History
Watchmen Ministries was founded as a radio ministry in 1990 by Alex Dodson and Andy Anderson in Los Angeles, California. It began with one English program called the Watchman Broadcast. It was aired in both the United States and the West Indies. For a short time, it was affiliated with the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship. In 1991, the Dodson family relocated to Portland, Oregon and reorganized the ministry there.
Watchmen Ministries was then incorporated as a non-profit religious corporation on January 3, 1992 in Portland, Oregon. The ministry has been governed by its own board of directors since that time. It was organized as non-denominational and evangelical to proclaim the gospel freely wherever the Lord would open the way.
From 1991, we have had at least one international broadcast. The first one was to the West Indies as mentioned above. That ministry resulted in the beginning of a Bible Correspondence Course, which continued over the years. We aired programs in the West Indies on local radio up until 2001, and continued to reach into that area through shortwave for a time.
In 1992, we began broadcasts to China starting with an English broadcast that continued for about seven months. Then we added a Chinese pastor to our staff and switched from English to Mandarin. We began this first Mandarin broadcast on the Voice of Hope of High Adventure Ministries. Later we changed to Trans World Radio where we aired two Mandarin programs each week. We have also broadcast Mandarin programs on the Bible Broadcasting Network internet station as well as on our own web site. In more recent years we have put our Mandarin programs on TWR 360, an internet ministry of Trans World Radio.
In 1996 with the addition of a Spanish pastor to our staff, we began a Spanish language broadcast on shortwave radio to Latin America. Later, we began broadcasts on HCJB World Radio in Quito, Ecuador and also on local radio in Colombia. We have also sent Spanish programs to Spain for broadcast there. In more recent years we have concentrated our Spanish broadcasts on OnePlace.com and TWR 360, internet ministries.
With the addition of a French pastor to our staff in 1997, we began French language broadcasts to Europe on shortwave and later to French speaking Africa on local radio and shortwave. We also began a broadcast to Quebec in French. Our French ministry has also included a French language web site where radio programs were available on demand for listening. In more recent years, we have concentrated our French program on TWR 360.
In 2001, we added a Cantonese speaker to our staff and began Cantonese broadcasts to China on Trans World Radio and also on Bible Voice Broadcasting. We also added a Russian speaker and began Russian broadcasts to Europe on shortwave radio. The Russian language program now continues on TWR 360.
Also, in May of 2001, we added "international" to our name to better reflect the purpose and scope of our ministry. We became known as Watchmen Radio Ministries International.
In 2003, we began our International Partners in Evangelism program through which we have partnered with Christian workers in other countries to reach their peoples with the gospel through radio. Through this program we established field studios in Nepal and India and added a ministry partner in Africa. Our field studio in Nepal is being used as a center for processing radio programs in several languages of central and south Asia with the goal of reaching the less evangelized peoples of the world in the 10/40 Window. We have recorded radio programs in Nepali, Bangla, Dzongkha, Korean, Urdu, Punjabi, Tibetan and some Africa languages through that studio. In India, we have recorded in four major languages of India: Telugu, Hindi, Oriya, and Tamil. We are now working on adding three more India languages.
Since 2003, we have continued to develop field studios in Asia and Africa. We have broadcast the gospel in at least 20 languages. Our most recent field studio was set up in the Philippines. We are broadcasting in the Cebuano and Ilongo languages there.
In more recent years, we have become involved in helping our coworkers plant churches especially in the Philippines. We have also made trips to visit our coworkers on the field in the Philippines, India, and Nepal.
