JESUS audio prioritizes 12 countries

Since 1997, TWR – also known as Trans World Radio – has collaborated with Cru in presenting an audio version of Cru’s beloved movie that’s drawn from the Gospel of Luke. The radio version is mostly aired during the Christmas and Easter seasons, said Tom Terry, the head of Global Broadcast Strategy for Jesus Film Project.

The 90-minute audio is being broadcast in a wide variety of places and languages, said Brandon Neal, deputy to the director of Global Media Services of TWR, including most of Africa, every Latin American nation and every Caribbean island. But there’s a particular emphasis on languages of a dozen nations, so sensitive in ministry terms that we are not naming them here. But they have something in common:

“Among those countries, it’s almost impossible to get in,” Terry said. “The only way you’re going to get in is to broadcast from the outside, which of course is what TWR does.”

That’s because it has powerful regional transmitters that can reach countries that otherwise are closed to the gospel.

The audio can be broadcast in its entirety, in two parts or in 30- or 15-minute segments, depending on the radio station, Neal said. In many places, it will be broadcast on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In some outlets, it will be timed with Orthodox Christmas, which is Jan. 7.

Unlike with community showings of the JESUS film, there’s no way to quantify how many people come to Christ through radio broadcasts, Terry said. But comments responding to the radio programs provide certainty that people are being reached.

“Thanks, TWR, because hearing the film The Story of Jesus through your airwaves was a good opportunity for us to share the gospel with unbelievers,” wrote a listener in one of the countries three years ago. “Through your airwaves, a family (four people) accepted Jesus as their Savior.”

That same year, a church leader from that country reported praying with six people who came to church desiring to become children of God after listening to the program.

“Whether in the film or audio version, Jesus has a life-transforming impact because it sticks to Scripture,” Terry said. “I think God honors his own Word.”

Listen to The Story of Jesus here.

Image: Viewers watch a screening of the JESUS film [image courtesy of IMB].