No deaths were reported as a result of the mid-April flooding, but many homes and buildings were filled with dirty water. One such building was the Vozandes Media, a radio outreach that works under the auspices of the HCJB Global Germany World Office.

"We installed a new studio last month," says station director Horst Rosiak. "All the water went in, soaked the carpet and some electric stuff from our equipment."

The studio was soaked with about 10 to 15 centimeters of water, but it was not destroyed. Ecuador's rainy season also affected the station's transmitters.

"The AM transmitter and the FM transmitter also were affected by thunderstorms, but within one week, our engineers fixed it all."

The clean-up went amazingly quickly. Air time wasn't even lost, thanks to prerecorded programs and another nearby studio to use for production. Rosiak says heaters were brought in to dry out the carpet, electrical equipment and telephone hookups. By the end of last week, most everything was back to normal.

It continues to rain in Quito, however. "The weather report says we have at least one more week with thunderstorms and heavy rain," notes Rosiak. Pray that the rainfall would not incite another flooding incident.

Praise God that Vozandes Media was able to continue its ministry. The station provides music, discipleship programs, and Scripture to listeners in 12 different languages. Their allows them to produce podcasts and to broadcast all the way to Europe.

This ministry is vital in the South American nation. 94 percent of Ecuador is considered nominal Christian, but only 8.5 percent are actual evangelicals, according to the Joshua Project. Only about 54.8 percent of Ecuador has an significant established church (i.e. areas where the number of evangelicals is greater than two percent but less than or equal to five), according to Joshua Project research.

Pray that the Lord would continue to protect this beacon of hope and Truth in the country of Ecuador.

To learn more about HCJB's work in Latin America, click here.

Vozandes Media is the new name of the HCJB Global Voice German
Language Service (GLS).  It still
broadcasts from Ecuador, but now it works under HCJB Global's World Office in
Germany rather than under its Latin America region. 

In addition, Ecuador legally recognized Vozandes Media's
status as a non-governmental organization at the beginning of June. The ministry is also enjoying new office
space.

"I believe that the GLS is one of the few departments which
used the same office space for 43 years," said Horst Rosiak, who heads Vozandes
Media.

Due to the opening of an international airport near HCJB's
antennas, German and Low-German shortwave broadcasts to the Americas are scheduled
to end in 2010. Digital shortwave
broadcasts reach Europe and the Americas. 

Vozandes Media also reaches Europe through satellite and
through a service called Phonecaster. Europeans can dial a certain telephone number and choose from a variety of German-language
programs.  The most popular program is in
Low German. 

Listeners may also download podcasts over the internet. HCJB Global receives responses to its German-language
programs from 60 different countries. 

The programs began in 1953 when Mennonite Brethren
Missions/Services established the German Service, constructing the department's
offices at the station 13 years later in 1966.

Today, it broadcasts 14 hours of programming to Europe, South America,
and the South Pacific every week under the name Die Stimme der Anden (Voice of
the Andes).