PBA’s first office
Rev. Hatori & Art Seely
PBA’s first studio
Joe Parker, Art Seely, Akira Hatori, Bernie Holritz
A stack of Rev. Hatori’s scripts
Rev. Akira Hatori joined the Pacific Broadcasting Association in 1953, becoming its Radio Pastor and Board Chairman.Working tirelessly with the missionaries who founded PBA, Rev. Hatori built a strong foundation for the ministry by creating a true partnership with the local churches of Japan. That partnership exists to this day and is the bedrock of how PBA operates as a ministry. Local churches who want to engage in broadcast evangelism cooperate together to buy local air time and to handle follow up locally.
PBA provides a radio or TV program for them to air that is tagged with their name and their contact information.
So, using the productions of PBA, it is the local churches of Japan that are reaching out over the airwaves to their fellow countrymen.
Now in his eighties, Rev. Hatori has been semi-retired for quite some time but still came in to PBA once a week to record. We will all greatly miss his regular visits.
The Light of the World radio program is now in the capable hands of seven veteran Japanese pastors. Please pray that God would continue to uphold these men and continue to use Light of the World to reach a new generation of Japanese for His kingdom.