Freedom by radio in Southern Spain

Greetings from Quito, Ecuador - The Middle of the World!

Over the last couple of years, I've had three opportunities to do radio training in Southern Spain at Radio Vida (Radio Life). Radio Vida is a cultural station serving an area known as the Campo de Gibraltar (literally the Gibraltar Countryside), which has a potential audience of 250,000 people. Within the broadcast coverage area of Radio Vida lies the Botafuegos Prison, in the City of Algeciras, home to 1,800 prisoners. I visited this prison when in Algeciras in June of 2008.

John Varela is the station manager at Radio Vida. He is using material that we presented in these training sessions to prepare a group of eight volunteers in the production of a program for the prisoners and their families. John and I worked together in Quito at HCJB FM before he and his wife, Sandra, went to Spain as missionaries.

This group of volunteers, who know well what life is like inside the prison, go into Botafuegos each week to minister to the prisoners. John is currently training them in different aspects of radio communication: announcing, creativity, how to conduct interviews, how to prepare a radio script, etc.

In order to make the training practical and at the same time help the volunteers get rid of the jitters and nervousness, the team is recording different examples for evaluation. They are anxiously awaiting the day when the red light will light up the studio meaning they are finally on the air. (Unlike a traffic light where red means stop, in radio the red light means go because the microphone is open and you're on the air!)

John describes the materials we used in the original trainings as "practical, easy-to-use tools that integrate both the volunteer and the trainer". He goes on to say, "As a radio station, we have a great opportunity to get out of the four walls (of the studio) and go to the prisoner's room by means of our signal, sit with him and talk together".

Thanks for making it possible for me to share these practical radio skills with John and other members of the Radio Vida team. Please pray as John now shares his experience and knowledge with this new specialized team. Praise God for the freedom to take the life-changing message of Jesus Christ to the Botafuegas Prison in person and by radio.

Want to try out your Spanish, please visit the Radio Vida website and listen to them on-line!

Together in the Journey!

Allen.

P.S. Want to know more about Jesus Christ? Then don't click here.
P.P.S. Thanks a lot to John Varela for his help with information to write today's blog.