Up From The Ashes, Hope Will Arise
The track leading from the destroyed RHEMA FM transmitter hut to the residential property and granny flat also gutted by bushfire. Photo | Mark Spencer
Radio silence alerted RHEMA FM Manning-Great Lakes station manager, Mark Spencer to the devastating impact of bushfires in Killabakh in November 2019. With the transmitter hut melted, Mark reveals that it was song lyrics which comforted him during the challenging seven weeks to get back on air.
Bushfires razed many homes to the ground in Killabakh. When did RHEMA FM go silent in the Manning and Great Lakes region?
The transmitter site is about eight kilometres past Killabakh on a private property that also had a house and granny flat. The fire went through on November 12 and everything was completely destroyed. The first we knew of it was when we were off air.
The fire went through on Tuesday evening, and we couldn't get up there until Saturday morning because of road closures. It was just a mess.
What were your thoughts as the reality of the situation became evident?
There is a worship song written by someone from Bethel Church called 'Raise A Hallelujah'. In the bridge of the song it says, 'Up from the ashes, hope will arise'. When we first went off air and didn't know what had happened with our transmitter site there was a night when I was half awake all through the night, and that line just kept going through my mind ... up from the ashes, hope will arise. Even when we got up there and saw our destroyed transmitter site, those words again came to me.
How did the RHEMA FM community of listeners react to not being able to listen to the broadcast of contemporary Christian music and programs?
We've got this great team of volunteers, and everyone loves doing what they do, but sometimes you sit in the studio and wonder if anyone is listening.
When we went off air and put the news on Facebook and the RHEMA FM website, the response from people was amazing. People were regularly leaving messages on the phone, and one lady left a message saying, without RHEMA FM it feels like my right arm is cut off. We eventually did get back on air on December 30 … after a great deal of work, we towed the new mobile transmitter up there, plugged it in, turned it on and everything worked! It was just so good and the community response has been so positive.
“... sometimes you sit in the studio and wonder if anyone is listening. ”
The new RHEMA FM transmitter hut positioned near the debris of the fire-ravaged transmitter hut. Photo | Mark Spencer
What support did you receive to get back on air?
It's cost us probably just over $20,000 to get back on air, and because we are run entirely by volunteers, we had that money available in our accounts.
People give money and we have sponsors that pay to go on air. When we found out about the damage to the transmitter we emailed our sponsors and told them we didn't think we would be on air before Christmas, and said, please feel free to not pay your sponsorship.
“ The support has been just amazing.”
Almost unanimously, all of the sponsors said we are here to support you and we want to keep paying our sponsorship. Our major sponsor, Yes Optus in Taree and Forster, even asked if we wanted more money! We had another guy who wanted to give us a donation of $1000 to help us get back on air. The support has been just amazing. We haven't got a cent from the insurance company yet, but we are hoping that it will cover it.
RHEMA FM has been broadcasting in the region since 1996. What impact do you believe it has in the community?
Our logo is, ‘Changing lives for good’, and that's nothing we can do - it's something that God does, and many lives have been changed through this community radio station.
Over the years we have had many people who have contacted us to share their stories. We had one lady who said, 'I want to let you know that RHEMA FM literally saved my life. I was on the verge of committing suicide and turned on RHEMA FM. I don't know what happened but I didn't go through with it, and now I listen to RHEMA FM all the time'.
Dennis Burns from Taree also shared that many older people in his congregation who were near the end of their life would ask him to tune their radio to RHEMA FM 106.5. So for the last weeks of their life they have RHEMA FM going next to their bed 24/7, and I thought, that's such a privilege.
“I can’t imagine people wanting to tune-in to John Laws or Alan Jones in the last days of their life. ”
We've always said that this is God's ministry, it's not ours, and the things that God has done over the years through RHEMA FM has just been amazing.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
