Haiti and Chile on Chinese Broadcasts

As I write these words, the world is still learning about the giant earthquake in Chile.  Last month the world absorbed the news about the devastation in Haiti.  And no one knows what will happen tomorrow!

Our programming stays ten days or two weeks ahead of broadcast, but sometimes world events—such as earthquakes—dictate that we interrupt regular programming and response to a disaster.  Our equipment allows us to do this, and so early in the morning of March 1, Ed Ho wrote and recorded a prayer for the people of Chile.  Both the text and the audio were posted on our website www.smzg.org almost immediately and the material was aired on KNLS a few hours later.  (Thanks to a fast Internet connection and special cooperation from our teammates in Anchor Point, Alaska.)

Events such as earthquakes and tsunamis give us opportunity to show that Christianity must not be hidden in the cloister, but hurled into every community.  God is there and Gods loves whether the sea is calm or the earth quakes.  In his prayer, Ed Ho assured our listeners that God is in Chile and that he loves those people and that he loves everyone who listens to the broadcast.

We sent a number of special segments to Anchor Point for broadcast regarding the earthquake in Haiti in February, then later we began incorporating them into our normally scheduled broadcasts.  A few Chinese peacekeepers were killed in that earthquake, so we mentioned them in our program.  We told about some rescue efforts by Christian brothers and sisters as well.

Our regular broadcasts in February included special programming for Chinese New Year.  Ed Ho wrote a series of segments of the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.  The word “blessing” in Chinese (福—fu) is a major concept during Chinese New Year.  This so happens to be the same word used by translators to communicate the term “blessed are” in Matthew 5, and so in Chinese “beatitudes” is translated “the eight blessings.”  Ed Ho wrote a series of eight scripts that were aired during Chinese New Year that illustrated God’s blessings and showed how the blessings God gives are different from the blessings that mankind seeks through fortune and fame.

Ed Ho also recorded the series “God Says” which stressed the importance of God’s word on various subjects. 

When appropriate, we introduce interesting aspects of Americana.  Bob’s Red Mill was in the news in February when the president, Bob Moore, announced that he was giving the company to his employees.  Such a story not only gives our Chinese audience a fresh interpretation regarding business, ethics, profit and wealth, it also enables us to speak to them about values, friendship, faithfulness and God.

During February, our Chinese website www.smzg.org enjoyed over 8,000 hits per day.  Some of the most popular articles were Ed Ho’s prayers for Haiti and Salina Ho’s “Love Covers All Sins.”  If one happens to type the phrase “爱能遮掩过犯”  (love covers all sins) into the Yahoo/China search engine, some 130,013 items are found, and the very first one is Salina’s article.  If one types the more common phrase “无条件的爱” (unconditional love) into the Yahoo/China search engine, some 13,503,402 items are located, and the ninth item in this list is Salina’s article by this name!  How excited we are that our articles are being read by Chinese around the world!  We thank God for every person who visits www.smzg.org and who listens to KNLS!  Thanks for reading!