By Jon Roberts – Sheridan, Wyoming … The small Sheridan Adventist Church in northern Wyoming recently raised $1300 to purchase and send radios through Adventist World Radio to spread the love of Jesus to individuals in remote villages

The Adventist World Radio program gives the local church the opportunity to reach beyond their community with God Pod Solar Radios. According to the world church website, God Pod Radios are “A small device roughly the size of an iPod that can store up to 160 hours of audio content used to bring the gospel to remote people groups.”

Sheridan church board member Darlene Westbrook recalls how the small church heard about the program and got involved. “Several months ago, Jack and Wanda Webb from Cody, Wyoming, presented a program on the God Pod Solar Radios.  We were all excited to hear that we could help spread God’s message to these remote villages in their own languages.”

She added, “They [the people in remote villages] could hear sermons, have the Bible read to them and hear Christian music and so much more.  A few months later, it was presented to the church board that we should do a fundraiser for our outreach program with donations coming from our church members for one month.”

The goal was to purchase as many radios as possible.  However, they knew this would be a problem with the radios costing $40 each and with a membership that is older than most churches.

“We are a small church with about 20 devoted members out of a membership of 52.  We are an aging church with one 32-year-old, four members in their late 50s, and the rest are 70 to 94 on a fixed income,” said Westbrook.

The members, wishing to see the gospel spread, donated what they could, and the church board voted to match donations through their evangelism fund.

Westbrook commented, “A sign was made to keep us up on the progress.  We collected $615 and with the church match, equaled $1300.  It is so exciting to watch God at work with our pocketbooks.  Many of our members were sad when the month was up and would have liked to have it go on a little longer.”

The members’ prayer is that God will bless many with hearing His word and readying them for His Kingdom. They are excited to share God’s word with these remote areas where no radio signals are available.

Westbrook adds that the small church has a new fundraising project for May–Ukraine. “We are two weeks in, and $459 has been collected so far. We have two more weeks to go, and the church board has voted to match the money donated with funds from our evangelism funds.”

–Jon Roberts is RMC communication/media assistant; photo by Darlene Westbrook