Voice of the Martyrs

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If someone in Colombia wants to go as a missionary somewhere,
the pastors there are going to look at this person, Okay,
are you serving here where you are? Are you willing
to go to those places and serve as a pastor
or as a minister in places in your own country
in a very maybe rural setting where there is no electricity,

(00:23):
might not have a school or the ideal school for
your kids, it might not have a lot of people.
It might be super far away from everything that you're
used to, but still within your own country, right And
if they're willing to serve that way in their own
country and to really give up themselves in that environment,
then we think, Okay, this is the kind of people

(00:45):
that we would like to send overseas to another nation.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Us words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true today in the lives of his followers
around the world. Join host Todd Nettletons we hear their
inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now

(01:12):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martys Radio. My
name is Todd Netleton and we are in our studio
today in Bartoso, Oklahoma, with Miguel on Hell and Hales.
He is the executive director of Bethel Radio and Television.
They are based in Peru, but they are reaching out
literally all over the world. Miguel, welcome to Voice of

(01:34):
the martych Radio.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Weird I see that, oy, so we've seen us.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad
to be here. It's a great opportunity to be here
in the blessing truly to be here with you guys today.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
It is a blessing for us to have you. And
I think as we start out, maybe just introduce our
listeners to Bethel Radio and Television. What what is the ministry?
How old is it and how are you reaching around
the world.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Boves A Deformacion.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Insel Radio started twenty five years ago when Rodolfo Gonzalez
came from Cuba and established Worldwide Mission Movement in Peru.
When he first arrived to Peru, there wasn't a place
where he could preach, where he could share and so
other pastors from other denominations began to give him a
place where he could share. His vision originally was to

(02:22):
go to Australia, but when he saw the need in
South America and Peru specifically, he decided to stay and
share in Peru. And he told God, Lord, if you
give me a place where I can share in Peru,
I will stay in Peru. And it was totally a
God thing. He was actually given an old movie theater
and was able to start there. Wow, and that's where

(02:45):
he started to share. He really enjoyed all the media communications.
So all of his sermons were recorded on cassette and
he would look for different radio stations that would be
willing and would want to play his tapes on radio.
They were just complete, these secular radio stations. They're not
Christian at all, but he would find these people. They
were willing to broadcast his sermons on the radio. There

(03:07):
were some radio stations that would tell them, you know what,
we can't broadcast your sermons anymore because you speak too harshly.
So he began to feel like he was being pushed
out of these radio stations. He's like, Lord, what am
I going to do? I have all these tapes, How
am I going to get them out there? And so
he said to God, you know what, give me a
radio station. And so in the mountains of Peru and Guancayo,

(03:27):
this is where the first radio station begins.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
And how many radio stations are there today? In Peru.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
There's three hundred and forty different radio stations in Peru.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
But it's not just Peru anymore. Now it's surrounding nations
as well.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
See a Betel al Nas and Peru.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
When the nomination Worldwide Missions movement begins to see how
the Bethel radio program is blessing the church and the
church is growing because of the radio program, they begin
to say, Hey, we want Bethel in our country. So
we began to see the radio spanned out to Venezuela,
to Columbia, to different areas.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Praise the Lord. So, Miguel, how did you become involved
with Bethel.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
Radio Condo Technica, the Informatica.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
So I started out in church with the IT team.
I would go in and because that's why I studied,
I was able to help them do repairs at church.
And so I was there when the Bethel Radio Online,
the internet version took off. And since I was already there.
They invited me to start, and he says, well, I
really don't have a background in radio. That's fine, we

(04:37):
don't care. We want to eat part of it. And
so after that, or once I started, I began to
learn on as I was going. I would learn to
to look at the songs, learn to host the radio show,
learned to record, be in front of a microphone. I
just began to learn all the different parts of being
on radio show.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Martis Radio
with Miguel on Hell and heles. He is the executive
of Bethel Radio and Television. Miguel, obviously there's a connection
between Bethel and Voice of the Martyrs. How are our
two ministries cooperating together to tell the stories of persecuted.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Christians television at.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
So, the Voice of the Martyrs has really allowed us
to use the content that you guys produce both for
TV and radio, to be able to bring awareness of
our prosecuted family. And we're able to share that with
the churches and the people that are listening in and
watching through the Bethel network.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Why do you think it's so important for Christians to
know the stories of persecuted Christians too, to understand that
there are Christians being persecuted, they are staying faithful to
Christ even in spite of persecution. Why is it so
important that you would use you know, you only have
twenty four hours a day of radio time. Why would
you use some of that time to share the stories

(06:02):
of persecuted.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Christians testimonio the Peter Perios testimonial.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
In my first real time of listening about the persecuted
Church was when Peter Jassek came to Peru and shared
at a conference. I had never heard of anything similar
to that. It was during a conference for the Worldwide
Missions Movement, and what he said just really touched me.

