The Big Launch
The Big Launch? What do you mean Big Launch? Hasn’t G.R.O. been reaching Muslims by radio for 3 and a half decades? Wasn’t it already launched in 1991? Well, yes, but that’s not all of the story.
The Big Launch is indeed the next big step for Global Radio Outreach. It is a critical time, a pivotal moment, a turning point in the development and growth of our worldwide outreach to Muslims. Let me explain. As I mentioned, we’d been reaching Muslims for decades via radio. Then, more than 15 years ago, at the direction of the Lord, we began to build our Internet outreach network, including blogging sites, Internet radio stations and all the supporting infrastructure. We began to use it right away, but we spent years developing and using the tech tools as they were being built. We continued to build it out to make it more effective, easier to use and to prepare it to carry the amount of traffic which it will ultimately need to carry. All the while we were struggling to find the money and the people needed to see it go ‘viral’ the way that we knew it could. However, things have changed. The time is right.
Currently, we’re already getting hundreds of thousands of engagements each year and hundreds of conversions in that same period. Now, the Big Launch will help us really step it up, to prepare to add more languages, more websites and more Internet radio stations, in order to provide for more people to be reached, many more. It will provide the capacity to give us global coverage, real penetration and absolute saturation.
The undertaking that we are proposing is just part of the infrastructure which we’re building in, in order to support the expansion that will take place. The first part of the expansion calls for increased staffing, for the people needed to support the growth. We’re finding those people through the MissionNext website, which is a kind of missionary job site. It matches prospective missionaries with agencies, like ours, which need them. We’re also finding people at Missions Fest and Mission Connexion. We’ve found several of the people needed already. Even though they’re coming as missionaries, some of these people will need some financial assistance from us. Our next candidate falls into this category. It’s someone who will help bring stability, order, standards and metrics into our organization. We're calling this our Stipend Fund. Visit www.globalradiooutreach.org/give choose one time or monthly, select an amount. Then put Stipend Fund in the notes box. This is an on-going fund.
So, the second portion of the Big Launch includes increased general needs funding to continue operating. We’re seeking this through more and better web and other social media activity and events. We’re also seeking a development director to assist in that process, as well as through this article. We also continue to visit churches and exhibit at local and regional missions conferences. Our Comedy Night and Banquet continue. However, we’re stepping up on these by taking them online in a unique way.
The third portion of the Big launch, the part that we’re asking for help with, is to get into an appropriate space (an office), with some needed infrastructure, which will support the current expansion. This Launch originally involved an additional part that was recently met. It was to get our rack of servers, which is the heart of our ministry, moved to a clean, dry, stable environment and get their power backed up. They’re currently living in my dusty, dirty garage in Everett. We’ve now received funds for the backup generator. As soon as the building owner is ready, the servers will move. The other side of that, the one that we’re asking help for, is to help us move G.R.O.’s office to a place outside of my basement.
Affordable office space is also available in that building for $750 per month. There are several reasons that this is important. I won’t be the president of GRO forever. GRO will need their own space outside my home. However, we sometimes run into problems with having the organization in a residential space, as we did recently when seeking interns from universities. Some schools will not respond unless you have a proper business address. GRO also needs a proper place to meet partners and ‘clients’. On top of that, work space is needed, increasingly, for new workers to come to. Please consider helping us get started. We’ll grow it into our budget over the next year to carry it after your gift is used up. It is also an ongoing campaign, though.
The Big Launch’s fourth part has to do with several innovations to the outreach network that we are currently developing, or installing. You might not understand some of these, but they will give our website and radio station missionaries a modern and easy to use platform to reach their audience, in their language. The library server is one of the most important innovations. It will be in a server online for the website missionaries to use and to share their recording and programs into it. Lute is a web-based login to all of the resources available to the website missionaries. Lute gives them a single login to access all of their tools; including the library, their website, their internet radio station, file editing, missions research and more. We’re also updating our website software to modernize the sites and make them easier to use. On top of that, we’re building a new database for the whole system in order to increase its capacity, and speed it up. We’ve added smaller things, like a quiz page to allow the website missionaries to teach and give tests to disciples and students, as well as photo pages and more. These innovations will bring our outreach network well into the 21st century, making it fast, user friendly, powerful and effective.
The fifth and final part of the Big Launch is perhaps the most important. It is called Seeds of Hope. We want to reach a million Muslims in the coming year. We use Google AdWords to draw them to our websites and radio stations. In the last year we had about 350,000 visitors to the sites on a relatively small AdWords budget. We believe that with a budget of $100,000 we can one million in 2025. Now, that doesn’t mean that they will all be saved, but that a million will be confronted with the claims of the Gospel. Please stand with us in this. Help us to tell a million Muslims. This is an ongoing campaign. You can give by going to www.globalradiooutreach.org/give and choose Seeds of Hope.
In times past, our whole operation was in spare space at Philadelphia Church. As the church grew to expand back into its own space we had to choose to move. We moved to Everett because costs are lower. In the interim, to save commute time, we moved into our home. Then, Covid-19 pinned us down for a long season. Eventually, a nice free room was offered to us in Lowell (near Everett WA), enough for the servers, which our media library now occupies, and where the servers will soon be. This is where we will put the servers and back-up generator.
I realize that this Big Launch may not be all exotic like a similar need which is located overseas, ‘on the mission field’, might be. We’re not talking about feeding orphans here. However, we are talking about the Great Commission. Therefore, it is of no less importance to the Great Commission than other, fancier projects might be. It is almost certainly more important and more urgent than most others you might select. This is because the strategy that GRO uses is worldwide. In any 90-day period of time we get radio listeners in 200 nations, and currently about 1,000 engagements per day. Furthermore, our continuing growth in the equipping of national workers with our tools, to be used in their language gives GRO a huge edge. Of all of the outreaches that I know, it has the greatest potential to not only reach the lost in every nation, but it also has the potential to spark growth in the Church. It can also help to make the statistical difference in the world, which according to Dr. David Garrison, the Church is not yet making in the Muslim World. We can get that through the coverage, penetration and saturation that expanding this network can provide. Please consider helping us.
The Big Launch Cost
One year of rental cost for an office space in Lowell (one needed per year) $9,000
One year of stipend for our next candidate (several needed per year) $24,000
One year of AdWords budget to reach a million (needed each year) $100,000
So, first, please pray for us as we step out in faith to see this Big Launch and the increase in ministry to Muslims take place. Second, if you know of someone who would like to serve with us, please put me in contact with them. Just call me at 425-252-1866. Finally, if you can give, please go to the website, www.globalradiooutreach.org/give, or download the Global Radio Outreach app, or send a check to Global Radio Outreach, PO Box 719, Everett WA 98206. Small gifts, or large gifts, everyone will make a difference.
Thank you! You’ll be a part of a miracle.
Mike Bond
Global Radio Outreach
PO Box 719
Everett WA 98206
(425) 252-1866
www.globalradiooutreach.org
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