You’ve got no idea the empty feeling when Vision has gone off-air.
– Esther, Kangaroo Island
Esther is the local advocate who, with her late husband, helped Vision to begin broadcasting in Kangaroo Island, the place which registered the largest percentage of people nationwide who ticked ‘no religion’ in the 2016 census.
By her own admission, she’s lost for words when the transmitter goes down for some reason. ‘I’m lost without
it,’ she says. ‘I don’t know how to explain the feeling. I just depend on it all the time. There’s so much comfort in listening to God’s Word, and Vision is so wholesome.’
Even Esther’s dog, Coby, is a big fan of Vision. Whenever the Danny Gokey song, Here Comes the Comeback, starts then Coby gets up— ready to dance!
All across Australia, there are people like Esther who not only find real comfort in having Vision on all the time but experience a sense of grief and loss when it’s gone. For many who are blind or have another disability,
Vision is their ‘church’. As it is for people who live in such remote localities that a visiting minister only pops in every couple of months.
Our Broadcast Operations team are tasked with getting all systems up and running again when something goes wrong.
The challenges they face are many and varied. Like the station that wasn’t on air because the postie delivered the satellite dish to the wrong address! The Heat, Dust, Rats, Trees… and Postal Glitches neighbours were delighted with the gift! Then there are rodents who love the warmth of decoder boxes or the hazards of rain, wind, heat and dust.
Sometimes our team have to work out a way to contend with local trees—that have grown up in the ten years or so since the service was first put on and are now blocking the satellite link. And other times it’s simply the age of the instruments out in the field.
