Dear RBG Family

As 2009 comes to an end and the New Year is almost here you may be surprised to know that there are many people who would like to say ‘thank you’ to you….and a lot of of them are actually family!  Let me explain.

In Ephesians 2:19 it says ‘So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family’.

Yes, you and I have ‘family members’ all across New Zealand and many of them have been hugely blessed by being able to receive messages of faith, hope and love through the RBG networks during 2009. Some of them have been Christians a long time, others have only just received ‘the Good News’ and joined ‘God’s family’.

As you might imagine there are people in our audiences who have faced all sorts of situations during 2009. Some have encountered serious illnesses; others have lost loved ones; there are those who have had financial problems, unemployment or relationship difficulties; some have simply had doubts and fears and needed an encouraging word; while others required information to help them make an important decision or to help understand some aspect of God’s Word.  

Each year we receive tens of thousands of letters, email, texts and phone calls from those who are touched by the RBG mission. Here are just six of them…

 “I listened to the music and the way in which the radio DJ’s would speak [it] started to break down the hardness in my heart towards God. I was telling my testimony
the other day and realised that the hunger I had to discover God around the time I became a Christian - it was your station that was one of the key things that made  God a reality in my life.”
- (Emily) NZ’s Rhema listener

 “God Bless you Southern Star. It is through you, the way that the Holy Spirit used the music to ‘get under my skin’ that led me to giving my life to the Lord and having Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. You continue to minister to me…”
- (Ruth) Southern Star listener

[This is in text language] Life fm “…keeps me on track, the awesum music gets stuck in my head which is a gd thing cuz i learnt the lyrics and some of them are very powerful, more than just words. i listen to life fm everyday as much as i can, more than i watch tv!! lol no exaggeration there.”
- (Emma) Life fm listener

“One day, I was bored and started flicking through the channels, I think I turned it to Joyce Meyer’s Enjoying Everyday Life… she was talking about housework which I had just been doing and resenting every minute of it. It really hit home and I was hooked from then on.  I started watching other shows like David Jeremiah and Charles Stanley, ... then… Running with Fire, Give me an Answer, documentaries, etc.  Thank you so much Shine TV! I pray that Jesus, through Shine, will reach many people and save them like He saved me.”
- (TW) Shine TV viewer

 “Just a few words about The Word...I really love that I can listen to the Bible whenever I want. In the car, at night when I can’t sleep, during the day I often listen in, too. It is an empowering ministry to my spirit. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God”... Yes, my faith has increased. Listening has given me an increased appetite for God’s Word”.
The Word – Bible Radio 24/7 listener

“I am an inmate at xxxx Prison, I thought I would write to you to [say] how “The Word For Today” is a really good up-lifting daily devotional reading first thing in the morning. [It] gets me through the day. May God bless you.”
- (Brian) The Word For Today reader

There are of course also thousands of our listeners, viewers and readers who are not Christians…yet. A few years ago a survey of listeners to our radio networks* found that 76% said they were Christians, while 9.2% said they had no ‘religious belief’, 5.6% held some other belief/faith and 9.3% did not answer the question. Our audiences are certainly wide and diverse!

Rhema Broadcasting Group - this unique home based multi media mission, has been able to be here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year because you and others like you have been willing to partner with us to reach the young, old and everyone in between - all across New Zealand. Thank you for helping us to do this. 

As we come to the end of one year and begin another, none of us knows what 2010 holds. We can however pause and think about what God has done in and through us in 2009. Almost 3,000 years ago King David wrote what we know as Psalm 16. In verse 6 he says “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance”.

As Christians, members of God’s family, we certainly have much to thank Him for… and to share.  May God richly bless you and all those you love and care for with much ‘joy, peace and grace’ as you enter the New Year.

God bless
Your brother in Jesus

John Fabrin
CEO      

P.S. 2010 will likely be a challenging year for RBG as we will need to renew the bulk of our AM/FM licences for the next 20 years from 2011. We will tell you more about this in the coming months.

*All New Zealand Radio Audience Survey conducted by Research International Ltd. 2004