Broadcast Media Ministry & Internet Evangelism: CVC

WEDNESDAY, April 28, 2010


For the second time this week a group of believers in Singapore met up with local bases for Broadcast Media Ministries. After a quick lunch outside the Eunos MRT station and finding out who made up our "group du jour" we made our way to CVC's office in Eunos Techpark. Today's gathering was a bit of a challenge as one in the group spoke no English, and another in the group spoke no Chinese! We muddled through with translating and switching around and asking alot of clarifying questions. Hopefully I've gotten my facts straight!


CVC, previously known as Voice International, started its operation in May 2000. Here's a description of their comprehensive mission work from the CVC UK Website:

Christian Vision is a UK-based international charity. Our mission is "To introduce people to Jesus and encourage those who acknowledge Him to accept Him as the Son of God and become His true followers." We run projects working with local churches in training leaders and church planting. These include education, healthcare, skills training and humanitarian projects, aimed at making a positive impact on the local community.

Christian Vision's media projects use the most appropriate format, in the major languages of the world, to establish relationships with audiences and introduce them to Jesus. Christian Vision is both a producer and distributor of media content, and seeks to be contemporary and culturally relevant.

The local office here in Singapore was set up in mid 2008 and has a focus solely on broadcasting to the Asia Pacific Region, namely: India, Indonesia and China. They work closely with the region's main office, the Asia Pacific Broadcast Centre (APBC) on the Sunshine Coast Australia. These offices put together all the programming needed for the work of CVC in the region.

According to Hui Fang, a friendly energetic and articulate young Singaporean (with perfect Mandarin), our visit came during the first month of a huge transition for CVC. At the end of March 2010, only a few weeks ago, they have all but stopped shortwave program production and broadcasting, and are ramping up for doing all broadcasting via the internet. For now there is still an hour of shortwave broadcasting daly to China, and CVC continues to monitor it's effectiveness to determine their shortwave efforts in the future.


Their target audience for their pop music programming is young people aged 15-35. To be even more specific, Hui Fang and her team are now fervently studying how to reach the demographic of 18-25 year old Chinese nationals. 


Theirs is not the traditional form of "gospel radio" where Bible classes and the message of salvation through Jesus is preached on the programming. Instead, their aim is to reach those who would not tune into Christian Radio, but might enjoy a station that plays pop music with positive messages with practical advice and help about life and listeners felt needs. Local record companies are providing CVC with their latest releases and then playing music with positive messages, the DJs will use this platform for developing a listener base. Listeners can tell, if they listen long enough, that the DJ's or talk show hosts are followers of Jesus and are part of a local church. There is encouragement via radio to call and write in, and counseling available, which is clear to the listeners will be from a Christian worldview. When listeners do show an interest in following Christ or learning more about the teachings of the Bible, CVC refers them to the programming resources of other Media Ministries such as HCJB, FEBA, FEBC, TRW.


NEEDS FOR MINISTRY PARTNERS/HELP/MENTORING: According to Hui Fang, "We are in the transition stage now where we are moving into 100% Internet Ministry and outreach to Chinese youths in China.  Anyone who may have prior experience in China youth work or Internet-related ministry experience could contact us.  It would be awesome if we could then learn from experienced folks who could give us some pointers on what we are doing currently.  We are also looking at improving our website as well as to start producing video which are short, relevant, may/may not be evangelistic content on our own so we could use these clips to reach out and to impact the intended online audience."


Should you know of someone who might be able to assist/freelance/or take a position with CVC, contact leehuifang@cvc.tv


Here's what the others had to say about our visit to CVC:


Ray Arsenault My impression of CVC is that they are a small but professional organization with a huge mandate!  They are trying to bring the Good News to most of Asia which encompasses more than half the world's population.  Yet their staff is very, very small.  During my time there, I really got the sense that the "Harvest is great, but the workers are few".  Even so, God is always in control. 


Rita Cao
(Worked in broadcasting in Mainland China before becoming a Christian, and is looking for what God would have her do now. Her child is starting school and her husband is in seminary here.)
Learning about these new trends in Christian media is eye opening. I am challenged to think more creatively concerning program making when I start to get involved in media again.

