“A deafening explosion directly behind me signaled I was in immediate danger...”

Doing God’s work can carry extreme risks. Hope Channel employee, Enoch Mogusu has learned this the hard way.

Enoch is on the front lines of Hope Channel evangelism in Africa. If you met him, you would agree that he is   shy and unassuming man. But don’t let this fool you. Enoch has given the gospel to more people than any other preacher in Africa.

Don’t misunderstand. Enoch is not an ordained minister. He doesn’t pastor a church. He doesn’t even preach in the traditional sense. What he does is he installs Hope Channel television stations all over Africa.

Because of Enoch’s work, an estimated 30 million people are able to learn God’s saving message any time of the day, any day of the year, with a simple click of their television. It is no wonder Satan has tried to take Enoch’s life on more than one occasion. A few weeks ago he came alarmingly close to succeeding again.

Enoch was in the closing stages of installing a strategic Hope Channel station to reach 13 million people in the second largest metro area in all of Africa. This unique station can be seen in the capital cities of two different countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo.

What makes this station extra special is that the DRC has just emerged from a long civil war in which over 4 million people died. This is why church leaders and lay people were eagerly looking forward to Hope Channel getting on the air. They knew it would be an effective means to give the gospel to their needy countrymen.

This threatened the devil and he launched an all out attack against Enoch. Read now Enoch’s account of his amazing brush with death and God’s miraculous deliverance.

As I walked along the road to the church headquarters, I heard a car behind me racing down the road at a high speed. Suddenly, a deafening explosion directly behind me signaled I was in immediate danger. I quickly turned to see a white car flipping end-over-end through the air and headed straight at me. The huge projectile came within eighteen inches of striking me in the head.

The car landed on its roof with a tremendous crash of metal and exploding glass and then rolled back over onto its wheels just a few inches from me. The force of the impact knocked me off my feet and onto my back.

The scene looked just like what you would see in a Hollywood action movie. The difference being this was for real and I didn’t have a stunt double

Leaping to my feet I looked into the car and saw several injured persons. I began pulling them from the wreckage. The driver’s body was broken in many places and his face covered with blood. My heart still weeps when I think about it. I keep wondering what else I could have done to help him. Later I was deeply saddened to hear that he died on arrival to the hospital due to serious head injuries.

Over the next several days, the wrecked car remained on the road as thieves stole one part after another every night. It was a daily reminder, as I passed that place, of how close I came to being killed. It was like the devil wanted the airborne car to land on my head, crushing me, never to finish the Hope Channel installation.

It turned out that I had little time to reflect on my blessings. The following day I was on my way to dinner in a taxi when gunfire erupted from the side of the road and bullets began flying all around us. Traffic came to a screeching halt as cars careened off the road in every direction. People leapt from their vehicles, abandoning them in the middle of the road, and ran off into the darkness.

Lying on the floor of the taxi’s thin metal shield, I earnestly prayed that the Lord would deliver me to finish my work and return to my family. After what felt like hours, the gunfire stopped. Carefully lifting my head I looked for a way to escape. It was impossible for our taxi to move because the abandoned cars blocked us. Praying for God’s protection, I took off on foot back to the hotel. After several hours of walking, I made it safely and fell into bed exhausted. Two brushes with death in two days were about all I could handle.

By God’s grace I completed the installation and we began broadcasting Hope Channel to 13 million people in these two capital cities. The local church members were thrilled. I tell you these people have great faith. Perhaps it grew out of their tragic war-torn past.

When we first turned on the new station, we had no idea who might be watching. Later, as we rolled our local telephone numbers, our telephones began ringing with callers praising this new Christian television channel.

I happened to meet the consulate attaché for the embassy of a Middle Eastern country in the DRC. He told me he was enjoying the excellent health programs on Hope Channel. As a Muslim, he said he liked Hope better than any other channel because there is no secular Congolese dancing like the others.

When Enoch told us of his near fatal accident, he also urged us to apply without delay for TV licenses in every city in the DRC. He says, “There is a brief window available before the government is scheduled to adopt international standards that will make it more difficult for us to get these frequencies. The time to act is now!”

Each station costs approximately $10,000 to install the equipment. This is a small fortune in the DRC where the average person earns $80 a year. But God’s people in more affluent areas can stand in the gap at this crucial time.

We have secured frequencies for Lubumbashi (1.3 million population), Goma (250,000 population), and Butembo (170,000 population). The church in Goma has already stepped out in faith. They have reserved a room in their church for a TV studio and put a high pole on the roof for their future broadcast antenna. Now they are patiently waiting to hear from us to provide the equipment. Will you help answer their prayers?