A light of Christ in Uganda:
Local woman shares Gospel through award-winning radio ministry
Comboni Father Tonino Pasolini, left, station director of Radio Pacis in Arua, Uganda, accepts the British Broadcasting Corporation’s award for “Best New Radio Station in Africa” with Indianapolis native Sherry Meyer, station manager; assistant news editor Dranibo Felix; assistant program manager Driliga George; and program manager Anecho Sam on May 26 in Nairobi, Kenya. The BBC said “Radio Pacis is a fine example of what a community radio station based outside the capital can do.” (Submitted photo)
By Mary Ann Wyand
Indianapolis is her hometown. Uganda is her home.
When lay missionary Sherry Meyer was growing up in St. Roch Parish in Indianapolis, she never dreamed that one day she would leave her life in America and move to Africa to serve the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Arua, Uganda.
Sixteen years after arriving in Arua for what she thought would be a two-year volunteer commitment as a diocesan catechist through the Volunteer Missionary Movement, she is ministering as the station manager for Radio Pacis.
The three-year-old Church ministry was named “Best New Radio Station in Africa” by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service during the first Africa Radio Awards program on May 26 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Comboni Father Tonino Pasolini, station director, had previously been notified by the BBC that Radio Pacis was the winner for the eastern region of Africa.
Located at 90.9 FM, the Arua Diocese’s radio station broadcasts a mixture of news, catechesis and music in English as well as several African languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The station’s slogan is “Peace of Christ for all.”
A variety of religious and secular programs are broadcast to inform, educate, catechize and entertain Ugandan and Sudanese people who have no other source for news except small, inexpensive, battery-powered transistor radios.
Last year, Radio Pacis staff members were able to help stop rioting and save lives by broadcasting factual information to Ugandans who were fighting in an isolated village in the West Nile region located about six hours from Arua.
During a month-long visit to Indianapolis earlier this summer, Meyer said the BBC award includes a trophy and $5,000 worth of broadcast equipment that the diocesan communications center staff will use to operate a second Catholic radio frequency to reach people in Uganda and Sudan who speak other languages.
Radio Pacis currently offers Radio Vatican programs, diocesan programs for adults and children, BBC World Service news, health information as well as African, gospel, country and classic rock music from the U.S. and other countries in English, Lugbara, Ma’di and Kakwa.
Arua Bishop Frederick Drandua hosts a 45-minute catechetical program every Monday night, which includes guests and time to answer questions.
Meyer writes and presents a daily five-minute Scripture reflection program in English that is translated into Lugbara and Ma’di, in addition to her administrative, scheduling and personnel responsibilities.
“The BBC is very prominent in Africa,” she said. “They’ve really been instrumental in getting radio stations [started] and promoting good radio.”
Radio Pacis downloaded the BBC’s live broadcast of the awards so people in the Arua Diocese could listen to the program.
The bishop, episcopal conference and diocesan synod decided to establish a Church radio station in Arua in 1989.
“When Bishop Drandua first asked me to leave the work I was doing in the pastoral coordinator’s office and work with Father Tonino to found this radio station,” Meyer said, “I didn’t want to do it because I was happy with the liturgical and catechetical ministry, particularly the development of materials and training people to use them. I didn’t know anything about radio broadcasting, but I did it.”
This wasn’t the first time that God has called her outside her comfort zone, she said, to serve the Church in Africa.
“Father Tonino and I were appointed in 2002, and it took a while to get the station on the air,” she said. “We had to get the donors [to fund it], oversee construction of the station building and buy equipment then recruit and train the staff. We got the broadcast license from the government on Sept. 7, 2004, and were able to start broadcasting in October of 2004.”
Radio Pacis reaches people who can’t read or write by communicating in their vernacular language, Meyer said, so she is still doing catechetical ministry on a much-wider scale through sound waves.
“The people were asking for it,” she said. “We started going to the diocesan pastoral council meetings held every year between the synods to find out what they wanted to hear on the radio.”
With grants and donations from American and European Church agencies, corporations, organizations and individuals in several countries—including assistance from an Austrian Broadcasting Corporation journalist who trained the staff—Radio Pacis went on the air three years ago with an 81-meter broadcast tower.
“We are the top radio station in our listening area,” Meyer said. “Our signal is reaching into southern Sudan and eastern Congo, but not all of Uganda.
“When we won the BBC award, some of the people asked us where we worked before,” she said. “I know they thought Father Tonino and I had a background in radio, but we had none. This is a kind of miracle that is through the grace of God working through so many countries and support systems, [and] the people we’ve been able to hire.”
Setbacks included trouble with their power source when batteries exploded, she said, but many people offered their help to get the new station on the air.
“I see this as God working in our lives through other people,” Meyer said. “It’s kind of like the loaves and the fishes. That’s what Jesus asked us to do. You bring what you have, and God provides the rest through other people. I really think these are the everyday miracles.”
Radio Pacis staff members hope to increase broadcasting in the Lugbara, Ma’di and Kakwa languages, while adding the Alur language on their second frequency in February of 2008.
Meyer also assists Father Tonino with pastoral ministry at St. Charles Lwanga Parish in Oli, an area in the city of Arua.
She loves her ministries and is grateful that God has given her the energy to accomplish so much for the Church in Africa.
In 2003, Meyer was diagnosed with breast cancer. Surgery and chemotherapy treatments were successful, and her cancer is in remission now, but she must return to the U.S. every year for medical tests.
Thankfully, Meyer said, God has provided for her personal financial needs with support from the archdiocesan Mission Office in Indianapolis, which arranges mission appeals for her at South Deanery parishes, and through regular donations from many friends.
Her health insurance is paid for by the Archdiocese of Chicago, where she worked in Catholic education before moving to Uganda in 1991.
“It was frightening when I got my cancer diagnosis because at first the doctors said I couldn’t go back to Africa,” she said. “But I was determined that I was going back. … Each time I’ve come home [for tests], I’ve been able to go back. God keeps me healthy. I’m very happy. I feel very blessed by God.”
Father James Farrell, pastor of St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis, visited Meyer in Arua in 1997, 1999 and 2002.
“She is committed to the people and to the Church in Arua Diocese,” he said. “She has become, as much as an outsider can, fully integrated into the society. She has done her best to show by her loyalty, her faithfulness, her presence, that she is with the people of Arua Diocese.”
Sister Demetria Smith, a Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa and mission educator for the archdiocese, ministered as a nurse in Uganda in 1954 and from 1968 until 1982. She left during the country’s civil war.
“I do recall that she was principal of St. Roch School, and I will always be grateful to her because she invited me to talk with the students and was very supportive of my missionary work,” Sister Demetria said. “After that, she became a missionary in Uganda. … Missionaries live the Gospel and have brought the light of Christ to Africa. That’s so important.
“I think the work she is doing is wonderful because the radio is really about the only means of conveying information to the people in the most remote villages,” Sister Demetria said.
“... She is in a safe place. The people love her, and they protect her. When she is here, she is always eager to get back to Uganda and the people are waiting for her to get back. Uganda is her home now.”
(To support Sherry Meyer’s ministry in Uganda, send donations to the archdiocesan Mission Office, P.O. Box 1410, Indianapolis, IN 46206.) †
