AN INSIDE LOOK INTO THE WINDOW ON THE WORLD
By Karen
Gonzalez
Photos by Raul
Gonzalez
TUSTIN, CA (ANS) -- In
the second floor of an office building in Orange County, California,
three men from different backgrounds gather in a small office turned
into a studio with a purpose; to reach out to as many people as they
can by recording a 5 minute report on the persecuted church around the
world and different ministries making a difference in the Body of
Christ.
Recording equipment, computers and a giant map of the world that hangs
on the wall as a symbol of their mission, this office has served as a
platform to many people that recount their stories and struggles to
these three men, hoping that their accounts will make a difference and
bring awareness to the Church.
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Mark Ellis (left) and Dan Wooding
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These men, Dan
Wooding, founder and president of ASSSIST Ministries and ASSIST News
Service, Bruce Sonnenberg, pastor of The Village Church in Irvine, CA.
along with Mark Ellis pastor of Calvary Evangelical Free Church of
Laguna Beach, CA., record the 5 minute radio program called “Window on
the World” that is transmitted through more than 400 radio stations and
throughout the United States and a further 50 overseas.
This program has also featured stories from Vietnam, Iraq and other
parts of the world where Christians have faced persecution in one way
or another.
Tony Ashlin, the sound engineer for Window on the World, which is
sponsored by ASSIST Ministries, prepares the console and the computer
to begin the recording session. He reminds Bruce on the hand gestures
that tell him to speed up the interview, extend the interview, that 30
seconds are left, 10 seconds or to wrap up the interview.
“Bruce is good at wrapping up interviews”, Dan told everyone in the
room.
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Kathi Winter during her interview
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In the
session, they are recording several segments that will be aired
throughout the following months. For this recording, they will
interview Kathi Winter, director of Be-Hive Ministries, Alison and
Andrew Wooding, who came to visit the United States from England that
serve with the Church Army in different areas.
Everyone was told to keep silent as Dan, Bruce, Mark and the first
guest Kathi begin to record the segment. They run through on what the
interview is going to be about and remind to keep answers concise and
to the point.
“3, 2, 1…Thank you Mark…” Bruce begins on cue. In post-production, the
pre-recorded intro done by Mark is added to the beginning to keep
consistency.
“We are so blessed to have with us today Kathi Winter, the director of
Be HIVE ministries…” Sonnenberg continues after several attempts not to
make Kathi laugh as he pokes fun at the title, referring to it as a
beehive.
“Be-HIV, which stands for Believing Education for HIV. Kathi has shared
with us that she herself is HIV positive, how God used that in her life
to bring her to Him and how she is now an AIDS educator, speaking
around the world, bringing the hope of Jesus Christ. But Kathi also
works with another ministry called Outreach to Africa. Kathi, what is
Outreach to Africa?” Sonnenberg asked.
“Outreach to Africa is an organization that was founded about nine
years ago to work with AIDS orphans mainly in Uganda and Eastern
Africa….” Kathi responded with excitement as she elaborated on how the
organization provides education to orphans in Africa with the help of
sponsors in the United States, which they now sponsor 200 kids.
“200 kids, wow!” Sonnenberg added “How did you get involved with an
outreach to Africa?”
“Well, I went to a church, when I first found out I was HIV positive
and I met a girl from Uganda and she is in charge of a ministry that
was on the show just recently. I’m ready to go see her in January and
to work in a clinic in a village and that’s the only clinic that
provides care for more than 30,000 refugees.” she stated.
“…and Kathi, are you going into the Congo where I believe it’s not the
safest place on the earth?” Dan asked her.
“I pray I get to go.” Kathi added, “I say that because if there’s a lot
of problems over there they won’t let us go.”
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Alison Wooding at the microphone
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After her
recording session ended, Kathi said goodbye to everyone, as she needed
to head off to work. The next guest was Alison Wooding, Dan Wooding’s
daughter-in-law.
“Alison originally is from the city of Bradford and for those of you
who are literate; it is where the Wuthering Heights was written.” Dan
added after Bruce introduced her. This was going to be Alison’s first
radio interview and she was going to talk about her life changing
transition when she gave her life to Christ.
