“I happened to be doing one of my three-week army camps,” he says. “I was tweaking the radio for something like BBC International service but wasn’t getting anything.”

He went down to medium wave and heard someone say in a flat American accent, “You’re tuned to Trans World Radio, broadcasting from Manzini, Swaziland.” Having no luck in finding any other programs, Posener began listening to the Christian radio station. That’s when he heard Billy Graham’s voice, and a seed was planted in his heart.

At the end of the broadcast, listeners were given an American address to write to for a booklet that would explain the Gospel further. Posener wrote and asked for the booklet, and kept thinking about the message he’d heard.

“I didn’t understand everything,” he says, “but my appetite had been whetted. Now I was curious and interested.”

Soon after, someone gave him an evangelistic tract, which quoted Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (NIV). He closed his eyes and prayed, “Jesus is Lord.”

“I just felt somehow different,” Posener remembers. He still didn’t understand exactly how salvation worked but says his prayer was the starting point in his relationship with Christ.

As he came to a fuller understanding of repentance and of living for Christ, Posener wanted to minister through radio. Under Apartheid, that was impossible–only the government could broadcast. But Apartheid began to crumble in the 1990s, and private groups obtained broadcast licenses.

In 1993, Cape Community FM (CCFM), a station run by volunteers from Cape Town churches, began broadcasting. Posener volunteered as a sound engineer and announcer for the station, which airs evangelistic programs such as The Hour of Decision.

“Radio had such an impact on me,” Posener says. “It’s such a powerful medium. I’ve come to realize that if one person gets saved, who knows? That could be another Billy Graham.”

BGEA Radio Ministry
The definition of radio is no longer a transmitter and a tower, says BGEA Radio Director Chuck Pollak.

“We’re not bound by hardware anymore, and we’re taking full advantage of that,” Pollak says. “We’re using the Internet. We’re using CDs and DVDs, and we’re looking into the use of podcasting. We have satellite radio in Europe and England. In whatever ways we can get the Gospel message out, we are doing that.”

The Hour of Decision
The Hour of Decision is broadcast to 80 percent of the world, in at least 35 countries, and more are added each year. About 35 stations will be added in Africa within the next year alone. All programs can be accessed via the Internet.

Decision Minute
Decision Minute, a 60-second program available in four languages, challenges listeners to join the cause of Christ through messages from Billy and Franklin Graham. It also features testimonies of how God is working in people’s lives.

Blue Ridge Broadcasting
BRB ministries include WMIT “the Light” 106.9 FM and WFGW 1010 AM. WFGW covers western North Carolina, and WMIT reaches seven states with the 12th largest FM signal in the U.S. BRB also includes three Web sites. WMIT can be heard at wmit.org, wfgw.org offers Southern gospel music and LaLuzDeCristo.org offers Christian music and Bible teaching to the Spanish-speaking community around the world.

God is using BRB to proclaim hope to listeners. One woman, because of an affair, lost everything of value to her–her husband, her kids and her character. Then she lost a very close friend.

Believing that she had nothing to live for, she drove to a lake to take her life. On the way, she happened to tune in to WMIT, a station she had never listened to before. God spoke to her through the broadcast. She turned the car around, drove home and thought throughout the night about God’s message to her. The next morning she gave her heart to Jesus.

Get Involved
Visit billygraham.org/Radio to find station listings for The Hour of Decision and Decision Minute.