Guam: Paulsen, Leaders Rededicate Adventist World Radio Studios

Guam: Paulsen, Leaders Rededicate Adventist World Radio Studios

Agat, Guam | Shelley Nolan Freesland/ANN Staff

Dozens of supporters of Adventist World Radio joined Seventh-day Adventist world church president Pastor Jan Paulsen and AWR executives for a celebratory rededication of the shortwave service's renovated station in Guam Feb. 26.

During the rededication program, Pastor Djoko Soewarso, communication director and AWR speaker of the West Indonesia Union Mission, described the work of AWR in his country: “The most popular [AWR] programs in Indonesia are those concerning health and the family. Especially exciting is that over 70% of letters and phone calls from listeners request the free Bible Correspondence Course, which is offered at the end of every broadcast.”</p><p>[Photo: Adventist World Radio]
During the rededication program, Pastor Djoko Soewarso, communication director and AWR speaker of the West Indonesia Union Mission, described the work of AWR in his country: “The most popular [AWR] programs in Indonesia are those concerning health and the family. Especially exciting is that over 70% of letters and phone calls from listeners request the free Bible Correspondence Course, which is offered at the end of every broadcast.”</p><p>[Photo: Adventist World Radio]

During a tour of AWR’s shortwave radio station on Guam, Dr. Jan Paulsen records an interview in Mandarin and English with Pastor Daniel Jiao, communication and southwestern region director of the Chinese Union Mission.</p><p>[Photo: Adventist World Radio]
During a tour of AWR’s shortwave radio station on Guam, Dr. Jan Paulsen records an interview in Mandarin and English with Pastor Daniel Jiao, communication and southwestern region director of the Chinese Union Mission.</p><p>[Photo: Adventist World Radio]

AWR Guam staff welcome world church leaders and guests to the shortwave station. [Photo: Adventist World Radio]
AWR Guam staff welcome world church leaders and guests to the shortwave station. [Photo: Adventist World Radio]

Dozens of supporters of Adventist World Radio joined Seventh-day Adventist world church president Pastor Jan Paulsen and AWR executives for a celebratory rededication of the shortwave service’s renovated station in Guam Feb. 26.

“The ministry of AWR ... is engaged in spreading a witness and a testimony that doesn’t have to go through passport control at any borders,” Pastor Paulsen said. “That [signal] can go into any country, any part of the world and leave a testimony.”

He added, “AWR is an invaluable partner in the mission of the church. The Seventh-day Adventist Church ... could not possibly begin to finish the assignment given to us without the service, without the ministry of AWR.”

Currently, broadcasts in more than two dozen languages are beamed from the Guam station to various parts of the world. “Guam is our primary and flagship station throughout the world,” said Benjamin Schoun, AWR president.

Schoun told those attending the rededication, “During the next year or two, we have another 15 languages that we want to begin using. A number of these will broadcast from our Guam station.”

From a vespers service hosted by the Agana Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church, under the leadership of local pastor Kyran John, to the rededication keynote address by Paulsen, attendees voiced their appreciation of seeing so many levels of the church represented in several programs held throughout the weekend.

The church in Guam-Micronesia hosted an island-wide church service, which included musical features by the local church’s Department of Correction Praise Team and presentations by leaders of the Southern Asia-Pacific Adventist church region, Alberto Gulfan Jr., president, and Jonathan Catolico, communication director.

A highlight of the rededication program was speaker Djoko Soewarso, a former Muslim from Indonesia who is now the communication director and AWR speaker for the Adventist Church in West Indonesia. He described the effectiveness of AWR’s approach to ministry, where local producers—native speakers of the language who understand the culture and mindset of the listeners they are speaking to—create programs.

“In terms of this wonderful station, it is bricks and mortar,” noted Ted N.C. Wilson, a general vice president of the Adventist world church. “It is a mass of complicated, complex electronic activity and installation. It is a lot of wires, towers, antennas, and yet it has one purpose. And that is to lift up Jesus and the news of his second coming. ... It is not just a nice mechanical setting, but it is at this very moment providing people with the hope we have in Jesus.”

AWR currently broadcasts programs in 64 languages worldwide. These broadcasts travel thousands of miles by shortwave, reaching listeners in countries such as China, Cambodia, and the Philippines, and as far away as India.