Joyful Christmas Greetings!

Notes from our partners ...in Africa

GRATEFUL!

Recession. Economic crisis. Global market meltdowns.

Are those really things to be grateful for? Well ...yes! These realities have helped us make some key decisions about future ministry. We are honing in on what we believe God wants us to do, which means less infrastructure, more partnership and deeper investment in national leaders. We are grateful for the following this past year:

- First HCJB partner radio station on air in Nepal

- 11 students from Moscow, Norilsk, Dudinka, Tomsk and Voronezh attend a Russian radio training course

- Two new radio stations on air in Ghana

- First evangelical FM station on air in Slovakia

- Launch of mobile medical care ministry in W. Africa, seeing over 5000 patients in Sierra Leone and Ghana

- Many SMS text messages from listeners across the Middle East- Increased air time in key language to targeted people group in N. Africa

- Leadership training with partner Theovision in Nairobi (picture below)

Back from Europe ...

Almost home after a week of international leadership meetings in Europe. In fact, I'm writing this from the plane - how cool is that? I just checked e-mail and got the following note from Pastor Mabutwa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In his words:

"We are fine in our ministry and we continue to preach the Goodnews through Radio Alpha Omega (RAOFM) at the East of DRC. Radio is a fantastic and powerful weapon to conquer the darkness of Satan. Last week a barman who came to repent and receive Christ in my office said that radio is a terrible and brave evangelist, because there wasn't any Evangelist who could
try to convince or approach this guy. But while he was hidden in a prostitute's dwelling he was listening to a program from our radio station and decided to come out and return to Christ!"

God is using our partners in amazing ways.

Looking forward to our own bed and pillow tonight!

Curt & Karen

Exciting days in South Africa

I am spending my last few hours in Africa at the Johannesburg airport before the long trip home later tonight. I was just in the first Africa by Radio Continental Convention has been an amazing time.

I am reenergized for the future media ministry in Africa and have seen again how important and strategic radio remains on this continent. I heard many stories about churches being planted by radio in very difficult places and how radio is being used for reconciliation in many war torn countries. The director of our partner station in the capital of Sierra Leone, Free Town, told how the radio station was strategic during the “truth in reconciliation” process after the brutal civil war there. He told me about a phone call one evening in which a woman called the station to ask for prayer because she desperately wanted to forgive the child soldiers who had killed her parents. As she was sharing this live on-air, another call came in. The caller said he was one of the young men that had attacked the woman’s village and may have even been one of her parent’s killers! Then he asked her for forgiveness, and although it was very emotional, she was able to grant him forgiveness.

God is at work here and there are many, many opportunities for new local radio stations. Within the next year, we plan to help with at least 5 new stations in Ghana alone, as well as develop primary health care in some of those stations. Please continue to pray for Karen and me as we support our team, which is based in Accra, Ghana.

While I was gone, Karen was able to spend 10 days with her parents in Florida. She was able to care for her father, who continues to get weaker from Parkinson’s disease. Her time there was a huge encouragement to her parents.

Thanks again for your prayers for us.

Curt

P.S. South Africa is getting all spruced up for the World Cup (soccer) next summer. The airport in Johannesburg is beautiful and new soccer venues are being built or expanded. It’s the first time the World Cup has ever been in Africa. And next fall the Lausanne World Conference on Evangelism is in Cape Town, so people here are very excited. Check out this phenomenal picture of Cape Town with the new soccer stadium lower left.

Curt & Karen on the move ...

Curt leaves on Monday afternoon for 2 weeks in Africa. He will be in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Nairobi. He is looking forward to participating in the first “Africa by Radio” Convention, especially because so many of our media partners will be there. Curt is also excited to be teaching a managerial course on Nehemiah’s Project Management.

During this time Karen will be in Florida to take care of her father, Dr. John Slater, who is battling Parkinson’s disease. Please pray for strength for Karen.

Pray also for a partner station in Guinea, W. Africa called Radio Familia. They are apparently seen with much favor by the government, including the new President, and they have been granted a low power short wave radio broadcast license. They plan to target the unreached Fula-Jalon people group, which is 99.9% Muslim, and has been very resistant to evangelical witness. Of the total approximately 10 million population of Guinea, about 4 million are Fula-Jalon. Obviously a very strategic people group and project!

The target date now is to be on air next Spring or Summer 2010. Guinea is one of the least reached countries overall in W. Africa and this project now becomes a very high priority for HCJB Global. May God continue to open doors, and may the government continue to help in the process. Ultimately, may God’s name be proclaimed to the Fula-Jalon because of this radio effort.

Grateful for your prayers,

Curt & Karen

Praying for Ghana

Just a few photos from our most recent visit to Ghana back in April. Karen, of course, loved being with the kids. We both enjoyed seeing first hand the brand new well we helped with in the small village of Hateka.

In June, a follow up medical team visited Hateka and found that disease in this village has decreased significantly and God is at work in the hearts of people. Praying for Ghana today ...

