Posted by East of Edens on July 08, 2009 at 21:55:46:
Couple bringing God's music to Ireland
June 28, 2009
By Mary A. Compton, Staff Writer - SouthtownStar/SNTG
On their fifth wedding anniversary, Roger and Carey Basick, of Monee, took a trip to Ireland that would change their destiny.
Strolling through the cobblestone streets of Dublin, stories of Ireland and its people flooded Carey's mind as she remembered her great grandmother's tales of the country.
The Basicks spent 11 days traveling the country and visiting various cities. What they did not find in this land was inspirational music, no worship songs of Darlene Zschech or Michael W. Smith on the airwaves. What they found was Ireland was devoid of Christian music.
Roger, who has worked at Moody Broadcasting Network Radio in Chicago for 11 years, knew he had found a new mission in life.
But it required Roger to gain a new perspective on Irish culture first.
"Growing up in Posen, I was a student at St. Stanislaus, which is predominantly a Polish Catholic community. On St. Patrick's Day, everyone wore green – I never did.
"I could never understand that South Side Irish mentality, because I'm four different nationalities and none of them Irish. I was never one of the Irish Wannabes. I never knew about Ireland until we went for the first time 11 years ago.
"When we came back, it brought a whole new perspective. I really grew to love Ireland and love the Irish people. "
For seven years Roger and Carey thought about the lack of religious music in Ireland.
"As we traveled the country, my wife and I thought, 'There has got to be a group of people who can do this.' As an American, I can never come in and do that on my own," Roger said.
"So we prayed, we asked God to show us who these people are and allow us to come back so we can help and encourage them. I knew I could never justify coming back as a tourist."
The Basicks and their two children – Reilly Grace, 8, and Cole, 5 – are now preparing to board a plane Friday on a mission to bring the music of praise and worship to Ireland's airwaves.
For the next two years they will train people in County Cork to run LifeFM 93.1 Cork.
"We want to show we can do this presentation in excellence in every aspect," Roger said. "Christian radio is looked upon as second class, we want to show that we can be a first-class presentation. We have the greatest message in the world, that Jesus loves you."
"With the greatest message we don't want that wrapped in a plain wrapper in a plain box. We want it to be compelling, interesting even entertaining. It takes a lot of work."
The station, staffed solely by volunteers, will feature a mixture of Christian and mainstream music along with Irish music and some talk radio.
Getting it all started, though, had its challenges. For instance, government regulations required that the station's board had to be made up of every denomination in Cork.
"It's sometimes hard to get denominations together for anything let alone to work together. It took a while to get enough people on board to represent every denomination, but we did," Roger said. "
It's multi-denominational but yet non-denominational. There is no denomination that runs it and yet every denomination in Cork is represented. There are two Catholic directors, a Baptist director and a Pentecostal director."
Roger was asked to come and help because they lacked someone with radio experience, and the couple was ready to make the commitment, said Carey, who has been the Awana leader at Palos Bible Church in Palos Heights.
"Just being open and knowing that the Irish people are very relational, just building those friendships is what I'm really looking forward to. It's humbling that the Lord would choose us. In the last year, I learned don't walk ahead of Him, Don't walk behind Him but walk beside Him. I am going home, there is a feeling of home in Ireland."
Roger said he recently met an Irish man in Chicago and explained his new mission. The man replied, " We've been trying to get religion out of that country for 100 years and you're bringing it back."
Roger said he realized all the harm that has been done in Ireland in the name of religion.
"I don't want any part of that. It's not about religion, it's about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
For more information on the Basicks' ministry visit www.basicks4ireland.com.