An exciting development has happened in the partnership between the different African nations involved in Christians Broadcasting Hope. In December 2008, CBH-Swahili producer, Pastor Obed Okech, got on a plane for the first time in his life to fly from Kenya to Côte d’Ivoire. He came to spend a week working with our sound technician, Issa Kouenaon, and CBH-French speaker Daniel N’Goran, helping us fine tune the French programs by acting as a consultant in sound production and editing. Despite language and cultural differences, a relationship has developed into a promising partnership that brings together significant young leaders of the church from opposite ends of Africa. They’re committed to the same task of reaching their continent with the hope of Christ, and they’re also convinced that an effective way to do that is through the powerful and pervasive medium of radio. Thank you for helping send Obed to Côte d’Ivoire. You’ve empowered both CBH-Swahili and CBH-French to work together in spreading the gospel to all of Africa.

We’ve been working hard to get CBH-French up and running in Côte d’Ivoire, and a higher production quality plays an important role as we continue to market the broadcast to radio stations around the country. My name is Larry Sellers, and I, along with my wife LeAnn, am a missionary in Côte d’Ivoire with an organization called Church of God Ministries, the ministry organization under which CBH also operates. We’re currently working to make sure that all of French-speaking West Africa has the opportunity to hear the hope of Jesus Christ. In order to do that, we’ve been planting churches, teaching church leaders, and have even started a Bible school in West Africa called IBAO that is framed much like Kima International School of Theology in East Africa. It’s a place where young Christian leaders in West Africa can be taught and empowered to share the hope of Christ in a healthy, holistic, and self-sustaining way. These efforts have been quite successful recently, and we just returned in February from a trip to a country to the north of Côte d’Ivoire: Burkina Faso. In one weekend trip to Burkina Faso, close to forty people heard about Jesus for the first time, asked him to be a part of their lives, and wanted to know more about beginning a church. It’s an exciting time to be sharing the hope of Christ in West Africa, and a major part of our vision to reach out to this area of the world is through radio evangelism with CBH’s French broadcast now in Côte d’Ivoire. We’ve been working to make this broadcast a reality, and we wanted to give you an update on what’s been happening recently at CBH-French with funds that you’ve been giving to spread the hope of Christ.

A recording studio has been set up and equipped in the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire: Yamoussoukro. A speaker and technician are in training (a part of this training was their time working with Obed Okech from Kenya) and they’ve already been producing higher quality broadcasts that have been presented to various radio stations in Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso. We’ve now been provisionally accepted as members of the Evangelical Radio Association in Côte d’Ivoire, which will allow us to broadcast on its network of Christian stations developing across the country. We are currently poised to begin airing broadcasts in July 2009 on a station that reaches the entire city of Abidjan, which has a population of five million people, and we hope by the end of the year to air programs on a similar Christian network in Burkina Faso. Eventually, in order to reach our goal of changing the face of West Africa with the hope of Christ, we’d like to see CBH-French aired on shortwave radio all across the French-speaking areas of the continent through the extensive network of Trans-World Radio. This would open many new doors of outreach to CBH and the Church of God across West Africa and beyond. With your help, CBH-French promises to change the world by choosing hope. Thanks for being involved in this ministry with us. We’re changing the world one broadcast at a time.

by Larry Sellers
Missionary to Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa