AWR News

by Dyane Pergerson 
AWR Board Member since 2004

“Go? Lord, I can’t! We’re short two employees. I’m filling in for those two positions and carrying my own responsibilities. Fly halfway around the world to attend the AWR Asia/Pacific Advisory in Batam, Indonesia, and travel with AWR for two weeks? Impossible! Besides, my passport is about to expire! Lord, I’ll go next time.”

But I was uneasy with that response, so my e-mail to AWR president Dowell Chow said, “I’m interested, but seriously question if I’ll be able to go.” Dowell responded, “Pray about it and let me know as soon as possible.”

“Father, please a sign, a fleece … tell me what to do.” My passport was the fleece. I’ll save the details for another time, but suffice it to say that what normally can take up to a month by mail (which I didn’t have) was accomplished in one week. Go!

Excitedly, I presented my passport and boarding pass to security at the Richmond, Virginia, airport. I was on my way! In a few hours I’d meet Dowell in Chicago, along with senior vice president Greg Scott, vice president for finance Kent Sharpe, and fellow board member Don Martin. We’d travel together for the next 14 days – visiting or passing through seven countries in the process.

Our first destination was Batam, where we were joyously greeted by AWR’s small Asia/Pacific team. The air, electric with expectancy, made it evident that God was gracing us with His presence and power.

AWR program producers, studio directors, and communication directors arrived from India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Their faces were alight with joy and enthusiasm. Although travel-weary, they were eager to hear, share, and learn during the advisory meetings.

Over the next two days, we became spiritual partners, deepening our commitment and connection to Christ as we spent time together praying, fellowshipping, and learning. We left renewed and empowered to take the gospel further – still further to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Praying together one final time, we parted.

Dowell, Kent, Don, and I then flew to AWR’s shortwave station on the island of Guam. I don’t have words to describe what I experienced there. The massive curtain antennas were awe-inspiring. Curtains are usually closed to shut out the world, to protect us from peeping eyes and our furnishings from damaging UV rays. But these curtain antennas are the antithesis of closure. They are spreading the “Son-light” of God’s word … beaming the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ to a world shut in by darkness, oppressed and discouraged by the lack of exposure to the light of the world.

My mind will forever cherish the image of the 300-foot AWR towers and the expansive curtain antennas silently swaying in the ocean breezes of that tiny South Pacific island. Tears of joy filled my eyes as I contemplated God using bits of wire, computers, and the voices and tongues of His faithful children to tell His story, to spread the “Son-light” to three quarters of the world’s population, in scores of languages. Praise God for AWR Guam!

I stood there alongside the AWR engineers, dedicated men who are passionate and visionary to the glory of God, each of us caught up in our own reverential thoughts. I recalled the writings of John the Revelator, on another distant island, as he recorded his vision of the redeemed and encouraged God’s faithful servants: “… and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

What a privilege! Called to co-labor with God through AWR, taking the gospel where missionaries cannot go, reaching untold numbers of God’s children. Silently? Oh no, proclaiming, with a loud voice, the love of God and His imminent return. Penetrating political barriers, prison cells, barbed-wire fences, walls of darkness and ignorance erected by the evil one. I’m thankful God said, “Go!”

God bids you too, reader, saying, “So send I you.” Go!