(06:29):
And what he said specifically about the persecuted Church really
touched me. And so that really brought something in my being,
in my heart to want to know more. It created
a hunger to hear more.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
And let me just interject for our listeners. Peter Yossick
is my co worker here at Voice of the Martyrs,
was our Africa regional director, arrested in the country of Sudan.
Ended up spending over a year in a Sudanese prison.
So that's the story. He's actually shared that story here
on Voice of the Martyrs Radio as well. So that's
the story that Miguel that you heard that that first

(07:02):
kind of grabbed your attention.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
And dos is going.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
So after really coming to this point and being in
Bethel Radio and then hearing about the persecuted church, like,
I just knew that this is something that the church
in Peru of the short in Latin America had to hear.
They needed to be able to hear about this, and
so we wondered how we could do it, and and
we first brought it to this content into the TV setting,

(07:29):
but then I kept asking myself, when are we going
to do this on radio? The church needs to know
the church needs to know about this.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
And so through the.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Contact of yours, VOM that came down and said, you
know what, the content for radio is almost ready, just
wait a little bit. And so once it was available
and I heard it, I knew this is exactly what
the church needs to hear, and and we started to
use that material and really it's been like being able
to be an echo for what you guys are saying

(07:57):
here in VOM and being able to be there echo
in Peru.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Miguel, you say, that it's it's just what the church needs.
And I think, you know, we are familiar with persecution
in Columbia, We're familiar with persecution in Venezuela. Why why
does the church in Latin America need this especially right now?

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Baraka?

Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think it's really important that the church is able
to pray for the persecuted church. You know, Bethel is
not just part of the Denomination of worldwide Missions movement
where we really strive to take the Gospel to all people,
whether they know of God or Christ or or not.
And so we really have this mission that everyone would

(08:45):
be able to be a part of praying for the
persecuted church. You know, just like those meetings that I
would attend and every Monday we would pray for those
who haven't come to Christ yet and to pray for
for the persecuted church. We really want to be able
to bring the church in and pray for those people
who are suffering persecution in places that Columbia and Venezuela
and other places.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Monits Radio
with Miguel al Anhelesi is the executive director Bethel Radio
and Television. They are based in Peru, but they're reaching
literally all around the world. Miguel, I love the story
of week after week after week, your heart grew for
persecuted Christians. And you know, I hope there's a lot

(09:27):
of you and radio listeners that would have that same
testimony week after week after week. As I listened, my
heart grew and the Lord called me to get more involved.
You come from a church movement that is serious about missions.
Talk a little bit about the missionary history and the
missionary background of your church, especially as it relates to

(09:50):
going to hard places like Colombia, places where Christians are persecuted.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Bon So worldwide missions movement.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
This denomination, it started in sixty three years ago in
Puerto Rico. The founder is Luis Mmrtie, and he's a
guy that had a tremendous vision to put churches all
over the world. He wanted to plant a church wherever
he went. He was a journalist and so he would

(10:23):
write for a magazine and he would also record sermons
and his teachings on cassettes, and so whereever he would
travel around the world to whether it be Belize or
Spain or whatever it was, he had these recordings with him.
And he would look for a radio station. He'd go
around and he'd find a radio station and be like, here,
you guys need to play this. And so he would

(10:44):
always find a place where he could get these on air.
And when he found a place where they'd accept them
and be like, hey, you have to you know, we
need to work here. He had people that would travel
with him and he would tell them, you know what,
you're staying here, You're planting a church right here. And
so he would have someone of his you know, people
companions that were traveling with him stay and plant a church.
And so this is how it started to grow. I mean,

(11:06):
it began to plant churches all over the world, and
today the movement is in over ninety four countries. As so,
during these sixty three years of growth, I think we've
really created a culture of love for missions and and
just in general, all the people who are part of

(11:27):
these churches, part of this denomination really have a love
for missions. Two weeks ago, we had a couple from
Peru go out as missionaries to Mozambique, and we also
had a couple from Columbia going out to French Guyana.
And so there's just this this part of our heart
that is for missions. We all all the churches have

(11:49):
at least once a month a service dedicated for missions.
Once a month, once a month, that's right. And sometimes
during those services dedicated for missions, we also talk about
v M and what v M is doing. And we
really hope that as the name says Worldwide Missions Movement,
that we're able to really keep that heart and be

(12:09):
able to do that in practice.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
I love the idea of once a month having a
mission service every church. I hope every pastor that's listening
to the own radio this week is like, Wow, we
could do that at our church too. What are some
of the other ways that that the church has made
that a part of their DNA like to be a
part of our group? Is you care about missions, you
love missions, you want to be involved in missions? What

