LIFTING MY VOICE: CHASING MY ON AIR DREAMPart Two When Greg Ne...

LIFTING MY VOICE: CHASING MY ON AIR DREAMPart Two


    When Greg Ne...: CHASING MY ON AIR DREAM Part Two      When Greg Newman came to 4GG (pronounced Double G) on the Gold Coast in 1978, someone told me that G...

CHASING MY ON AIR DREAM

Part Two

    When Greg Newman came to 4GG (pronounced Double G) on the Gold Coast in 1978, someone told me that Greg was a committed Christian. I contacted him, and we soon became good friends.

    One day, while working at my father's shop in Surfers Paradise, I received a phone call from the program manager of a commercial radio station at Kempsey on the New South Wales mid-north coast. He had heard from another Christian friend, Don Gillespie, also from the Gold Coast, but who was at that time working in Christian media in Sydney - that I was seeking to break into radio. This program manager was a Christian and was hoping to hire more Christians for the staff of what was otherwise a secular commercial station.

    He contacted Greg Newman the same day, encouraging us both to send tapes of our announcing. With Greg's help, I recorded an "air check" in the production studio at 4GG, and the two of us drove down to Kempsey - from memory about a five hour drive each way - to the radio station, 2KM, to meet this man personally.

    I was so excited! I was sure that this was the break I had been waiting (and praying) for. After all, when would a secular commercial radio station normally contact someone unknown to them with the possibility of a job offer? This has to be it, I thought.

2KM Kempsey announcer

    The program manager took us both into one of the studios not being used, and proceeded to thread my tape on the reel to reel recorder. He played it through the large studio speakers. After a short time, he stopped the tape, rewound it and said nothing. After a pause, he asked Greg for his tape. After listening to Greg's tape, he asked him if he would like to take up a position with them. Greg declined, as he really wanted to stay on the Gold Coast. About two weeks later, I received a letter from the program manager, bluntly telling me he thought I had a major speech problem. I felt deflated, to say the least.

    Did I ever realize my dream? I am happy to say YES! When I applied to join Radio Rhema in New Zealand in 1981, they had been on air for more than two years from studios in Christchurch. Initially, they too rejected my application to be an announcer, stating that they were potentially a network station, and they did not consider my announcing to meet their standard. They did, however offer me a full-time off-air position.

    Although again disappointed at first, after praying for God's direction, and receiving encouragement from Pastor Alun Davies, one of the staff of the Bible College in Katoomba in New South Wales, where I did a third year of study in 1980 - I accepted their offer and took up my position with Radio Rhema in Christchurch in July, 1981.

    For the first eighteen months at Radio Rhema, I was employed as a "studio operator", my main role being "carting" music. For those unfamiliar with the workings of radio stations of that era, this meant recording song tracks from vinyl records onto cartridge tapes for airplay using specially designed studio cart machines. I also had to make the carts initially, transferring tape from large "pancake reels" to individual cartridges to facilitate recording tracks of varying lengths. 

    This work was carried out overnight, with me working from around 9pm to 6am the next morning, as the studio was used for program editing during the day. Mostly, I enjoyed this work, as I had the satisfaction of knowing I was helping the station to transition the use of carts on air, a more practical means of presenting music on air than the tedious task of having to cue every music track on record turntables.

    With the help of a professional speech and drama teacher, and lots of practice, and with God's working, after eighteen months the station manager made a decision to give me some 'on air' shifts. Towards the end of the eighteen months I had been carting music at nights, I was getting a little disillusioned, and losing heart that I might ever be allowed on air. Thankfully, the encouragement from other announcers helped me to keep the vision alive of being on air, and with their encouragement, I made another demo tape of my announcing. The station manager, Dudley Scantlebury, formerly a professional announcer on Radio New Zealand, and a newsreader on TVNZ, was impressed enough with the improvement in my speech to offer me some on air music shifts, for which I was extremely grateful. I believe God honoured my faithfulness in working at nights on my own, and seeking to do a good job in the area in which I was employed for those first eighteen months.

    For the next five years at Radio Rhema, I was on air five and sometimes, six days per week, with the network starting to grow with the establishment of relay stations in Nelson, and the nation's capital, Wellington. At times, there were also short term broadcasts to Auckland in the North Island and Invercargill, in the deep south of the South Island.

