July 2008

To God be the Glory, Great things He has done! What an awesome God we serve! As Dolores and I look back at a faithful God and so many faithful partners, who prayed, gave and came to work and to watch God work, we realize that You and God are awesome! Starting with the very first group in 1980 sitting around our kitchen table praying about if we should and if we could do radio and why do it? We had no money, no land and no equipment, also no one around the table knew anything technically about radio. What a start! We were already over our heads but God gave the vision and we pressed on. All the folks were people from Nenana, as approximately 7 families gathered to pray and decide on "Voice for Christ Ministries" as the name for the ministry.

God gave us land, then a studio site and a tower going up with a 5000 watt transmitter. Then in 1985 thanks to one of God’s faithful servant families from Arizona we got on the air. This was Larry and Lois Harper and family: Chuck, Priscilla and Mary. Mike, Sue and Lynn (our family) were all working at the station as well. Of course Dolores and I knew no down time with construction, paperwork, and meals and housing for workers.

Then we progressed to 10,000 watts and got a waiver from FCC to rebroadcast AM to FM and took a big step of faith and sent a signal to a satellite which came back down to a couple of Alaskan villages. You prayed, gave, and came to work and we were able to broadcast to more and more villages with the Gospel. Last summer 2007, nine downlinks went on the air throughout Alaska. It was a marathon summer with a great satellite team. God and His faithful servants did it!

After 8 years of applying and paperwork with FCC we now have an FM station in Nenana and we are looking to put in 6 more downlinks before winter sets in.

While all of these satellite downlinks were being installed and maintained we went on the air in Bethel Alaska in 1995 with a staffed station. KYKD-FM reaches the Yukon Delta. Then KAGV- AM Big Lake/Houston went on the air in 2003 reaching the Matanuska Susitna Valley with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Just a few weeks ago, May 2008, we installed a new 10,000 watt solid state transmitter in Nenana. By the end of 2008 we pray that God will allow us to be reaching over 30 villages with the Good News.

Here is an important side note: everything is paid for, we have borrowed no money! God has been so faithful and his servants (and our partners) have seen this go forward. Thank you, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

As you have noticed (and so have we), there is "snow gathering on the roof" and not as much "smoke is coming out of the chimney" as it used to. My bride of 51 years in August 2008 doesn’t show it like I do but the snow is still there.

To say all this Dolores and I as of June 16 are taking our very first sabbatical, until Nov ’08. Then as God directs we will know what our next steps of service to Him will be. We would love your prayers as we take a deep breath and seek God’s direction. As long as the "smoke keeps coming out of the stack" we want to serve our faithful, awesome God. Only those who God has allowed to give birth to a new vital ministry can know the labor pains therein.

You, our faithful partners have been such a great part of His work in the Arctic. All this could not have happened without you! It has been wonderful working together to give God the Glory and the Glory is truly all His. Souls are being saved because of radio going out. Just think of it this way, souls are being snatched out of Satan’s grip and many folks wrestled out of Satan’s hold on them.

Your fellow servants and partners,
Bob & Dee Eldridge
Psalm 8: 1-9(KJV), O LORD our Lord, how excellent [is] thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all [things] under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, [and whatsoever] passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent [is] thy name in all the earth!