They call it the ‘Call-in Camel Show.’ If someone loses a camel, they can call in to the radio station and report it, and if somebody else sees it, they can call in and report where it was last seen. This program was an instant hit! Africa Inland Mission missionary and SonSet Solutions’ partner Eddie Andersen said, “We got from 10 calls a day to over 1,000!” People began listening and calling in from villages that he had never heard of.
Eddie moved to northern Kenya with his family to reach the Gabbra people with the gospel, but they quickly realized the difficulty of their calling because of the vastness of the land where they lived. “And then God gave us the vision for radio. And by God’s grace, I mean, it’s a miracle how we got it, but we were able to set up a radio station with our studio in Dukana, where we had just moved, and our radio tower, our booster, at the top of the Hurri Hills at 5,000 feet.”
From the top of this mountain range they had a listening reach of over 70,000 square kilometers! At the beginning, few people called in. “But then our radio staff said we need to do something that’s more culturally relevant. Can we do a livestock show?” Eddie replied, “Let’s go for it!” And the Call-in Camel Show was born. He continued, “But, you know, with those calls we had a chance now with people listening to share the gospel over the airwaves. Now we had almost 100% listenership in our tribe. Everybody wanted to hear about the camels. And so, we’d tell them about the camels, and then put on the Scripture, and share songs.”
We praise God that the partnership between SonSet Solutions and Eddie Andersen enabled a radio show about lost camels to creatively reach the Gabbra people with His love!
Written by Jeff Benedict and Ruth Weber