Spreading the Gospel by radio - is a niche that Galcom International has cornered. Have you heard of them?
In the 1980s God gave three different men similar ideas for getting the gospel out to as many people as possible. The idea was for a small hand-held radio that was pre-tuned and fixed on a good Christian radio station nearby. If these were to be distributed, each in the language of that particular region, even those who were not literate, would be able to hear the gospel.
These three men, Harold Kent, (Tampa, Florida), Ken Crowell (Tiberias, Israel), and Allan T. McGuirl (Director of Gospel Recordings in Hamilton, ON, Canada) met at an IFMA Conference in 1989. With their so-similar visions, they realized that they should join forces and work together. They divided up the three main responsibilities, and chose the name Galcom International for this new ministry.
This is a committee type of name; Gal is the Jewish word for "Commit", com is well-known as short for Communications, and "International" described their mission field. By August 15 of that same year, Galcom International was registered in both the USA and Canada, and they started producing the solar-powered, fix-tuned radios, named Go-Ye radios.
Lebanon, and Jordan. Now, 20 years later, they have distributed 900,000 radios in 126 country. Simply millions of people are eagerly listening to the gospel by radio. Now-a-days, many of them have recordings of the New Testament and even the whole Bible in different languages on the radio devices. This way the listeners can hear God's Word even if the radio reception is sometimes weak or not there.I get their quarterly newsletter from Hamilton, in my country Canada, and they always have three months of prayer requests entered right on calendar pages. Each day shares bits of information embedded in the prayer request. This way I feel I'm getting to know the ministry as a whole, including the countries being reached, the missionaries in the field, and the volunteers who show up at the office regularly (some one day a week, some more) just to assemble the radios, and package them for shipping.
Galcom partners with over 300 other mission organizations in 125 countries, who handle most of the distribution in their fields. That is a great idea! It prevents duplicating work that others are doing. The other ministries are delighted to be able to hand out these small radios, which speeds up the spread of the gospel wonderfully!
You really ought to visit their website, Galcom.org and discover the seven types of radios they now make, and then also how they help missions or individuals set up low-powered broadcasting stations, or several other options. Some can be run be a pastor in a church. There is even the ability to set up repeater stations, or your very own radio station. So many practical ways to get out the gospel by radio.
It looks to me like Galcom International has really come to own this niche spreading the gospel by radio. I'm very glad for them, and thankful to God for doing this work through them!