Stensaas Family

LIFE RADIO History

Several years ago when I first came to Uganda, I was brought into contact with several people who were dying of AIDS. At one time they had lived in town but when they found out that they had AIDS, they went to the village and basically were just waiting to die. There were so many others who because of malaria and other diseases were dying also. My heart was so burdened because I was only one man and there was no way I could go into all of the villages to get the gospel to them and really be effective. We prayed and asked God, “How can we reach all of these people?” While on our first furlough I believe God gave me the answer to my prayers. He brought me into contact with someone who had a Christian radio station, and God seemed to say, “there is your answer.” I knew nothing at all about radio, broadcasting etc. I had never even been in a station before. God was working and He brought me into contact with Brother Weber in Mexico, MO who tried to show me some things about radio. He knew quite a bit but I didn’t even know what questions to ask and was totally overwhelmed by it all. He got me in contact with Brother Robinson, a Christian radio technician in VA who explained a bit more. Dr. S.M. Davis heard that I was wanting to start a radio station and got me in contact with a man in a church in North Dakota who was kind enough to allow me to make copies of some of their music. I got about 300 songs which at the time I thought was a tremendous amount. Brother Charlie in Carthage, MO helped me get set up with two computers that had hard drives with a whopping 4 gig. I didn’t know they made them that big. Brother Joel Aslakson in Fargo, ND wanted to help us so he wrote a computer program that would allow us to automate and broadcast using our computer. We thought we were on top of the world. With advice from technicians and others we got a 300 watt transmitter and exciter, a CD player that would play 100 CDs, a dual cassette deck, some Radio Shack mixers, some computer microphone headsets and an antenna and headed back to Uganda. I still knew nothing about radio. I contacted the Communication Commission and the Broadcasting Council in Uganda to see what the rules were about towers etc, etc. They couldn’t find any manuals so they told me just to get a local welder and build a tower. I applied for and received a license to broadcast. I am glad they didn’t ask me any questions because I wouldn’t have had any answers. We turned a one room boys quarters that was about 11′ by 11′ into our station. I contacted a man in our church who had been a teacher and we started getting together and developing programs. We developed preaching and teaching programs, English lessons and anything we could think of to get the gospel to the people. We were able to get Oliver B. Green’s study of Romans which helped greatly. After learning how to record and edit wave files, we figured out how to make intros and exits for each broadcast. We developed spot liners and thoughts for the day. It was great. We soon had enough programs to go on the air. So, how do we hook everything up? Believe it or not, I contacted Brother Roberson via email which was a new thing in Uganda. At that time, we could send an email at 4,800. Anyway, we would send an email and he would tell me what to hook up next. I would reply and say what next. He said do this. I replied, “that didn’t work.” Well, try this and praise the Lord, it worked. I had designed a tower and hired a local welder to build it. By the way, I led the welder to Christ and he has built all of our towers in Uganda since that time. This tower was 150′ tall. Each piece was 10′ tall that we had to hoist up and into place. Everything went well until the last piece. We had pulled it up to the top but when they swung it into place the jig slipped. We held our breath for what seemed a very long time. We didn’t know whether to pull or let off. The two guys on top were straining to keep it from falling. One of the Africans who worked for me and our son Matthew were at the top. Matthew’s wife Keila had just stepped out of the house and was videoing when all of this happened. They finally got it pulled into place and we were really thanking the Lord for His goodness. After all of that we finally got on the air and began broadcasting the Gospel of Christ to the surrounding villages.

God had given me a verse which we have taken as our motto at Life Radio, “Holding forth the Word of Life.” Pray for this ministry as we continue to hold forth the Word of Life. People ask us how we support our station. Everything comes out of our monthly support. We do have one individual who remains anonymous who supports the radio ministry for $25 a month. Anything anyone could do to help with the expenses would be greatly appreciated.

After Life Radio and the Independent Church of Mbarara were well established, we moved to Soroti to start another church. Knowing the power of the radio outreach, we also started our second radio station, Calvary Radio, 105.1 FM. This is a 500 w. station that reaches many Ateso speaking people in the Soroti area. We purchased the land in Pamba, an area next to Soroti town, and constructed a building consisting of a 2 room quarters for a family to live in as guard and caretaker for the station and also a two room studio and broadcasting room We constructed and put up a 200 foot tower and began broadcasting. Many have been saved though the broadcasts.

One of our listeners in Mbarara, Robert, was saved listening to Life Radio. He currently is pastoring the church there while we are on furlough. He has a tremendous outreach program on the radio and during the months of June and July had 161 saved as a result of those listening to the radio. Many of these are currently being disciple.

We will be starting our 3^rd radio station in Kunungu shortly after our return next year. This station will reach the Kunungu town area and also the pygmy tribes nearby.