Vision Logo Circle
Vision Logo Circle

Helping Others: It’s What We Do!

by | Thu, Sep 12 2019

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Girls holding radio in PNG

If you’ve been a part of Vision for a while, you’ll know that we’re big on helping others grow and develop. And not just our readers and listeners—over the years we’ve been a vehicle for connecting people with countless other ministries, including raising significant funds for organisations like Open Doors, Compassion, CBM, Bible League and others—our recent Miracles Day was just such an example.

This same open-handed approach has also led us to adopt the tithing model as an organisation. Since almost our very beginning, Vision has put aside 10% of our general income to help other Christian media groups in Australia and overseas to grow and develop, or just help out when it’s desperately needed.

“I remember a few years ago, lightning destroyed the main transmitter at the Christian Station in Newcastle” Vision CEO Phil Edwards recalled. “They put an urgent call out for help and it was great to be able to bless them with a contribution
from our outreach fund”.

But the majority of our outreach focus today is in the Asia Pacific region, in partnership with United Christian Broadcasters International.

Former Vision CEO Ian Worby heads UCB’s Asia Pacific team providing practical support, training, knowledge and encouragement to affiliates in PNG, Nepal, Thailand, Philippines, Cook Islands, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomons and more.

The Solomons is made up of hundreds of islands —accessing even the main centres can be quite a logistical challenge. For example, to get to Gizo, you must catch a small plane to Nusa Tupe—two small islands bulldozed together to make a single skinny airstrip that looks like an aircraft carrier. Ian says: ‘On approach it looks like we’re landing on a table! Then we catch a boat across to the mainland to Gizo—very pretty, very isolated but with basic facilities for the local population. It’s quite gratifying walking or driving around the dusty island tracks, listening to the familiar sounds of Christian music and teaching but with a unique and distinctive island mix. Knowing that faith comes by hearing, and by hearing God’s Word lives are being changed in the remote islands of the Pacific! Just as it happens back here in Australia.’

The locals, while happy, are generally quite poor and struggle to support the station. Electricity costs four times more than Australia and blackouts and power surges are common. The UCB team are currently working toward helping them install solar/battery power to help increase reliability and lower costs.

Many locals live off the land and sea. They listen on their mobile phones, which have in built FM receivers; and we also hand out solar powered radios for those who cannot afford batteries.

Ian, Grant and the UCB team have a wealth of knowledge from their own experience working with Vision over the past 20 years. Now they are able to use that knowledge to help fledgling ministries across the Asia Pacific Region.

And they can do it through the generosity of faithful Vision supporters like you, as together we extend the dream of trusted Christian Media to not just be for every Australian, but every Islander as well.

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