Vision Logo Circle
Vision Logo Circle

Thirty years for answered prayer

by | Tue, Mar 29 2016

Text size: A- A+
Bundaberg from the air

Bundaberg from the air

Imagine waiting 30 years for your prayers to be answered!

For many of us, patience is not our best quality. Our ‘on demand’ culture expects God to act, and in the next thirty seconds!

But doing great things for God rarely happens that quickly.

  • Jesus waited 30 years before beginning His ministry on earth.
  • Abraham trusted God for over 25 years before Isaac, his promised child, was born.
  • As a nation, Israel was captive in Egypt for 430 years before God delivered them. They then endured another 40 years before entering the Promised Land.

‘Make every effort to add to your faith; goodness … knowledge … self-control … perseverance … godliness … mutual affection … love.’  2 Peter 1:5–7 NIV

Perseverance is an important part of Vision’s DNA. Like many groups around the world, part of our heritage is found in Dick Berry’s effort in New Zealand to establish Radio Rhema.

It took a 17 year marathon of prayer and perseverance before Dick saw his vision come to pass. On 11 November 1978 Christchurch became the first city in the British commonwealth to have a Christian radio station.

Perseverance and Faith in Bundaberg

Ian and Steve FormanThe people of Bundaberg know what waiting 30 years feels like.

For over 30 years the locals dreamed of Christian radio covering their town—they prayed… and prayed… and prayed… and prayed for it to become reality.

They watched (and celebrated) hundreds of Christian stations successfully established in Australia – but never one in Bundaberg. On more than one occasion, final installation seemed just hours away. ‘The hardest times,’ said Steve Forman (Pictured with Ian Worby), a driving force behind the project, ‘were when the end was so close you could smell, taste and touch it—and then it’d just slip away.’

Despite waiting so long and many last-minute disappointments, Steve still affirms, ‘But God is in it all.’

The Dream Fulfilled!

After 30 years of waiting Bundaberg, finally received its Christian radio station on 4 September 2015.

The local intercessors are just part of the story. Your faithful partnership played a key role in Vision Bundaberg 1656 AM becoming an answer to prayer!

Like Habakkuk, who asked about God’s long suffering, we can all take comfort in the Lord’s reply:

‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time …If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.’  Habakkuk 2:2-3 ESV