“I like supporting DXAS (FEBA Philippines),” a listener shared recently. “Especially for people from my tribe … because DXAS’s programs make a difference in people’s lives. They keep you updated on what’s going on in Zamboanga.”
FEBA Philippines celebrated its 76th anniversary this year and testimonies like the above-mentioned one attest to its enduring impact. Bob Bowman, one of FEBA’s founders, formulated the organisation’s approach as follows: “[FEBA] wants to get close to the listener.”
Today, FEBA Philippines still strives to stay true to this vision.
By all means
In 1 Corinthians 9:22, Paul writes: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” In FEBA Philippines’ case, this applies to the channels and platforms they use to reach people.
There are 180 people groups in the Philippines, each with its own language or dialect. Naturally, ministering in such a fantastically diverse country requires a special approach. This is what FEBA excels at, according to former national director and current board member of FEBA Philippines, Dan Cura: “We let their own local people teach their own people … Because they’re from that province, they know exactly what to say and how to say it in the proper way to reach them with the message of Jesus Christ.”
The FEBA Philippines ministry has two parts. Firstly, they run two shortwave stations at Iba and Bocaue, broadcasting to around 3 billion people across Asia, in more than 40 languages. Secondly, they have a lively local ministry: 13 radio stations that reach about 30 people groups in their own languages; YouTube and Facebook channels; and several specially developed apps. This includes one to stream their radio programs, one to reach young adults, and one for overseas Filipino workers.
FEBA Philippines also seizes opportunities to reach people outside of broadcasting. Papuri, a project dating back to the late 1970s to create authentic Filipino Christian music, is now a huge annual music festival. Typhoon season also inspired the First Response Radio initiative, where teams use portable suitcase radios to establish emergency radio stations in disaster-stricken areas within 72 hours.
Initiatives like these, says Dan Cura, “galvanise a relationship that tells our own people in their own languages that we care for you and the Lord cares for you, because there are people who love the Lord that want to reach out to you.”
Second life
Joshua Badol, a construction worker in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, discovered FEBA Philippines’ The New J, the only Christian station in that region, in 2018. The son of a pastor, he had drifted from the Lord for 12 awful years: he got into drugs, his girlfriend of eight years left him for another man and fell pregnant, and Joshua spiralled into depression.
“It kept getting worse until I lost all hope,” he says. “That’s when I tried to commit suicide … I put a gun to my head and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire. God had a different plan … He gave me a chance at a second life.”
After this miracle, Joshua found The New J. “Every day, I listened to their programs and their songs, and little by little, my spiritual life in the Lord was revived.” Today, he is happily married and serves in his church’s worship team with his wife.
“I’ll continue to pray to the Lord that FEBA’s stations may have an even wider reach,” says Joshua. “That more people will be led to the Lord through their programs. That even faraway places will be reached through the programs.”
Amen.