(Yours truly broadcasting from new Rhema studios, around 1987)

    One of the highlights for me during that time on air was the privilege I had of presenting a weekly song request program on Saturday nights for prisoners and their families, reaching into a number of prisons in Christchurch and Auckland. I was blesse to be joined in presenting the program by Morgan Kahika, who himself had been in prison, but was wonderfully transformed when he committed his life to Jesus Christ. The program, called "Someone Cares" was initially hosted by a well-loved older lady announcer, Anita Wilkinson, with support from Prison Fellowship ministry in Christchurch. When Anita was unable to continue, I had the opportunity to become the regular host, linking prison inmates and their families on the radio with song requests and greetings received at the station by mail.

    My dream to become a commercial radio announcer was never realized. But I believe that God placed that desire in my heart originally because He knew that one day the door would open to radio in His service.

    In May, 1988, my wife Tessa and I moved back across the Tasman to Launceston, the second largest city in the island state of Tasmania in Australia, where I was on air for three years at the local Christian FM station, 7WAY FM.

    Apart from the ten years full time in Christian radio in Christchurch and in Launceston, I have the opportunity of being on air regularly on four community radio stations - in Lismore, NSW; Sydney, NSW; Huon and Kingston FM, and Tasman FM, here in southern Tasmania where we have been since the year 2000.

    Like so many thousands of others across Australia, I am grateful for the opportunity that community radio offers to present programs which would not be deemed worthy of broadcast on commercial and government-run stations. I read not too long ago, that in any given month, approximately seven million Australians listen to community radio.

    Under the direction of Richard Berry, who pioneered Christian radio in New Zealand, and his protege, Hal Short, Radio Rhema expanded from one AM station in Christchurch in 1978 to three radio networks across the nation today, as well as a television network. United Christian Broadcasters (UCB), which grew out of Radio Rhema, has now spread across the globe with radio stations in Australia, notably the Vision Christian Radio network, broadcasting to over 700 cities, towns and small communities - as well as other local stations commenced by those involved with UCB - as in places such as Newcastle, the second largest city in New South Wales, and 96three FM in Geelong, Victoria. Radio Rhema, through UCB has also seen the establishment of Christian stations in Asia, Britain, the USA, Canada and South Africa.

P.S: Greg Newman, who incidentally was Best Man at our wedding in Christchurch, has been involved regularly with his afternoon show on Vision Christian Radio, based in Brisbane, Australia and broadcasting the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the nation of Australia. To listen to Vision Christian Radio online, the website is: www.vision.org.au

CHASING MY ON-AIR DREAM

1978-79

Greg Newman

"Four Double G on the Gold Coast - with Greg Newman!" 

    I sat on the opposite side of the studio console watching my friend with envy as he went through the paces of his evening music shift on the local commercial radio station.

    How I longed to be in his place, with my own radio program. Since my early teens, I had dreamed of becoming an announcer on a commercial radio station. I was an avid listener to all the stations within range - 4GG, Radio 97 2MW, based in Murwillumbah south of the Queensland border, and several of the Brisbane stations. At night, I would also listen with interest to far flung stations in other states and even pick up the odd New Zealand station as AM frequencies were able to travel further in the evening atmosphere. This was back in the sixties and seventies in Australia. Of course, fast forwarding to 2020, just about every radio station from around the world can be received with total clarity via internet streaming.

    I visited the two local commercial stations in the late sixties to watch the announcers in action, and took the opportunity to observe them at work when presenting their music shifts from mobile studios at shopping centres and at the beach.

    But, along with my heartfelt desire to make it into radio on air as an announcer, there was a sense of real frustration. I knew that my right-sided paralysis from birth, which affected my speech (as well as appearance) would present a major hurdle to the realisation of my dream.

    I would often record "mock" programs on my reel to reel tape recorder (hey, I'm showing my age), at home, feeling excited that I sounded just like the announcers I listened to. When played back, though, the realisation was that the problems in my speech were quite pronounced.

    When I became a Christian at the age of sixteen, my desire for radio did not wane. However, I completed Grade 12 two years later and radio had to take a lesser priority in my life as I ventured into the world of employment.

    

Initially, I undertook hospital-based General Nursing training and then worked in my father's photographic and music retail business on Queensland's Gold Coast.

    As a Christian, my desire to be better equipped led me to undertake a two year Bible College training course at Lower Hutt, near Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

    During this time, my desire for radio resurfaced - this time with the dream that I might work in a Christian radio station.

    New Zealand had a group of people with a vision to establish a permanent Christian radio network. At that point in time, their first permanent license had not yet been granted, however.

