“Barefoot Billy” climbed the tower trying to spot the new studio location. Billy Yasi is a Board Member and technician for the local telephone company.
 

The Pidgin English word "Wantok" means close friend or family, and is the identifier of Papua New Guinea’s Christian Radio Network –“Wantok Radio Light.” It is a source of great pleasure to know that our Christian Wantok (family) extends all the way to Papua New Guinea (PNG). We have a very special connection to believers there. This is because last year a part of every Sharathon gift was contributed to the PNG Christian Radio Network to build a repeater FM station, our sister station, in Lae, PNG’s second largest city. That station is expected to go on the air in December. We are delighted to have had a part in the effort to bring quality Christian radio to this distant part of the world, and even more pleased to announce that the effort will be continued this year.

The CPCI Board of Directors has authorized that once again this year a portion of each gift be given to establish Christian Broadcasting in PNG. A minimum gift of $15,000 will be used to fund a very special project. Let me explain.

Our sister station in Lae will receive programming by way of a satellite downlink originating at the Wantok Radio Light flagship station in Port Moresby, PNG’s capital city. As of this moment that connection does not exist, but the bandwidth needed to make the connection is available at a cost of $4000 per month or $48,000 per year. A generous Christian businessman has agreed to provide half of the needed money each year for the next three years if his gift can be matched, and our gifts will be used to help meet this need. If all goes as planned, the new station will begin broadcasting in December and its programming stream will be provided, in part, through the generosity of you, our CPCI family.

But there is an exciting sequel to the story. Not only will the satellite feed provide programming for the station in Lae, but also in the end, all thirty of the repeater stations that will eventually “Cover the Nation for Christ” will be fed by it. (This was the theme of the Wantok Radio Light Sharathon during which residents of PNG were asked to contribute for the support of the fledgling network.)

We know you won’t want to miss this wonderful opportunity to advance the cause of Christ through missionary radio. Join us for Sharathon 2004 and learn much more about this exciting mission project. Our dear brother in Christ and CPCI family member, Joe Emert, one of the project organizers, will be with us to bring us the most recent news from our Papua New Guinea Wantok (family).

• Click here for information about the country Papua New Guinea (courtesy of InfoPlease.com)
   
• Links to other sites with information about Wantok Radio Light.