The Foursquare Gospel Tidings radio show is holding a 50-year anniversary event next month in Battleford.
According to the organization's president, pastor Morley Ayars, the event will celebrate the golden jubilee of the internationally-distributed radio program that is heard by audiences around the world.
"The plan is to have, on the 16th of August, a ton of fellowship with radio listeners and following that have a barbecue," said Ayars. The event will be held at the Heritage Christian School in Battleford starting at 4 p.m., and it will be open to the public.
After the barbecue will be a program in which they expect representatives from CJNB and other radio stations to attend, with plans to share the program's history and "to let people how the program's doing and where we're going, those sorts of things."
The hope is that about 50 to 100 folks will show up for the event, said Ayars.
The Foursquare Gospel Tidings show features a half-hour of gospel singing and Bible ministry for its audience every week. The show's distribution now includes 17 stations including Golden West radio stations in Canada, and through Pan American Broadcasting as well as Worldwide Christian Radio on shortwave in the USA.
Ayars estimates there are "roughly a million listeners worldwide" for the show.
The show started on CJNB in 1964 under the stewardship of Pastor Bud Chartier and his wife Evelyn. Both remained involved in the radio ministry until 2008, when Ayars took over.
The two had worked closely with Harry Dekker at CJNB in getting the show launched, and "it grew from there," Ayars said.
"It was their dream," Ayars said. "We're just the caretakers of that dream right now."