Christian Radio & Video: Studio Elpizo - Be107FM

SINGAPORE. Our Christian Broadcasting Tour added a couple more visitors yesterday, and included a small core of those who made it to all three media ministry venues. Our last stop this week was for a visit with a dynamic, passionate and obviously multi-talented Faith Toh in the 3rd floor studio belonging to the Seventh-day Adventist Mission of Singapore on Upper Thompson Road between Caldecott Hill and Mt Alvernia Hospital. She packed a whole lot of information and inspiration into our short time together.

Incorporated in 1997, the mission of Studio Elpizo is: Enhancing your ministry through media content & services. They see their role through radio to broadcast a message of hope, healing, love and mercy. Their target audience is those who are "open minded to the Word of God" and makes their availability for prayer and counseling clear through their broadcasting and websit. The studio has a prayer-team network where they can forward calls and requests to the care of ministries serving and praying for specific groups (ie. children at risk, or counseling care for women's issues etc.)

The station incorporates media content from such groups as Focus on the Family, the Media team from Trinity Christian Centre, Loma Linda University, a Mandarin speaking pastor's wife (Jurong Chinese Seventh-day Adventist Church), as well as producing their own content and is looking for more partners. Studio Elpizo is programming for not only English, but Mandarin, Tamil and Tagalog as well!

With a transmission tower located on Indonesia's nearby Batam Island, they are able to broadcast on Batam, in Singapore and parts of JB. Broadcasting remotely via a tower in Batam has certainly gotten easier since the days when DAT tapes and equipment were carried by Sampan from the port at Batam to the little island Belakang Padang where the original transmission tower was; complete with it's own power generator! If something broke down at the site, it could take up to a month to complete repairs and get on the air again! In recent years the base has been on the main island where there is internet and stable electricity. But they still needed to hand carry programming via pre-recorded CDs to Batam. As we met with them this week we saw that they are on the verge of a huge change in the transmission their programs from Singapore via a WinMedia system. Not quite up and running, and with short term technicians Steve and Vlad still checking for "robustness" this will streamline the process, freeing the small two person staff to growing and developing new programs and projects.

Current Programs are as follows:

The aim of Studio Elpizo is to "echo hope to the community through 'beautiful music and inspiring messages.' We perceived a need for radio programs that offered hope in a world affected by broken relationships, loneliness and other social problems. The aim was to provide a positive alternative to the programs prevalent in today’s broadcast industry."

Sarah, and NTU Broadcast Media major nearly jumped up and down when Faith took us from the recording studios into their newest room and revealed that they have added a video production studio. "Over the years, we’ve evolved into media center, broadening our purpose to include producing Christ-centered materials for video broadcast and providing professional standard production services to suit your ministry’s budget." (website content). Faith told us they are currently organizing a short video production course where it will be a pay as you can, but ask those who attend to offer their new skills back to the studio of at least 10 volunteer hours. One of the many projects they've got going are with pastors who have their teaching in various languages made into dvds which are then sent in to other countries for Bible, Theology and other types of training.

Here's what the others had to say:

Ray Arsenault
107FM is a pioneering radio station delivering Christian music and talk formats to the people of 3 nations, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.  The idea for the station originated from Singapore.  Even though the Singaporean government has said "no" to any form of religious programming, with a little bit of ingenuity and direction from God, the Word can become flesh no matter how difficult the circumstances may be.  The physical radio station is situated in Batam, Indonesia and the office is located in Singapore.  The message is beamed from Batam towards Singapore and the signal makes it's way to parts of Batam Island and Johor Bahru in Malaysia.  I think that 107FM has already come a long way in the past 11 years, but I feel that there are many, many more chapters to be written in the future.


Adel
Really see how the different medias are used together to benefit the community. I am also very impressed byt the external partners and collaborative synergy with the local churches' outreach programs.... I want to thank Kimberly to organise these ministry visits and I especially like the way she closes the visits with a prayer for the people. I find that brings great comfort and encouragement to the ministry team in the various offices, it makes our visits all the more meaningful. I'd be looking forward to the future visits and events and courses and getting to know the people better.

The "I Am Second" Movement

I Am Second

Check out this website - video interviews with a whole range of people who've learned that life isn't about them. It's about living for God and others...Simple. And very cool.

When meeting with Hui Fang at CVC last week, she mentioned that they were researching ways to harness the power of the internet. She mentioned this website particularly as inspiration to them...