’s ‘all hands on deck’ in a situation like this.”

Header image depicts Super Typhoon Mawar. (Wikimedia Commons)

Kim Il-Sung statue on Mansu Hill in the background. [Photo, caption courtesy of (stephan) under Creative Commons via Flickr: https://goo.gl/kvynxz]

Officials in Guam have since updated warning sheets and preparedness plans for its residents in case of a missile or nuclear attack. Guam Homeland Security spokeswoman Jenna Gaminde says if North Korea fired a missile at Guam, it would take only 14 minutes to reach the island. However, Mike Pompeo, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, assures that an attack from North Korea does not seem imminent.

But even as North Korea postures with missile launch threats, TWR in Guam has already been launching something else into North Korea. Something they can’t shoot down. Something that has extreme impact. Something that combats the stalwart grip of tyranny and fear and hatred — radio broadcasts of the Gospel.

Libby shares, “We take Korean programming, we produce programming in Seoul, and it’s backhauled by the internet and broadcasted from Guam every night. And we know there are listeners because we get responses back out there. People actually take their lives in their hands to make a response, to get a letter out or some sort of message out of North Korea letting us know that they’ve been listening.

“I think it’s kind of like one of our missionaries said: ‘You know, the North Koreans may lob missiles at Guam, but we’re going to lob hope back in response.’ And I think that was an excellent analysis of the situation as to how TWR views it.”

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

In doing so, TWR is encouraging the remnant Church in North Korea. But the job is risky. North Korea is the number one persecutor of Christians, according to Open Doors’ World Watch List. And an outside radio is considered an illegal commodity in North Korea.

“The stories we’ve got is that people who have a radio keep it in a plastic bag and will bury it during the daytime and then dig it up at night and listen to the broadcast. A lot of times, people listen in very small groups in homes. We know that there are groups of believers in North Korea and we know that the Church is alive and well and probably growing under persecution.”

TWR currently hopes to increase their programming into North Korea by up to two hours so they can reach more people, whoever can listen, with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

As for the missile threats coming out of North Korea, Libby says their staff members in Guam are staying alert while staying on-mission.

“I would say they are not panicked. They are concerned [and] they are taking efforts to prepare for whatever comes down the road…. For our staff there, I would say it’s probably just really deep in their commitment to the fact that every night with 250,000 watts and big short-wave transmitters, we speak as much hope as we can in there, in the midst of a situation that is deteriorating. Because if something does happen, there is only one place to find hope, and that’s Jesus.”

For now, Libby encourages believers to pray with confidence in God’s sovereignty. “We really need to pray for the situation, because it’s not the United States and it’s not North Korea [in charge]. Jesus is still the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and nothing has escaped His notice…. Let’s just really pray that the Lord would take care of this situation and be actively involved in it.”

Click here to learn more about TWR at their website.

Out of the 7.2 billion people on the planet, around 4.2 billion have no access to the internet, according to a report by the United Nations’ Broadband Commission. That means over half of the global population has no access to a digitized Bible source option.

And especially for isolated communities, digital access is often the easiest way to reach them with the Gospel.

However, due to a major recent breakthrough by Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), they were able to deliver the Bible to an unconnected smartphone using shortwave radio towers over 3,000 miles for the first time ever.

The transmission towers used to send the data package over 3,000 miles for the first time! (Photo courtesy of FCBH)

Troy Carl, Vice President of FCBH, explains, “Yesterday, we were able to transmit file casting data packets from Guam all the way to Thailand using shortwave frequencies, and we were able to do that in partnership with Trans World Radio. So it was really quite exciting! Basically what we did is created one-way internet access turning that tower into a super WiFi router. And that’s quite a story because it’s never been done!”

To put it another way, Carl wrote this description in a recent post:

Just like the one you use everyday in your house, where you connect a data source (internet cable) and a power source (you plug it in) and the little antennas broadcast internet around your house (say 500 ft.) and you connect to it with your phone to read/listen/see the data it’s transmitting.

In Guam, we took a HUGE antenna, (supplied by Trans World Radio), hooked up a data source (a Bible.is app device), turned the power on (250kw) and sent the data into the air bouncing it off the ionosphere over 3,000 MILES!

Our team in Chang Mai Thailand, hooked up to this giant router with a proprietary decompiler. Then sideloaded the Bible.is app with all its content to multiple smart phones using a simple wifi broadcaster!

This success is just phase two in a three-step program through FCBH called the Global Bible Network.

Carl shares, “About a year and a half ago we began developing a way to connect people to the Bible in their own language even when there’s no internet access around. So we put together an aerospace council bringing in industry experts.

