25 August 2009

It Is Written Oceania extends broadcast reach

Wahroonga, New South Wales
RECORD staff/Daniel Livingston

It Is Written Oceania (IIWO) programs are set to begin weekly broadcasts across Papua New Guinea (PNG) from September 6. The program will be shown on the national free-to-air station EmTV.

September 6 will also see the show begin a "new and improved" second timeslot on TV2 in New Zealand at 5.30 am, according to Dr Daniel Livingston, manager of IIWO.

IIWO has also extended its agreement with Channel 7 in Australia to continue throughout 2010 and the program reportedly consistently rates at the top of all weekly religious teaching programs on Australian television. The program features Shawn Boonstra, speaker and director of It Is Written International, and Pastor Gary Kent, speaker and director of IIWO.

A Brisbane community channel-QCTV-began screening IIWO at the end of July. The program screens at midday. Dr Livingston reports a prison inmate in that area is "excited that he no longer needs to get up at 3.30 am to watch the program and has a better opportunity to get other inmates to watch it with him."

Pastor Kent says, "I'm in awe of what God has done with this television ministry. We started off with no airtime, no money and no possibility of getting the program on free-to-air television in Australia and New Zealand but just look at what God's done. I believe it's part of God's plan to get the gospel to all the world before Jesus comes."

Between 50 and 100 requests for free offers of Bible studies and DVDs come through to the Adventist Media Network's (AMN) Discovery Centre from viewers of the program weekly. Viewers often report sharing the DVDs with others.

IIWO has recently launched a project to make the Bible available on hand-held, solar-powered MP3 players to millions of people in PNG who are illiterate. The "Pidgin Godpod Project" is something president of the Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea, Pastor Thomas Davai, sees as having "great potential." He says, "The people are so excited about it and those who cannot read or write will greatly benefit from the project."

AMN CEO Neale Schofield says, "We attribute much of the success [of IIWO] to the wonderful support we receive from Sanitarium, which helps us with media negotiations. Both in Australia and New Zealand, Sanitarium is helping the work of media ministry."

Dr Livingston says God has continued to lead IIWO. "Recently, one of IIWO's major broadcasters told the team that the channel was going to put all religious preaching programs off prime time and into the early hours of the morning-including IIWO," he says. "After much prayer, the team gave a presentation on current and planned programs to the head of broadcasting. He was impressed. But even more significantly, just before he arrived to meet with IIWO, he received a call from one of his producers who had just watched an episode and said it was the ‘best program he'd ever seen.'

"At the end of the meeting, the broadcaster promised that IIWO would have a good timeslot. The great news is that from the beginning of August, IIWO has not only maintained its prime-time status but also received improved timeslots. God has truly blessed!"

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