Int'l Leadership Team in Colorado

This past weekend HCJB Global's International Leadership team met in Colorado Springs. Leadership participated from Singapore, Quito, Ghana, Scotland and Spain.

Cole Video from Ghana

Karen and I were just in Ghana, W. Africa. We were evaluating the recent launch of HCJB Global's Sub-Saharan Africa project called Africa Voice and Hands. This project seeks to integrate media and health care to change lives across the region. God is using these efforts in a powerful way and we are blessed to be a part of this.

This video I took while I was there tells the story of what we are doing through the voices of our partners in the region.

Curt & Karen

HCJB Global's new Strategic Partner

I just got off the phone with Lee Sonius, our regional director for Sub-Saharan Africa in Accra, Ghana. He was updating me on a medical team that HCJB Global currently has on the ground there, and today they saw over 250 patients in a village near Accra. This is in alliance with a new strategic partner that has been focused for years on media work, but is now using health care as part of their efforts to reach people in Ghana. Karen and I will be there next month and will be able to see what God is doing through these efforts.

Here's the recent press release:

HCJB Global recently began a strategic partnership with Theovision International, a large mission organization that has been working in Accra, Ghana, for nearly 20 years. HCJB Global joined with the organization, specializing in recording audio New Testaments, because of its growing interest in radio, said Sub-Saharan Africa Executive Director Lee Sonius. “Audio Scriptures and radio go hand in hand,” he explained. “Theovision has just received three FM radio permits from the Ghana authorities for three different towns. We are committed to helping them get these stations on the air, and we want this to be accomplished in the coming years.”

The primary focus of Theovision, which also has offices in Nigeria and Kenya, is the recording of the New Testament in African languages. So far Theovision has completed recordings in 168 languages, covering 80 percent of the languages spoken in 28 countries.
“In the villages where the audio Scriptures are used in listening clubs, we will also help Theovision as they begin to provide community healthcare and development,” Sonius added. “This will be done mainly with a four-wheel-drive, mobile medical clinic that can access even the remotest areas of Ghana. We’re also looking at helping to provide clean water to villages, through wells with hand pumps.”

Theovision’s ministry is important because “50 percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is illiterate, so even if the Bible has been translated into a specific language, many of the speakers cannot read it,” he said.

Cole Moving Update!

Last Thursday, we signed a contract for a rental home in the north part of Colorado Springs. We are praising God for His eternal goodness to us as He provided us with a place in just two days! We returned to Florida on Saturday night, along with a bunch of Super Bowl football fans, and are now packing up the last items in our home here. Later this week we’ll be driving the long haul out to Colorado and will move into the house there on February 11. Our new address is:

Curt & Karen Cole
12123 Stanley Canyon Rd
Colorado Springs, CO 80921

While in Colorado last week, we had the chance to attend the inauguration of HCJB Global’s new president, Wayne Pederson. It was a great time of celebration and looking forward to the doors God continues to open up for us as a mission. We’ll continue to be driven by local partnerships in both media and health care, and it will be exciting for Curt as he’ll be working with Wayne and the team in Colorado Springs on those initiatives.

Pray for us as we say good-byes this week, especially for Karen as she has taken care of her Dad for the past couple of years.

Thanks for standing by us. Westward ho!

Curt & Karen

Moving in God's direction ...

I just returned last week from a trip with our new President, Wayne Pederson (far right in the picture). We traveled first to Spain, where we had meetings with our leaders from Sub-Sahara Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Here's a picture of us in a very chilly Spain.

Tomorrow Karen and I fly to Colorado Springs to spend a couple of days looking for a home to rent. Things have come together very quickly. We now have a renter for our home in Florida, and they move in on February 6, so we have been busy packing and getting ready for the big move West.

Part of the reason we can now move is that Karen's father is on hospice care so he is getting alot of additional help. Karen's brother Ken is also now the primary caregiver, so that makes it a bit easier for us to move on, which has been our plan since we left Ecuador 2 1/2 years ago, to be working out of our home office and serving our international leadership from there in Colorado.

While in Colorado Springs, we'll be attending the inauguration of our new President and I'll also be giving a presentation to our board during their meetings on Friday. Then back home to hopefully pack up the U-Haul for the move. Thanks for praying for us, and please pray for God to provide the home He wants for us. Nothing more and nothing less!

Joy in the journey,

Curt

We just got back yesterday from our family time together in Ecuador. A great time of reliving memories and making new ones, but really hard to say good-bye. Not sure when we'll ever be back together there as a family.

God was so good to give us 14 years there and our kids still consider Ecuador home. We enjoyed both ex-pat and Ecuadorian friends, as well as a little beach place we had gone to for many years.

It's like we closed a chapter of our lives, all those years in Quito, but we are now moving on to the next chapter. As of January 1, Curt is now overseeing HCJB Global's ministry efforts in Africa and the Middle East. This means a more direct focus on Muslim ministry and unreached people groups in this part of the world. This also means a move in the near future to our mission's home base of Colorado Springs. We'll keep you posted on that.

Happy New Year!