Australian Adventist radio ministry Faith FM has celebrated 10 years of broadcast with a special service in Melbourne.
Hosted by Nunawading Adventist Church on July 28, the Sabbath program was a chance to celebrate the miracles and lives Faith FM has seen changed in their decade of broadcast, and was well attended by both church members and listeners from interstate.
A highlight of the program included testimonies from listeners whose lives were changed through the ministry of Faith FM. Listeners also had the opportunity to meet Faith FM Breakfast Show hosts Lyle and Monica, who took Sabbath School, and the “Aussie Pastor” Lloyd Grolimund, who presented the sermon.
The program concluded with an afternoon concert led by Faith FM’s marketing and communication coordinator Gavin Chatelier, and the official launch of a new radio station in Doncaster, expected to reach a significant eastern-Melbourne area including Nunawading.
A video produced by the Adventist Church in Australia (AUC) and shown during the offering told the story of Faith FM over the past 10 years, from its small beginnings in rural Victoria to more than 130 radio stations today.
“We had no money, no experience, and no idea where to start,” said Pastor Cristian Copaceanu, who was pastoring the Traralgon and Moe churches at the time and now serves at the AUC as the director of personal ministries, Sabbath School, and stewardship. “If God really wanted us to move forward, He’d have to fund it, and funds did arrive—$A6000 in the first week, to be precise.”
On July 20, 2008, the first radio station was installed. Just last Thursday, in addition to the launch of the Doncaster station, another broadcast was established in the Yarra Valley suburb of Seville. The station is being hosted by a gentleman whose wife recently passed away, but not before she was baptised into the Adventist Church. Though he is yet to take a stand of his own, he has welcomed Faith FM to be broadcast from his garage. Friday saw a new radio station launched in the New South Wales coastal town of Yamba—part of the North New South Wales (NNSW) Conference’s purchase of 14 radio network licenses on their North Coast.
“Radio is a medium that reaches behind closed doors, and we reach the best part of a quarter of the Australian population; more than five million Australians,” said Faith FM producer Bradley Martin. “We’re not being sedentary as a Church in trying to spread the gospel—we are using the tools that we have.”
“The Faith FM radio ministry continues to grow by God’s grace,” said Michael Engelbrecht, Faith FM coordinator for the AUC. “Our aim [with the anniversary celebrations] was to give glory to God for what He has done, to continue to raise awareness, and to connect seekers with the Seventh-day Adventist church, and this was achieved.”
“When I visit churches, someone will come and say, ‘I’m here because of Faith FM’, and it’s exciting,” said AUC president Pastor Jorge Munoz. “We look forward to seeing what God will do in the years ahead.”
