Pepperdine
The month of May was special for two reasons, the first for having the opportunity to be one of the speakers in Portuguese at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles. The second reason for being so special is that after a year working with World Christian Broadcasting I had the joy of returning to the Office in Franklin and see how beautiful the new decoration that portrays the trajectory of the radio during all these years. It was very nice to see that as I passed through the corridors I could see the pictures of each Senior Producer and the message of the great commission of Jesus stamped in his own language, including in Portuguese.
That same day of the visit I had the great pleasure of having lunch with Doug Poling, CBS News correspondent for 25 years based in New York. Gayle Crowe, Ed Ho and Rob Scobey were also present at that lunch, and it was a really good time.
Rômulo & Doug
Now back to that time in Pepperdine, I want to tell you a bit more about this wonderful experience. I flew to the United States on Monday, April 29, and arrived on April 30 in Los Angeles, despite the long trip, I arrived excited to participate and get to know a little more of this event with people so full of knowledge.
World Christian Broadcasting is invited every year to teach three classes in their Bible Lectureship. My first day began with an important message from Andy Baker, president of WCB, speaking on the theme “Creating a Great Commission Spirit in your Congregation.” I was impacted by the way Andy encouraged us to fulfill this great call. In short, he said that we need to invest in our time with Jesus, and how do we do it? Head in the Bible, Eyes on Jesus, Hands doing the work of Jesus, Knees bended the floor in prayer and Feet with the brothers and sisters.
Andy
On the second day I had the opportunity together with Forrest Gates to speak about our program in Portuguese. I took this opportunity to show our viewers the greatness of this country, its demographic division and population and especially how thirsty the Brazilian population is to listen to pure and true word of God. Finally, I talked a little about how our program is composed and how the feedback from our listeners has motivated us to grow and continue on this path.
On the third day Edet Udofia, Senior Producer for African English, spoke on the theme, “Africa is Listening.” He gave a wonderful talk challenging us to learn more about African culture and how important it is to have programs that respect culture local. Edet made us reflect that a person who knows the country’s culture can produce appropriate and well-directed content, respecting cultural aspects but also talking about how God’s love transforms a nation.
Edet
Some of the most interesting moments of these events are the free moments, where you can get to know more of the people and learn from them as well as improve your work. And in that event Pepperdine was no different. I had the great pleasure of talking for a few hours with Rex Morgan, Senior Producer of WCB for Spanish, learning strategies for better attracting the radio audience, and how to make my time on the air really be effective. These were just some of the great tips he gave me. Also I spent some time with Forrest Gates, a brother for whom I have great appreciation. Gates worked in Brazil for more than 33 years and for several years worked with media, including radio, TV and internet, of which I had the opportunity to be part of these projects.
Rex, Gates and Rômulo
As I said this time was very special and of course I cannot fail to mention also a good time to chat with Andy Baker, Gayle and Lisa Crowe.
Finally, I returned to Brazil with a large bag of positive experiences, with great learning and ready to continue to produce the Program “Palavra Alegre” in an even better way. Remember that in May we closed our seventh month on the air. Make sure to access and share our page, www.palavraalegre.com. Soon we will have an English version and if you want to listen to the lectures that I quoted above follow the link below. God bless you all .
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gospel-to-brazil-and-beyond/id1378712685?i=1000437157227
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/africa-is-listening/id1378712685?i=1000437209000
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/helping-your-congregation-become-a-global-church/id1378712685?i=1000437027249
