April 05, 2011
by Carlos A. Zazueta and Carmen Montgomery
Caught up in our own lives and concerns, it’s easy to forget that people all over the world from all walks of life love and serve the Lord Jesus faithfully every day. Patsy Liclan, one listener of Insight for Living’s Spanish-language broadcast, Visión Para Vivir, is just such a person.
Patsy loves the work of God and has committed herself to serving Him in everything she does. Her life was shaped in important ways through the blessing of Christian radio programs that reached her wherever she lived—from childhood onward.
Patsy grew up in a Christian home with two parents who loved God and each other. Her parents, always faithful to teach their children the truths of the gospel, made sure Patsy and her sister were exposed to plenty of Christian teaching. Patsy notes:
My parents did not depend on Sunday school teachers or pastors to lead us to Jesus. They taught us at home and had the joy of guiding us through home Bible studies during the Great Depression years. Among radio programs that influenced my family were Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, children’s programs, and great music.
As Patsy grew into a young woman, she worked a variety of jobs in offices and hospitals to pay the bills while attending and serving her church regularly. Eventually, she went to nursing school with the help of a scholarship from the women at her church. Not long before her graduation, a missions conference convinced Patsy that she needed to take her talents to South America. Even there, radio ministries continued to play a significant role in her ministry, in her spiritual development . . . and even in her romantic life.
I joined . . . the Summer Institute of Linguistics. I was accepted as a nurse-translator in the early 1950s and spent 35 years serving among the Madija-Culina [indigenous people] in Peru. I remember listening to a Christmas program by shortwave from HCJB [a missionary radio station based in Quito, Eduador] while way out “at the end of nowhere” in Peru. It was Billy Graham ministering to servicemen in Vietnam.
In 1983, I heard programs on a new radio station of Pucallpa. My first remark was, “Wow! One could learn to speak good Spanish by listening to this station!” Another friend later introduced me to the director of Radio Maranatha and took me to see the station. That’s when I learned that [the director] was a widower, caring for five-year old twins. I was embarassed that I had shown so much interest in radio. Nevertheless, Felix and I became friends.
Later I was assigned to drive a vehicle for a visiting pastor from Quito, Ecuador, preaching in Pucallpa. The pastor’s sermon was about God commanding Abraham to travel to an unknown land. After the service, Felix asked me to sit there on a pew to talk. We had been friends since the twins were five-years old.
The conversation on the pew led to our marriage in 1988. I had been a happy single woman, and I believe this is why I was happily married.
Felix often said that after leaving the marines, he tried to gain money as a businessman but that now God wanted him to gain souls for Christ. We had 16 wonderful years of marriage and ministry together before his death in 2004.
Patsy remains an avid listener of Visión Para Vivir as she promotes the broadcast for Radio Maranatha in Peru, where she serves. As you can see from her testimony, she has spent her life serving people as a nurse-translator and as a fellow Christian, always desiring that many might have personal encounters with Jesus.
People like Patsy remind us why the work of Insight for Living’s radio broadcast must continue. The impact of one radio broadcast on one life can have a ripple effect, touching the lives of countless others—people in places far from the concerns of our daily lives but near to the heart of God.