“First we use satellites to penetrate difficult areas of the world. Then we use terrestrial towers to broadcast or relay that content around the world. And then last and final, we use cyber technology to distribute the content from phone-to-phone…. This particular test done in Guam successfully was the second leg of that particular Global Bible Network.”

The Bible.is app is available through Faith Comes By Hearing (Photo courtesy of FCBH)

This breakthrough is a big deal for the Great Commission.

According to The Joshua Project, 40.4 percent of the world’s people groups are still unreached; just over 3 billion people.

“It really is quite exciting because it means we have the potential of distributing Bible content directly to people’s mobile devices potentially using short-wave frequencies, very high frequencies. And we can do that without any kind of impediments all the way around the globe — even 3,000 miles away — without connectivity or traditional internet access,” says Carl.

“The next step is to integrate other frequency bandwidths such as FM, AM, VHF and a variety of others. Shortwave was the most difficult. Being able to achieve that with a very minimal data airway now allows us to expand into much broader frequency sets. Then what we do is integrate that into unique devices, possibly even a simple mobile app, that allows data to come to an individual without the traditional data plans.”

To complete the final phase of the Global Bible Network project, they could use funding for the transmission towers and satellite systems.

And currently, if you click here to donate to the Global Bible Network initiative with FCBH, a matching donor will double your gift!

“I think the important thing to remember is we’re living in an incredibly exciting time where even old technology or old understanding of technology can be leveraged in brand new ways and hopefully allow us to get the Gospel to every single human on earth,” Carl says. “Matthew 24:14 could be fulfilled even in our lifetime!”

(Photo courtesy of CBI)

Guam (MNN) — American missionaries Rose and Tom Van Engen are working with Crossroad Bible Institute (CBI) to start and stabilize a new campus in Guam.

Rose, who was a U.S. CBI instructor, and her husband recently moved from Iowa to begin ministry work in the territory for the upcoming years. Luggage wasn’t the only thing they brought with them. They had the proposed idea to start a new CBI campus.

“They knew of Crossroad and said ‘Hey, can we help start the ministry in Guam and build it up, get it to be self-sustaining for future students?’ And we looked at the options, looked at what we were capable of, and thought this was an excellent way to further broadcast Christ’s news,” says CBI’s Jacob Busscher.

The ministry, which shares the Truth and message of the Gospel with prisoners, students, and their families, is working in prisons in more than 20 areas around the world, and now Guam is one of them.

CBI’s work is just taking off in the territory, but Buscher says there’s enough room for 500 to 600 students.

“We’re looking at about 12 students to begin with, and we have 15 potential students on the way.”

Some lessons can take as long as a month to send feedback and completed lessons back and forth between students and instructors. But CBI’s satellite campus courses are making it easier and more time-effective to confer with each other.

“There is a nice and–if I can say–convenient factor with the satellite campuses,” Busscher says.

“The biggest factor here is actually reducing the time for these students and then providing an opportunity for better engagement, quicker communication, and closer contacts with those [in the territory] and also to directly facilitate the lessons into these prisons.”

The use of satellite courses are helping students to quickly and deeply develop their relationship with Jesus, and they’re able to share what they’re learning with family members.

As the new campus in Guam is opening, Busscher says, “Right now, we’re looking actually for instructors who are able to help with these students.”

Are you up for the challenge? Contact CBI at 616-530-1300 or check them out online.

“We will gladly connect you, whether that’s through an instructor, an encouragement, whether that’s coming in to volunteer and helping with a lot of our newsletters that get sent out. Also, we are always looking for prayers.”

Pray for the growth and stability of the new campus, and for students and their families to have open hearts while hearing the Gospel.

According to speaker, author, broadcaster and evangelist Ron Hutchcraft, it really should be Mandarin, because "Mandarin, by far, is the most spoken language on the planet."*

Hutchcraft explains, "We have a Christian radio program that is intentional about often presenting the Gospel and presenting the Gospel in non-religious language that people can understand. That turns out now, that in partnership with Trans World Radio, we have just been able to launch the Mandarin broadcast to the place where one out of five people live."

Specifically, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries (RHM) will be broadcasting (through the TWR partnership) the 4.5 minute short feature A Word With You to China in Mandarin. He says, "It's the simple format of a story, and then a Scripture, and then a ‘So what? So what if it says this?' It turns out that that format, we've been told, is going to be very powerful for the people of China because it's a story-telling culture."

