How a Gift From Canada Sparked Hope in Colombia

Kimberly Yepes interviews longtime TWR missionary Jim Munger as audio producer-director Lionel Herrera looks on. 

Not long ago, RTM Colombia’s studio consisted of boxes piled up to provide some sort of soundproofing.

“When I was recording with a box in front, I had to cover myself with a blanket to avoid any feedback or noise,” said Kimberly Yepes, 27, announcer and producer for the ministry’s digital ministry.

Now the studio is bright, cheery, with professional soundproofing and multiple microphones. “Now I’m so relaxed just talking through the microphone and having fun,” added Yepes, who is also one of the three voices of Mision 66, the Spanish-language version of the Bible survey course originated by Brazilian scholar Luiz Sayão.

A visit to the RTM Colombia office and studio was one of the perks of the TWR Ibero-Latin America Partners Conference, which concluded on Thursday. A different group took the tour each day, making the pleasant walk of less than 10 minutes from our conference center in downtown Bogotá to the modern office building where the office is housed on the third floor.

It’s a small office – 50 square meters (about 540 square feet), according to RTM Colombia board President Carlos Cárdenas. That is why not all 50 people at the conference could visit at once. Outside of the studio, it has a couple of work stations and a hallway with counter space. The studio was a bit cramped with as many as 10 of us checking it out once. But it showed its capability when Yepes started conducting brief interviews involving two or three other people at a time.

Assist From Canada

Among those who enjoyed the visit was Brent Campbell, director of TWR Canada since March . He knows that a timely donation from the ministry he now heads jump-started what had been a dormant project.

Having a home of its own had long been the dream of RTM Colombia, but there wasn’t enough money for what would become a $100,000 project, according to Cárdenas.

When COVID hit in 2020, any hope seemed to vanish as real estate prices downtown shot up, Campbell said. The ministry’s leaders wondered whether to return money that had been donated.

But as COVID began to wane, real estate prices retreated. At the same time, TWR Canada stepped up with a $3,000 donation for the project, said Annabel Torrealba, TWR international director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “That was the first push for the completion of the project,” she said. “That was the first light that we saw that God was telling us, ‘I’m here with you guys.’”

Other donors followed Canada’s example, and with the drop in real estate prices, there was enough not only to get into the space but also to buy all of the needed equipment and soundproofing, Campbell said.

Studio’s Wide Reach

RTM Colombia hired Yepes in 2023 when the office opened. The equipment hadn’t been installed yet, however. That’s why RTM Colombia found an innovative, if imperfect, use of boxes to create a temporary studio. Today, in its sophisticated studio, RTM Colombia produces five programs for all of Latin America, one of which is produced in 60 languages.

The conference’s final day was as packed as the rest. A highlight was a thrilling update on Mission 66, or Rota 66 in the original Portuguese. I’ll have to wait for another day to share about that.

For now, let’s let Campbell conclude with thoughts about Canada’s donors that really apply across the TWR world:

“It’s the generosity of Canadian donors that make these kinds of things happen. … We wouldn’t have been able to be responsive like we were coming out of COVID and they needed that money to make it happen.

“It’s the people with the ability, but also the massive heart, to give to support the global church.”

Images: (top banner) Kimberly Yepes interviews longtime TWR missionary Jim Munger as audio producer-director Lionel Herrera looks on, (middle, right) TWR Chief Content Officer Jon Fugler leans into the mic as Women of Hope Director Susie Pek looks on.