Some places where Feba’s partners work might be described as ‘closed’ countries, places where mission activity, evangelism and evangelical worship are illegal or significantly restricted, especially among certain religious or ethnic groups.

In these situations radio is an ideal tool for sharing the Christian faith and delivering Bible teaching.

Technology means that this is not restricted to just shortwave broadcasting but includes the internet, mobile phone apps and social media messaging services.

One of our projects provides Christian radio online as well as a large resource of Christian material including the Bible, Christian videos and worship music in a local language for a people group facing significant restrictions. These are all available for free and help support local believers by showing them they are not alone. This is especially important as, for some, the pressures of their situation become too much and they decide to leave the country.

Our partner explains:

“After some time they [Christians] are just leaving the country. Not because they became a Christian and they got another opportunity to live in some different country, but because they cannot exist in the circumstances, because this country becomes kind of alien for them. . . On one side the pressure is from the authorities . . . Another side, it’s the pressure from society, pressure from your relatives . . . And the third side that . . . their mentality starts to change after they become a Christian and they feel themselves like they are victims.”

I would love to go to the church service each Sunday, not alone but with my family because my kids have never been to church for regular worship. They don’t know what it is.

Believer in a closed country

Programme content is also produced to introduce the person of Jesus Christ to local people who may tune in, some of whom may not know very much or have distorted ideas about him.

One of our partners says:

“People in our country think that … Jesus Christ is a Western God or something, so they say Jesus is not our culture, it’s not our tradition, it’s not our religion.”

Feedback from listeners is difficult from closed countries, so we are always encouraged to know that people are benefitting from what they hear.

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Listener story:

A listener tells us about an encouraging experience during a long journey:

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