After identifying these five signs, we sought to discern appropriate missionary responses for ourselves. One such response was to seek ways of utilizing media technology in addressing the reality behind these signs of the times. We resolved to work towards setting up a radio station and a publishing facility in the Western Province as soon as feasible and viable. Since June 2001, we have been pursuing the first part of our media challenge, to set up a radio station. In November 2001, the Delegation Council held an extensive planning session to set goals and give a direction to the project. Father Freeborn Kibombwe was named as point person, his Oblate Community in Limulunga would provide a planning and support framework, the members of the Delegation Council were asked to serve as the Board of Directors during the construction and start up stages. A meeting was held with Bishop Paul Duffy of Mongu to clarify the venture. It was decided that the radio station would be an Oblate facility. The Bishop offered a property on a high point of Mongu adjacent to St. John’s School as well as a building that could be converted into a studio.

From there we entered into the licensing process with the Zambia Ministry of Communication, a process that presented many hurdles and took the best part of a year. A core staff was put together and provided with the necessary training experience. Father Freeborn spent several months at CREC AVEX, an Oblate media training centre in Lyons France, under the tutelage of Fr. Pierre Babin, OMI, and his staff. Contracts were entered into for the erection of a hundred-meter tower and for the purchase of sufficient state of the art digital equipment for three flexible recording and broadcasting units. A design was produced for the facility and Met-Weld was hired for the construction. We had to deal with Civil Aviation officials for the approval of the tower and, as required by Zambia law, we made arrangements with the Military to provide security. Any dealings with the Government turned out to be complex and protracted transactions.

This year, an office was opened in Mongu from where the staff is presently guiding the radio’s early organizational and programming efforts. Budgets have been prepared. Requests for funding are being made. The United States Province is being most generous and supportive, Oblate Missions in San Antonio has put out a number of successful appeals. We are most grateful to all involved. Beyond construction and operation concerns, we hope to be able to provide crank-up or solar radio receivers to villages without electricity and in need of such equipment. We are also working on setting up an endowment fund to assure the station’s viability into the future.

A Parish Communications Committee has been organized by Oblate Radio Liseli in every parish of the Diocese. These Parish Committees are made up of a coordinator and assistant coordinator, a representative from each small Christian community, two youth representatives and one senior citizen representative. There is a liaison from the staff, presently Holy Cross Sister Immaculata Sililo, who connects with the parish structure and oversees training in communications for those involved. The training includes the nature of media communications, basic elements of radio programming, and how to prepare and deliver news items reporting local events. In a first visit to the parishes, the committees were established, a survey taken, and a first series of choir recordings produced. In a second visit now underway, the committee functioning is being firmed up, more recordings are being made and initial training completed.

A survey was designed and conducted in each parish and then extended throughout the area to government department heads, non government organizations, church leaders of all denominations, and representatives of the service and business sectors. When I was recently in the Western Province, I picked up the excitement and anticipation generated by the visits and the survey. The people are gradually seeing Oblate Radio Liseli as something that will serve the community and give them a voice. From the results of the survey it is obvious that people are looking for something that will help them in their search for meaning and in their desire for a more life-giving sense of belonging. There is an expressed interest in being church, in gaining greater knowledge and understanding of God and of the human journey. There is a willingness to become more involved in contemporary issues such as food security, education and health care, justice and peace, economic and social development. They would also like to have a greater access to national and international information as well as more musical and cultural exposure.

The ultimate rationale for our media involvement as Oblates is to enhance our missionary resourcefulness and to be present from within to the technological advancements that are reshaping social communications. Our Oblate charism is all about communication and evangelization, of connecting with people and bringing them in touch with the graciousness of God. It has to do with linking the gospel to real life, of promoting peace through understanding, and of being agents of hope in the midst of a difficult and sometime despairing existence.

Our Oblate Delegation’s approach to mission is that of an integral evangelization. We are not inventing anything new. The Church has continually invited us to be far reaching in our caring and ministry; to be aware of human needs and human rights, to witness to the Gospel in season and out of season, to bring people together in justice and peace. Ever since the days of our Founder, the Oblate Congregation has favored such an approach. That is why here in Zambia, as we tease out the implications of our life and mission, we include in the sweep of our missionary vision what we see as three key components of integral evangelization in the Church: the promotion of human development, the proclamation of faith, and the facilitation of dialogue. Through our media efforts and our various missionary projects, we hope to serve all three components as effectively as possible.