    The vision for Christian radio in New Zealand was championed by Richard (Dick) Berry, who in 1960, as a young man in Christchurch, had been healed by God of severe back pain. He told the Lord that he would commit his life to fully serving Him in whatever direction He would lead him. The Lord birthed in Richard a vision to establish Christian broadcasting in New Zealand, at a time when the only radio  stations across the nation were government-owned and operated. There were not even any non-government commercial stations at the time.

    Returning to Australia at the beginning of 1978, I again found work in my father's business. My radio aspirations were fuelled by a 30 week (one night per week) radio /TV course conducted by local media professionals in Brisbane. The principals were Jim Iliffe, well-loved for his television kids show "The Channel Niners", and commercial radio veteran, John Knox.

    At the end of the course, I sent applications with "air check" tapes to a number of country radio stations in Queensland and New South Wales. Some of the replies were encouraging, but the "big break" eluded me.

Did I ever fulfil my dream of becoming a radio announcer? To find out, tune in...oops, I mean, Log on to my Facebook page in coming days to read the rest of the story.

In the meantime, why not check out www.vision.org.au This is the website for Vision Christian Media in Australia, broadcasting to well over 700 cities, towns and small communities in every state and territory of Australia. The number of stations is growing all the time. They may well  be broadcasting in your area, and you don't even know it. Great Christian music, teaching programs, and news and current events from a Biblical perspective.

         

                                                                                                                                                   

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART THREEJo...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART THREE

Jo...: FORGIVENESS Unlocking The Prison Door PART THREE Joyce Meyer is a name that is well known to Christians around the world, especially amongst...

FORGIVENESS

Unlocking The Prison Door

PART THREE

Joyce Meyer is a name that is well known to Christians around the world, especially amongst Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians and churches.

She has a worldwide television ministry, with her regular program "Enjoying Everyday Life." Together with her husband, Dave, they head up Joyce Meyer Ministries, based near St Louis in the state of Missouri in the USA. They have four grown children. 

Their ministry employs 800 people in 14 offices around the world, including 500 in  the world headquarters in Fenton, Missouri. Joyce Meyer has written a number of bestseller books, including "Battlefield Of The Mind." The ministry has various arms which reach out to the poor, orphans and widows, the sexually abused and women and girls who are trapped in the sex slavery industry. They also have a prison ministry reaching out with the Gospel and also providing help to prisoners and their families. When she first started in ministry, she also had a radio program which aired on a number of Christian stations in the USA.

She was also an associate pastor in a Charismatic church in Fenton, Missouri before starting her own ministry in the eighties.

In 2005, Time magazine's " 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" ranked her as 17th.

Joyce Meyer was born in St Louis in 1943. Soon after, her father joined the army and to fight in World War 2. He began sexually abusing her soon after his return and this continued until she was eighteen. She has said that her father raped her at least 200 times.

She was "born again" (became a Christian) at age nine, but was desperately unhappy during her childhood because of the continuing abuse from her alcoholic father.

Shortly after finishing her senior year at high school, she married a car salesman. This proved to be a failed marriage which lasted only five years. Later she met Dave Meyer and they married in 1967.

She has related that one day in 1976 while driving to work, she was praying intensely when she heard God call her name. She says she came home later that day "full of liquid love" and was "drunk with the Spirit of God" that night at the local bowling alley.

To quote her, she said: "...I didn't have any knowledge. I didn't go to church. And I had a lot of problems, and I needed someone to kinda help me along. And I think sometimes even people who want to serve God, if they have got so many problems that they don't think right and they don't act right and they don't behave right, they almost need somebody to take them by the hand and help lead them through the early years..."

She was briefly a member of a Lutheran church, then became involved with a charismatic church, leading a Bible study and eventually became an associate pastor of that church. The church became one of the leading charismatic churches in the area, largely because of Joyce's popularity as a Bible teacher.

In !985, she resigned as associate pastor and founded her own ministry with her husband, which eventually became Joyce Meyer Ministries.

As stated above, during most of her childhood, Joyce Meyer endured continuing physical, sexual and mental abuse from her alcoholic father. The extent of this abuse was such, that many would think she would have been justified in hating her father. She certainly had her share of problems as a result of this abuse, and her behaviour at times reflected this. In her early years of her marriage to Dave Meyer, God was working in her life to heal the effects of her past trauma - through much prayer and through immersing herself in the Word of God.

One of the greatest aspects of her testimony concerning the power of God to change a person is that she came to a point where she knew she had to forgive her father for the years of abuse. Because Joyce was willing, on the basis of the Word of God, to forgive her father, she was able to lead him to a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ to become his Savior and Lord.

