Summer 2017
KICY RADIO MINISTRY UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP Patty Burchell’s Journey: God’s Leading Home to Nome
When Patty Burchell first began receiving KICY’s newsletter in 1998 while serving as a school teacher in California, she was not sure how she came to be on the mailing list of this seemingly obscure radio ministry of the Arctic. Little did she know that God was beginning a journey with her that would ultimately lead to serving as the general manager almost twenty years later. May 15, 2017, was Patty’s first official day on the job as general manager, but her pathway to that role is a story of God’s creative and persistent shepherding over time. “I first came to Nome in 1999. I was needing a break from teaching. After seeing in every KICY newsletter where it read, ‘If you can give us a year, we can teach you radio,’ I decided to contact KICY. Dave Oslund graciously accepted me, though I had no previous radio experience,” Patty explained. Her one year commitment turned to two as she served as the music director until 2001. Subsequently, she returned to California. Patty expressed that though she was not resident in Nome or physically present at the radio station,
Patty Burchell, KICY General Manager
she stayed mentally and emotionally tied to the station. In fact, between 2001 and 2014, Patty made nearly annual visits to volunteer in short-term stints. During that time, she filled in for vacationing on-air staff, brought teams for KICY work projects and VBS at Nome Covenant Church. She also produced remote
Iditarod reports for on-air use during the 2011-2015 races. Patty recalled a turning point experience that took place while she was attending the 50th anniversary celebration of KICY in Nome in April of 2010. “At that closing worship service, I had an overwhelming sensation. I borrowed a pencil and piece of paper from Candace Weidler, who was sitting next to me, and wrote down what I sensed God was telling me: ‘Nome was home, Sonora (where I was living) was my mission field, and one day I’d get to come home.’” In 2011, Patty joined the board of trustees and then in 2015, God indeed shepherded Patty back to KICY where she has since been volunteering full -time as the AM & FM program director. “As Dennis’s retirement drew near, I was encouraged to apply for the position. Daily I would walk the Nome beach on my lunch break and pray that God would call a leader—if it was me, great, if not that was fine too,” Patty shared. “Dennis knew that if it wasn’t me, I’d be the one (Continued on page 6)
Weidler Retires After 18-years of Gospel-Powered Ministry reprinted from a Covenant Newswire article by Stan Friedman
KICY radio, a ministry of Alaska Conference, shares the gospel around the world, but in 1999 it reached only a handful of villages. It also was roughly $1 million in debt and in danger of closing. That’s when the conference and the ECC asked Dennis Weidler to consider taking the job as the station’s general manager. At the time Weidler lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he had his own advertising business and a studio where he did voice-overs for major clients such as Coca-Cola. It would seem ridiculous to make Dennis Weidler the switch. But he and his wife, Candace, agreed to at least go and see the work. While they were impressed with the people they met in Nome, the couple figured they would not take the job. It was,
after all, a community of only 3,500 people and 550 miles from the nearest road system. But as they prayed about it in the coming days, the Weidlers realized their hearts were still back in Nome with the people they had met. Their kindness and commitment to the gospel sold Dennis. So did Candace, who told him that if he didn’t take the position he would be disobeying God. “You can’t argue with that,” he says. With his retirement in May, Dennis leaves behind a station that has been transformed during the 18 years he has been there. In that time, KICY has gone from broadcasting with a low-power signal that reached a small radius to broadcasting with a 50,000-watt Clear Channel signal throughout a vast portion of Alaska and in far east of Russia in the Russian language. People around the world can listen via the internet to the AM and FM (Continued on page 6)
From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:16