“Portable missionaries” get God’s message out
HAMILTON, ON—Allan McGuirl's portable missionaries, about the size of two decks of playing cards, will continue to air God's message even though McGuirl no longer runs Galcom International's day-to-day affairs.
Years ago, when McGuirl served with Gospel Recording, missionaries would broadcast God's message via wind-up record players. McGuirl noticed various radio ministries were also broadcast into the area, but locals didn't have access to radios.
He designed a small fixed-tune radio, complete with a solar power panel. He offered it to Gospel Recording, but was turned down by both the Canadian and international boards who told him, "that's not what the founder told us to do."
The idea lay dormant until 1989 when "God stepped in," says McGuirl. That's when he met Ken Crowell, who operated a cell phone antenna plant in Israel, and Harold Kent, an American philanthropist businessman.
Prior to their meeting, "the Lord spoke to [Crowell] about making a fixed-tune radio," recalls McGuirl. Crowell, an engineer, sketched out some circuitry and filed it away. A little while later, he went to a conference in the U.S. where he met Kent.
"God told Harold 'I want you to flood the world with radios,'" says McGuirl, noting that Kent didn't know anything about radios. Crowell had a similar vision but wondered about getting a prototype. Then Kent remembered reading an article about McGuirl's work in Canada, and gave him a call.
"I said 'Yes, I've got a prototype and I'd love to see it go into production,'" says McGuirl. With Crowell's cell phone antenna plant and Kent's money, Galcom International was born.
The original Canadian office, responsible for distribution, opened in August 1989 in McGuirl's house. Later it moved to a church where his wife, Florrie, provided secretarial work in exchange for spare office space.
The ministry outgrew the office and about five years later signed a lease for a 4,000 square-foot office. Shortly after that move, with concerns that Crowell's booming antenna business slowed radio production, the whole production process moved to Hamilton.
"Right from the beginning there was a real confirmation God was going to use these little portable missionaries to get the Word of God out," says McGuirl.
He recalls how one quarter of an early shipment of 4,000 radios to the Philippines was stolen. Most of the radios were recovered and the person responsible was arrested and jailed.
"He went to jail with a radio in his pocket," recalls McGuirl. "While in jail, another prisoner stole it from him and listened to it. He thought he was going to listen to rock and roll and God touched his heart."
The prisoner wrote to Galcom, saying he'd come to know Jesus through the radio, asking for a Bible and Bible study material.
Now, 20 years later, with more than 750,000 radios in 126 countries, McGuirl has stepped away from Galcom's day-to-day operations. Tim Whitehead, who served as associate director for a year, became executive director in November 2009.
McGuirl continues as director emeritus, and will work on projects like the cornerstone transmitter—a radio broadcast centre in a suitcase. He says he looks forward to expanding Galcom's partnerships with Christian broadcast ministries and continuing his life-long mission of sending the message of God's saving grace around the world.
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