I am unable to reproduce it here, but I was blessed to see a Facebook post of a photo of Joyce Meyer personally baptising her father in water during a church service! THAT'S POWERFUL!! Her face was beaming with joy! There were a few comments below the post, where people were almost in unbelief that this was possible - maybe from some who had been abused themselves. Joyce Meyer shares often about her abusive father as she ministers - not to relive the past, but to proclaim the power of forgiveness and the healing power of the Word of God, energized by the Holy Spirit's anointing.

Is there someone in your world you need to forgive today? Perhaps you have been harbouring unforgiveness, resentment, even bitterness towards one or more individuals for, even years! Don't wait another day to extend forgiveness. Open the prison door and find full release, and experience the joy of freedom from this cursed sin! 

Remember again the verse quoted in the previous blog post, the words of Jesus:

"If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses." Matthew 6:14,15

If you have read this blog and would like to know how to become a Christian, and experience a new way of living with hope and purpose, one resource I can point you to is: www.vision.org.au This is the online home of Vision Christian Media in Australia. Click on the "Grow your faith" tab at the top of the page, then from the dropdown menu, click on "Looking for God?" God Bless!

 

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART THREEJo...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART THREE

Jo...: FORGIVENESS Unlocking The Prison Door PART THREE Joyce Meyer is a name that is well known to Christians around the world, especially amongst...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART TWOMatt...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART TWO

Matt...: FORGIVENESS Unlocking The Prison Door PART TWO Matthew 6:14-15 AMP For if you forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful si...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART TWOMatt...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART TWO

Matt...: FORGIVENESS Unlocking The Prison Door PART TWO Matthew 6:14-15 AMP For if you forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful si...

FORGIVENESS

Unlocking The Prison Door

PART TWO

Matthew 6:14-15 AMP For if you forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others [nurturing your hurt and anger with the result that it interferes with your relationship with God], then your Father will not forgive your trespasses.

                                                               Corrie ten Boom with Billy Graham

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian watchmaker and later a writer who worked with her father, Casper ten Boom, her sister, Betsie and other family members to help many Jews escape the Nazis from the Holocaust during World War ll by hiding them in her home. She believed her actions were following the will of God. They were caught, and she was arrested and sent, with her sister Betsie to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Her most famous book, which was also made into a full length feature film, "The Hiding Place" - is a biography that recounts the story of her family's efforts and how she found hope in God while she was imprisoned at the concentration camp.

Betsie ten Boom's health deteriorated while there, and she died on 16 December, 1944. Corrie ten Boom was released ten days later due to "a clerical error." She found out later that all the women in her age group were sent to the gas chamber a week after she was released.

In 1947, she returned to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

After speaking at a church in Munich on the power of forgiveness and God's promise to forgive our sins when we repent, and to "cast them into the depths of the sea," the solemn faces stared back at her, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence and left in silence.

Suddenly her attention was drawn to one man - one moment she saw the overcoat and the brown hat, the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.

This was, in fact, one of the cruel German guards at Ravensbruck, who had sought to make the lives of the imprisoned women a misery.

He did not recognise Corrie, but he told her he had become a Christian, and discovered the love and power of God to forgive him for all the sins he had committed, and he told her he was moved by the illustration she had portrayed of God casting all our sins into the deepest ocean.

He then stated that he knew God had forgiven him, but asked Corrie if she would forgive him. Her first reaction was of a sense of her hand freezing at her side at the thought of shaking this man's. In her heart, she knew she had to forgive him, that it was not a matter of feeling she could forgive, but of obedience to the Word of God.

Finally, she put out her hand to put it into his, knowing it was an act of the will, not the emotions. As she did, an incredible thing happened. She said in her own words: "the current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes." 

She then said: "I forgive you,brother, with all my heart!" Corrie said she had never known God's love so intensely as she did then.

Corrie ten Boom discovered, as each one of us must discover, that forgiveness is a daily choice we make, whether we feel like it or not. There will always be people and situations where we need to show forgiveness and extend grace, when others have hurt and offended us - as most surely we will others.

TO BE CONTINUED

If you would like to know more about becoming a Christian, and God's power to forgive you of your sins, and the power to forgive others, go online to www.vision.org.au This is the online home of Vision Christian Media. Click on the "Grow your faith" tab at the top of the page, then "Looking for God?" God Bless!

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART TWOMatt...

LIFTING MY VOICE: FORGIVENESSUnlocking The Prison DoorPART TWO

Matt...: FORGIVENESS Unlocking The Prison Door PART TWO Matthew 6:14-15 AMP For if you forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful si...