‘Voice of Hope’ Founder Puts Gospel on the Air

He’s a bit like Indiana Jones, but instead of a bullwhip, George Otis carries a Bible.

Charging into areas ravaged by the pestilence of war or suppressed by the will of malevolent dictators, the 80-year-old president and founder of the Simi Valley-based High Adventure Ministries looks to give hope to the hopeless--along with a little bluegrass.

For almost two decades, Otis and his ministry have been erecting antennas and transmitters around the globe, trumpeting the Gospel’s lessons over the radio’s crackling airwaves.

“Wherever there are these terrible tensions, we’re all really eager to get in there and do something,” said Otis, who travels to distant lands three to four months a year. “It’s a lot of work, but our goal is a worthy one.”

Established 18 years ago with a small station built in the middle of a Lebanese battlefield, High Adventure Ministries and its Voice of Hope radio program have grown to include 16 stations with continents of faithful listeners in countries from Bhutan to Bolivia.

Otis is also an author--his latest book, “The Guns of God,” bills itself as a manual on how to wage spiritual warfare against evil.

According to Otis, it’s been a long road, both personally and professionally.

Before becoming a minister and leader of a global radio network, Otis was an executive at the Lear Corp., living a luxurious and admittedly excessive life in Beverly Hills.

While today he is concerned with the world’s victims of poverty and violent turmoil, he said, back then he was concerned with his bank account and his fast-paced, no-apologies lifestyle.

“I was just concerned with being a success, making a lot of money and having fun,” he said. “I was a mess, a real rascal and doing everything I shouldn’t.”

But then, because of his wife, Virginia, Otis said he redeemed himself and his faith by accepting Christ into his life.

“Basically, the Lord washed into me and he didn’t wash out,” he said.

The idea for the radio show didn’t bloom immediately upon his conversion, but took several years to develop, with nurturing from some of the world’s most preeminent leaders.

While touring Israel in 1976 with a group of other Christians, Otis had the opportunity to meet with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

During his meeting, Otis spoke of his interest in the Jewish people and asked how, in the midst of Arab-Israeli conflict, he could help.

Rabin replied that he could not take such an offer seriously while the plight of Lebanese Christians--who were defenseless victims in a Lebanese civil war--remained ignored by American Christians.

While he didn’t realize it at the time, Otis said Rabin had planted a seed that would later be watered by another Israeli political figure, Menachem Begin.

In a brief 1978 meeting with Prime Minister Begin, Otis asked the same question and received much the same reply.

“Begin told me the Lebanese had lost hope and that if I were to do anything, it would be to restore that,” Otis said.

The means to do that remained elusive until Lebanese military leader Maj. Saad Haddad told him that a small radio station would help feed Lebanon’s weary souls.

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So in 1979, the first Voice of Hope station, situated in a valley below a Palestinian stronghold, signed on with several hours of religious programming kicked off by a few minutes of twangy bluegrass.

“That’s my own touch,” Otis said. “It’s crazy and people wonder what the heck it is.”

Since then, the show has grown beyond the Middle East and reaches listeners on every continent except Antarctica--although even that can be reached on days when the Earth’s ionosphere isn’t a soup of supercharged particles.

The program and ministry, which is devoutly evangelical and highly conservative, have raised some eyebrows, particularly after the Dalai Lama’s visit to Los Angeles two years ago. Representatives from the ministry said the Buddhist leader was allied with Satan and brought as many as 7,000 demons to wreak havoc on the Southland.

But Otis said he is now keeping his eyes on the goal of making the Bible a global resource for hope and peace.

A new satellite connection, scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, will transmit the Voice of Hope to an area stretching from the Pyramids to the Cape of Good Hope.

“The work will never be done, even if everyone listens to the program,” he said. “So I’m not worried about being bored any time soon.”