“I was raised in a Catholic church and I grew up believing in God with
utmost fear. It was when I went to the Church of England, a very
charismatic, evangelical church. To tell you the truth I would go just
to laugh because I saw people raising their hands and singing and
people that said that they will speak to God. The way I saw it was that
God only spoke to the Pope. To me it was very unusual.” Alison
recounted.
She would say how she would accept the Lord many times but nothing
would happen until her pastor told her that the first time she
confessed Jesus as her Savior that it was the time that He came into
her life. “When he told me that, I felt like I knew Him all along.”
The following segments covered her involvement with the Church Army,
which is the society within the Church of England that covers
evangelism, social prayer and social work. She also commented the
decline of people going to church as well as her goals with the Church
Army.
“Now I am a community evangelist and I go visit older people and
marginalized groups. My original training was for homeless people but I
saw many of my friends working with the youth. I know that the youth is
the next generation of the church but I also think that we are not
paying attention to our elders.”
She commented that when they seek out the elderly, they have lunch with
them and share them the gospel along with other elderly people.
“What is their main complaint as you talk to them?” Bruce asked.
“Their complaint is that they feel neglected, and feel valueless. We
tell them as children of God they have great value.” Alison said.
As she finished the interview, she called her husband Andrew who was
behind the console waiting for his turn.
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Andrew Wooding tells his story
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Andrew was
the last guest for the day’s recording. They began asking him how it
was like to grow up with a dad that was involved with the media and
still find his own identity and develop a relationship with Jesus.
“It happened when we first moved out here to America when I was 18. I
began reading through a testimony in a book and then I gave my life to
Jesus.”
“Rumor has it that you were selling this book at the Full Gospel
Businessmen’s Convention and you ran into these tongues-speaking men
that threw you to the floor?” Dan reminded Andrew.
“Yes that’s right. They wouldn’t let me go until I had the gift of
tongues but I wasn’t even a Christian and I didn’t know what the gift
of tongues was.” Andrew chuckled.
“…and when you came back from the Anaheim Convention Center, you tell
me ‘there’s these tongue-speaking cowboys dad and they threw me to the
floor!’” Dan laughed as he told the story to Bruce and Mark.
The next segments covered Andrew’s love for comic book writing and how
he ended up doing freelance comic writing at the age of seventeen at a
major comic book company for a year.
“The worst thing that happened to me then was that I became a Christian
and I thought that Christians don’t do that sort of thing. For four to
five years I didn’t do any writing and I did missionary work and worked
with youth and went to Bible school. Then during my last semester of
Bible school I ran out of money. So during some really boring lectures,
I just started writing stories and sending them off and lo’ and behold
I wasn’t rusty and I had the stories published and they paid for my
last semester of Bible school.”
After college, Andrew said that he ended up being the editor of the top
Christian comic book in England for five years. He also works with the
Church Army and trains people involved in ministry in different
countries on how to communicate their own testimony through the medium
of the comic book. He also wrote a book called “I Wonder if Chocolate
Kills Brain Cells” for YWAM (Youth With A Mission).
“I wrote the book because I grew up in a Christian household and we
have a load of Christian books in the house and they actually did [me]
more harm than good because they painted the Christians in them as
being super people. It was intimidating to reach that level and it
actually discouraged me.”
He finished off the interview by talking about his other ministry “Word
on the Web” in which he writes a monthly movie review called “Wooding
Watches” that cover films and find biblical and moral truths within the
film’s plot.
As they wrapped up the segment and everyone left the studio, Tony, the
sound engineer, now has the job of editing and putting together the
segments and sends them off to various radio stations. The passion of
the Window on the World is that these five minutes of an open window to
the world would open the eyes of many radio listeners on the countless
stories that people have to share of the work in the Body of Christ.
Note: The actual location of the recordings in the studios of the
Orange County Rescue Mission which is quite apt – as the show often
brings stories of how God has rescued so many people in many parts of
the world.
For more information on Window on the World, www.assistnews.net and
click on the link on the bottom of the home page.
If you are a radio station and would like to “Window on the World”,
please contact Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.
Raul
Gonzalez, concert and live event photographer for more than 8 years,
resides in California with his wife Karen who is a freelance writer for
the Southern California area. They can be contacted by e-mail at rgphotodesign@yahoo.com.
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