(12:35):
are the practical things that you've done to keep that
as part of the DNA.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
So what we do, I think, I think mainly is
the meeting. It's the monthly meetings, where so if you
can imagine, we have our our monthly meeting dedicated to
missions and we have kids come out and they're holding
flags of all the countries where we have not yet
gone to WOW and we pray specifically for those countries,

(13:07):
and obviously the pastors share something related to missions, something
very on point for that month. And it's just that
that really having that mindset of every month focusing on
missions and really being able to work towards that. We
look forward to it. Every last September of the year,

(13:28):
the Worldwide Missions Movement globally celebrates missions. So that weekend,
all the churches around the globe but are part of
the movement, we focus on missions. And one of the
things we do is we gather an offering on that Saturday,
so all the churches gather an offering on that Sunday
that that goes on will be used towards the missions

(13:49):
that are being done so that the Gospel can be taken.
And so it's just part of this mindset of being
really devoted into the missions.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
There's so much that I hope our listeners are taking
out of this com I love churches that have flags,
and I love even more the idea that we have
the flags of the countries we haven't reached yet, like
those are targets for us to go to. One of
the other things I think about is the fact that
a Peruvian national or a Colombian national can go to

(14:20):
some places that an American national may not be welcome,
Like those countries might be closed to an American, but
they're open to Peruvians, they're open to Colombians or people
from other nationalities. Does your church really think about those
things in terms of going maybe to the hardest places
to reach them with the gospel.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Well, I'm not sure how much it actually plays a
factor into our planning. I think a lot of it
has to do more with simply we send the people
that have a calling, They feel a calling upon their
life and they want to serve, and so it's more
factors of what kind of languages are they able to speak,
what kind of places are they're planning on going to,

(15:08):
what kind of gift things they might have, And so
then the people who are willing and feel that calling,
I mean, go something that like there's this pasture we
have that went to Mozambique and he's been there for
three years, but he's not able to stay there permanently
the whole time, and the organization has helped them to

(15:29):
kind of look to the side of his paperwork, his
visas and a lot of stuff ta able to go.
So he's going one month and then he has to
leave a month, and then he's going back and forth
like that every month. He's there one month out, one month,
and the organization will help him until he's able to
be stable and be actually in the country. But I

(15:49):
think it has to do more with the logistical side
of things that we help and take care of, because
really we don't really consider those aspects of body or
physiognomy or what we might look like. It's more the
calling that we're that we're looking for.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
How do you prepare missionaries to go to hard places
where they could face opposition, they could even perhaps even
be killed for their mission work. How do you get
them ready to face those kind of challenges.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
So I think the first and main thing is that
we look at people and how they are serving here
at home. If someone in Colombia wants to go as
a missionary somewhere, the pastors there are going to look
at this person, Okay, are you serving here where you are?

(16:45):
Are you willing to go to those places and serve
as a pastor or or as a minister in places
in your own country in a very maybe rural setting
where there is no electricity where you're going to live,
and you're going to plan a church in your own
community or in a community that doesn't have electricity, might
not have a school or the ideal school for your kids,

(17:06):
it might not have a lot of people, it might
be super far away from everything that you're used to,
but still within your own country, right, And if they're
willing to serve that way in their own country and
to really give of themselves in that environment, then we think, okay,
this is the kind of people that we would like
to send overseas to another nation. So first of all,

(17:28):
are they willing to serve in their own country under
difficult circumstances are they doing right now? And then if
they're willing to do that and they are doing that,
then okay, then they're candidates to be able to be
sent overseas. And then obviously after that it's preparing them
with maybe the preparation for language and other things that
are needed to be able to go to the other nation.

(17:49):
But it's that first thing of are you serving where
you are first?

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, and we've heard that from other missions trainers as well.
If if you're not serving where you are now, why
do you think you're going to move to another country
and then flip a switch and suddenly you'll be on
fire to serve and to reach out to the people.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
Around you, correct to see talk.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
We have relative freedom in Peru and Colombia to share
the gospel. These are places where you can go out
into the street and publicly share share the gospel. I've
been to Europe and I know that you can't just
go out and stand up on a box and share
the gospel. In Europe, it's just something that you can't do.
But in Peru and in Columbia, we have that freedom.