The partnership has been nearly a decade in the making. Why bite now? Hutchcraft says it's time. Typically he talks with people "face-to-face, which I love to do in a room full of lost people. And I will continue to do that. But by way of radio and internet, I can present Jesus to more people in a week than I've done in an entire lifetime of all the face-to-face meetings I've ever had…maybe in a day….maybe in an hour."

TWR translates the program and produces the Mandarin version with a native speaker presenting Hutchcraft's words. The potential impact is uniquely God-timed, he adds. "God has given to our generation the single greatest rescue challenge in the history of the Church. Seven billion people. The orders haven't changed, only the numbers have changed: 'Go tell everyone, everywhere.' In that same generation, He has actually birthed the technology that will actually put that within reach."

Ralf Stores, TWR's director of ministry partnerships, said, "A Word With You fits in very strategically with TWR's commitment to reach the world's nearly 3 billion youth and children. Ron has a deep passion for reaching young people, and it is a joy and privilege to work side-by-side with a ministry that truly understands youth culture around the world and stops at nothing to reach them for Jesus."

Coincidentally, the first broadcast of A Word With You in Mandarin aired on April 2, the same week that Hutchcraft happened to be at TWR's international headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, to address the media organization's annual President's Forum. Stores presented him with a recorded copy of the program, which was broadcast to China on shortwave from TWR's major transmitter site on Guam.

Hutchcraft commented, "It's wonderful to know that I can sit in a radio studio [at] our headquarters, and what we do there, through a partnership with Trans World Radio, has the potential to get to the largest population in the world."

Calling the partnership a three-way heart match (between God's heart, TWR's mission, and Ron Hutchcraft's passion for evangelism), he also noted that this wouldn't be possible without the support of others in the body of Christ. "You have the front lines warriors, but you also have the prayer warriors. Then there are the supply warriors who support what's going on. The Bible says this about them: ‘How can they hear unless someone preaches; how someone can preach unless they are sent? '"

Want to see it for yourself? Click here to watch a video from the TWR "Mandarin Voice" who will be the voice of Ron Hutchcraft for the A Word With You programs translated into Mandarin.

*Audio taken from a studio interview at TWR headquarters in Cary, NC between Ron Hutchcraft and David McCreery, director of marketing and communications for the TWR Americas Region.

To celebrate this significant initiative, TWR President Lauren Libby and other ministry staff members will present an on-air dedication during a live broadcast Friday, November 18, from 8:30-9:00AM Eastern Standard Time. The 30-minute broadcast will begin at 1330 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 15.4 megahertz in the 19 meter band.

Libby says, "We're moving from 100,000 watts to 250,000 watts. Not only that, but they'll be digital."

"This upgrade gives TWR the opportunity to touch even more lives with the good news of Jesus Christ," continues Libby. "We thank God for the privilege of increasing our spiritual footprint in Asia."

Two 250,000-watt, digital-capable Thomson transmitters have been installed to provide increased coverage to the Asia region. These revitalized transmitters join three existing 100,000-watt units. Digital shortwave capability will enable TWR to reach both rural areas and large cities with a strong signal.

We asked Libby why digital is significant. "Frankly it sounds just about like FM radio. And India, China and Russia are rebuilding all of their broadcast platforms right now to go digital on both shortwave and what we call the 'AM band.'" TWR is now well-positioned for the future to reach listeners across Asia, and reception is excellent anywhere: from cities to dense forests.

In previous years, the challenge has always been radios to receive the digital signal. "That has basically been solved. There will be receivers under $20 in the next few years distributed, in many cases, by the countries because they want people to listen to digital. We'll be right there to provide the hope of Jesus in these countries."

Libby says with digital technology, "Not only can you transmit audio, but you can also transmit data. The applications of that are numerous."

To celebrate the official sign-on, a special broadcast will be airing from Guam and also broadcasting on KTIS-AM in Minneapolis. Moody Radio and KCBI will air the special simulcast. Special guests for the dedication broadcast include Dr. Alan Cureton: president of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota; Collin Lambert–vice president of Moody Radio in Chicago, Illinois; and Mike Tirone–general manager and senior vice president of KCBI-FM in Dallas, Texas. These three organizations, plus thousands of individuals around the globe, helped with the purchase and installation of the transmitters.

"As Moody Radio continues to expand its global focus, TWR is one of the leading organizations that we are pleased to partner with," says Lambert. "Our joint efforts tied to the [upgraded] transmitter in Guam have not only broadened our participation in spreading the Gospel throughout the world, but also allowed us to inform and mobilize our listeners in the process."

If you'd like to hear the broadcast, click here at 8:30-9:00AM (Eastern) on Friday, November 18.