Warm greetings from Wisla!
Last weekend we had our annual e-coach conference, “You Are Needed”, an event that brings together many of our totally committed volunteers who, between them, spend hundreds of hours responding online to people, coming with a variety of serious spiritual and personal questions and problems. This year this conference topic was – “In Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus”, it was a wonderful time, with more than 180 believers from a variety of groups and denominations united in Christ! Plus testimonials from people saved through the medium of the Internet and intense follow-up work. Lives totally transformed, from suicide attempts, renewed families, happy kids, etc., all of them with stories of God, in Christ, becoming a reality in their lives. The only passion you have after such a time is to serve more, share better, reach more, staying grounded in the Lord to create more fruit!
Our main speaker was Juan Bravo, an International Leadership Institute director from Columbia. His energetic sharing was refreshing and inviting. Praise the Lord!
We also had a number of visitors from partnering countries, like Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, South Africa, etc.. It adds so much to the flavor of the Gospel!
During an earlier weekend we had the official opening of our new office in Wisla. We welcomed Eric Celerier, (Jesus.net founder) and two couples from Belgium, the Barry family and the Geoffroys, people who are involved with Jesus.net. As a high profile video/media experts, they bring a lot of knowledge and direction to our attempts to stay relevant in today’s culture. Our new offices will enable us to work more effectively for our growing number of contacts and cope with the ever increasing pressures.
As promised, I attach some pictures of our new facility.
A picture gallery from the new Radio studios in Gliwice will be shown in the November issue of Update, I believe.
Dear friends, many thanks to all of you who have been writing encouraging messages and promises of prayer for our new (and first) granddaughter Heidi. We visited her in the hospital in Linz, Austria. As you perhaps recall, she had four serious heart defects, had an 11 hour operation. I do not think there are many infants with so much prayer going on for them, globally! Thank you so!!! much! And prayer works! The great news is she is stable, recovering, and two weeks after surgery her breast was again “sewed” together (actually, it is very unusual to watch a little heart pumping blood, in an open chest!). Today we have received further good news, she breathe by herself (with only occasional help of a machine), and will start a long process recovering. Her parents, Szczepan & Mary, have now spent over a month at the clinic with Heidi; they too need your prayers. If everything goes according to plan, in some 2-3 weeks Heidi will go home with her parents. Please, continue to pray for her!
Fall/Autumn is one of the best times for our regular ministry and activities. So now, after all that excitement, we want to stay focused! So many things do happen every day, fortunately it is shared between quite a team of people!Thank you, Friend, for being with us all the time, watching God using our small efforts to influence others. And thank you, too, for all your prayers and involvement. You are a significant part of all we do. Keep on, dear friend!
Yours very thankfully,
Henio.
CCM Radio began broadcasting in Gliwice 16 years ago. Our financial situation at that time was so bad we had to close down two well equipped studios in Cieszyn and Auchwitz. We moved all activities to our hastily adapted office in Gliwice. It was supposed to be a temporary solution, but it has lasted 16 years!The decision to find new premises was in response to a demand by our previous landlord (Augsburg-Evangelical Parish) who had demanded an exorbitant rent and specified that it must be paid in cash. We have found a new site only 500 metres from our former base, among the attractive features are separate toilets, a lift, free parking and (most important!) low rental.
After four hard months of renovations, we have now relocated to the new site. It has three studios, a newsroom, a technical department, administrative offices and a marketing base all in one place. It is a great blessing!
Because of excellent planning by our chief technician, Krzysztof Smolarek, we were able to maintain continuous broadcasting throughout the relocation. None of the transmitters experienced even a few seconds of silence!
Of course, we tried to do everything as economically as possible while being acutely aware that the new studios have to function faultlessly for the next 15 years. A lot of the work was done by our own staff.
The last few months have been difficult for me as concurrently with the move I was grappling with the loss of income caused by the decrease in our listenership from the beginning of 2017 that reduced our income from the national advertising agencies.
We have instituted some significant changes in programming which is currently showing a 35% increase in audience numbers compared to January 2017.
Among the changes we’ve introduced is a daily, hour-long evangelization programme. The audience for some Christian programmes (for example, the sermons of Leszek Czyż, the pastor in Wisla) are comparable to the audience of the biggest commercial radio stations.
We are still struggling with the renovations occasioned by the relocation. We do not have everything finished at the new site and many of our documents etc. are in boxes, but we are really happy to be here!
Thank you so much for your prayers. We have felt them and we still feel them every day.
Krzysztof Budzisz
Radio CCM / Radio Fest
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