(18:36):
And we have pastors that go every Saturday, Saturday after Saturday.
They'll take youth out, they'll take grown ups with them,
they'll take banners, and they will share the gospel and
they'll do it in a very open kind of way.
And it's not a not an issue. But there's there's
other pastors that don't have that same fire. These first pastors,

(18:56):
they have a fire in them and they want to
go and they want to share the gospel. They want
want others to know. But there's some pastors that that
somewhat get comfortable and they the church, their church members
will tell them, pastor, let's go share, Let's go out
and share the gospel. He's like, no, that the church
is big enough. Right now, We're okay, we're doing fine,
And so they kind of lack that. And Covid was

(19:17):
a great example of these of these kind of pastors
where they felt very comfortable staying in their buildings and
not wanting to go out. But then the leader of
the movement in Peru, he was like, Okay, guys, COVID's
coming to an end, get out and share. No more
of this staying in. And so then people like, okay,
well we'll go out and share. And right now every

(19:39):
month we have in Peru over two hundred and fifty
evangelistic events.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Wow, every month.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
And these pastors that the ones that are actually going
to these events, leading these events and really show that
hunger that fire to share the gospel. These are the
pastors that we look at and like, hey, this guy's
a great candidate to send overseas, to send it a
nation to share the gospel.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
We're talking this week on Voice Smartist Radio with Miguel
and hell and Heless. He is the executive director of
Bethel Radio and Television. Miguel what are the biggest challenges
that you're facing right now? And that could be in
your work with with Bethel, it could be as a husband,
as a father. What are the challenges you're facing that

(20:24):
our listeners can pray for this week?

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Mireto says prayer for me right now?

Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think would be to just to continue to serve
the Lord. I'm very thankful that I had an amazing
example for my parents. My parents were went through through
a season where they were about to come to divorce,
but they came to the Lord and they didn't get divorced.
And I've recently lost my father thirteen days ago, actually

(20:54):
he passed away, and I don't I don't have him
with me anymore. Dad's past, and but the memory of
my dad and how he he brought me to the
Lord is going to stay with me. My dad was
always someone who would would ask me, even to the
final days, hey, how's how's this, how's Bethel doing? How

(21:15):
are things going at the radio? How are you know?
He always had this passion and this interest in how
things were going and in me, And just that example,
I think is something that's challenging me to continue to
serve and continue to not give up. I think if
if I were to not work in Bethel Radio tomorrow,

(21:36):
I wouldn't give up. I'd continue serving somewhere else, wherever
they wherever they send me, wherever I end up going.
I'm never going to give up serving. I need to
serve and I want to serve. If you would pray
for me, pray for my wife and I we have
three kids. I would love to have God's wisdom to
be able to make good decisions and to be able

(21:56):
to continue to serve Him no matter where I am.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
And then my last question. We always try to equip
our listeners to pray, and they will pray for you,
especially this season of loss. That's that's a difficult thing
to go through. How can we pray for Bethel Radio
and Television, for the ministry that you.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
Lead, Betel Commoto Organisms.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
So, like all organizations, we have infrastructure, we have technology
that needs to be up kept. We have this all
our different tools and elements that are part of our
infrastructure that need to keep going. But more importantly, under
all of that, there are all the people that are
committed to serve and committed to help and keep the

(22:39):
organization going. If it weren't for these people, we wouldn't
be able to continue. And so I asked that you'd
pray for all these people that have committed themselves to
serve and to just give of themselves to the Lord,
that they would be able to grow in faith, that
they would be able to continue to grow in their
commitment to serving the Lord, and that God continue to provide,

(23:01):
that God would continue to give all that they might
need and see their needs met to just be able
to move forward. You know, the organization is huge. The
network is so big that when COVID happened, I really
thought that the whole thing was going to come tumbling down.
But praise the Lord, it's almost like seeing a phoenix.

(23:24):
And I mean, when everything else was going down, the
network just kept on growing. The radio kept on going up,
and so we were able to see that growth and
praise the Lord for that growth and the commitment of
these people. So pray for all the people that are
involved and committed to serving in Bethel Radio. I'd ask
that now that I have the opportunity to be here
with you guys on VOM Radio, that you guys would

(23:45):
support us in prayer, pray for us that we'd be
able to keep on doing and reach all those things
that we still have left to do in the world
in our lifetime.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Miguel, I know we have VO radio listeners who every
week write down the prayer requests that our guests share,
so I can assure you there will be people praying
for you this week and for the Ministry of Bethel
Television and Radio. Thank you for your help in sharing
the stories of persecuted Christians with your audience, and thank
you for being our guests this week on Voice of

(24:19):
the Martyrs Radio Gods Day.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
You guys, you've been listening to the Voice of the
Martyrs Radio as always. If you want to hear this
entire conversation, you can go to our website vomradio dot net.
I would also encourage you to share it with your
pastor share it with the missions director at your church.
Think about how your church maybe could have a monthly
service to focus on missions, to focus on what God

(24:43):
is doing around the world, and make sure you're back
with us next week. We'll share more about what God
is doing, how the church is growing even in hostel
areas and restricted nations. I hope you're back for that
conversation next week, right here on the Voice of the
Martyrs Radio Network,