National Religious Broadcasters Honor TWR With Billy Graham Award
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Members of the TWR video team and local partners interview listeners in Sri Lanka. [Image by TWR]
Global media ministry TWR will receive the prestigious Billy Graham Award for Excellence in Christian Communications at the National Religious Broadcasters convention this week.
But the Billy Graham Award isn’t the only honor that our global ministry will be privileged to share in during the 2024 NRB International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. NRB also singled out RTM* Brazil, one of the largest of TWR’s dozens of national partners around the world, to receive the 2024 International Media Award.
“NRB’s remarkable recognition of TWR ministry is both humbling and uplifting,” said Lauren Libby, president and CEO of TWR (also known as Trans World Radio). “Since we first went on the air seven decades ago, God’s enabled us to proclaim the gospel behind the Iron Curtain, to innumerable unreached people groups and in countless countries where missionaries can’t even travel.
“We are humbled to be counted among the outstanding ministries that have received the Billy Graham Award previously,” added Libby, who was attending the Feb. 20-23 convention. “It reenergizes our staff, supporters and partners to reach the world for Christ so that lasting fruit is produced.”
The Billy Graham Award, according to the NRB, “is presented to a Christian organization that effectively and creatively uses multiple electronic media technologies in fulfillment of its mission, while maintaining fidelity to the message of love, redemption, and hope found in the Holy Scriptures.” Previous winners of the award are among the giants of Christian media, such as Compassion International, Far East Broadcasting Company and the late Adrian Rogers’ Love Worth Finding ministry, a media partner of TWR.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary of broadcasting this year, TWR has branched out to also use the internet, video, social media and other technologies to bring God’s Word to 190 countries in over 200 languages. Among those countries is Brazil, where TWR’s national partner ministers in Portuguese to a diverse emerging market economy of 217 million people.
RTM Brazil serves the country’s people and churches by providing relevant, accessible and practical Bible-based content. It produces 60 radio programs, which are distributed through 45 AM and FM affiliates in 26 states, as well as on 300 web outlets and social media. Programs are creatively repurposed in print and media, with 2 million people a day being reached via its daily devotional, Presente Diário (Daily Gift).
“This NRB award reinforces RTM's commitment to reaching different audiences,” said Ricardo Kroskinsque, RTM Brazil’s director of communications. “… All the work done by the RTM Brazil team is very serious and focused on blessing lives. Every week, we receive hundreds of messages with testimonies about lives impacted by the legacy of RTM Brazil. Without a doubt, this shows us how much this ministry needs to continue.”
The Billy Graham and International Media awards will be presented along with other service awards during the convention’s closing gala dinner Friday evening. TWR founder Dr. Paul Freed was inducted into the NRB Hall of Fame in 1997, only a few months after he passed away in Cary, North Carolina.
* RTM is the Portuguese and Spanish equivalent of TWR.
