The
website, Sounds of Encouragement (
www.soencouragement.org ), started in April
2000 as a tool to publish articles online
written by Barrington H. Brennen. In July 1996,
he began writing articles to publish in the
Nassau Guardian, a local Bahamian newspaper.
The opportunity to have a website was a dream
come through after TAGnet (Three Angels Global
Networking) was founded in 1995 in Silicon
Valley (California) as a primary volunteer
organization for hosting Adventist websites.
Pastors and churches were given the opportunity
to publish websites for free or at a low cost.
TAGnet, now called netAserve, hosts thousands of
Adventist churches and other institutions’
websites from around the world.
How did Sounds of Encouragement get started in
the first place? What is it all about? Between
1980 and 1983, when Barrington Brennen and his
family were serving the Islands of Exuma and
Long Island Bahamas as the district pastor, his
hobby was listening to shortwave radio every
day. In those days, there were no digital
television channels online, smart phones or
laptops. Hence, Barrington became an avid
listener to many religious and new programs from
around the world with the use of a shortwave
radio. This included The Voice of America,
National Public Radio, Trans World Radio,
Bonaire near South America; Radio 4EVH Haiti
(Evangelist Voice of Haiti), Radio Germany,
Radio Vatican Italy, Moody Radio, Family Radio,
and much more. Quickly he became someone who
practiced DXing, the practice of listening to
many stations from as many countries as possible
and receiving verification cards from them. He
accumulated about 100 of those cards.
One outstanding program he enjoyed and that
touched his life was “Nightsounds” by Bill
Pearce, that came on every night on most of the
shortwave religious stations. Nightsounds was
a 30-minute program with inspirational music and
intriguing spiritual and encouraging thoughts
designed to motivate each listener. Bill
Pearce’s voice was warm, inviting, and special.
His rich bass tone was sufficient to lure
Barrington each night to his shortwave radio.
Little did Barrington know that he was being set
up to have his own radio program. His creative
juices began to flow from his mind. Thus,
before he left Exuma, he was determined in his
heart that he would start his own radio
program. This was when the name “Sounds of
Encouragement” was born in his heart to be a
radio program on ZNS Radio Station. What a
dream!
In 1983 he was moved to Crooked Island as the
district pastor. In those days there were no
public electricity, running water, nor personal
telephones on the island. Homes got their
lights from generators people only used a few
hours each day or windmills that charged a
cluster of batteries to produce lights. The
only phones available were at the Phone Depot
eleven miles away in Colonel Hill. Using the
phone felt like a picnic day. The family would
pack lunch and travel the lonely road to the
town hoping that the lightning did not strike
out the transmission tower the night before. If
that was the case, Morse Code was used to send
messages to friends and family. Barrington and
his wife, Annick, had to use this method twice
while living on Crooked Island.
The Brennen’s home was the only one on the
island to have a twenty-four-hour generator.
But one thing everyone had was CB Radios
(Citizens Band Radio). A church member, hearing
about his interest in radio, loaned Barrington a
CB Radio. This what exciting. After erecting
the antenna and setting up the radio, he began
organizing in his mind, and then on paper, how
he would use the CB Radio to start a CB Radio
program. Bingo! It happened.
First, he started composing program scripts and
then selecting music from his wide collection of
music cassette tapes. Thus in early 1984, (41
years ago) Sounds of Encouragement had its first
radio broadcast using CB Radio on Landrail
Point, Crooked Island, Bahamas. It was at 6
a.m. for about 15 minutes, two days a week. Not
being an actual radio studio, it required
skillful manipulation each time the program was
on air. Before the program started, he had to
line up on the little desk the three or four
cassettes from which he had selected songs to
use, have a script neatly written in front of
him on the desk, and then with the right hand,
hold the CB Radio microphone button that one
cannot let go for the length of the program.
When the music was playing, he had to place the
microphone closer to the speaker of the cassette
player, and when coming to the end of the song,
skillfully reduce the volume like in a real
studio, to begin talking.
“Good morning! I am Barrington Brennen, your
early morning motivational speaker. You are
listening to Sounds of Encouragement.” There
were a few listeners on Crooked Island and
Acklins (Bahamas) and even a few on their boats
out at sea. Sometimes, when the weather
produced a high-pressure system across The
Bahamas and North America, skips—truck drivers
on the highway in Canada--would tune in on their
CB Radios. “In CB radio terminology, "skip"
refers to a phenomenon where radio signals
travel long distances due to the reflection or
refraction of radio waves from the ionosphere, a
layer in the Earth's upper atmosphere. This
allows CB radio operators to communicate with
stations hundreds or even thousands of miles
away.”
It was the beginning of something special. The
program was not broadcast on the regular CB
radio channel not to interfere with regular
radio traffic. Users were invited to turn to
another channel to listen. Barrington really
enjoyed doing this program. It ignited a spark
that would never fade away.
The first installment of Sounds of Encouragement
continued for about two years and in 1986,
Barrington and his family moved to Nassau to
serve as the pastor of Berea Seventh-day
Adventist Church. It was during that year that
ZNS Radio Bahamas began offering pastors the
opportunity to have a radio program at a very
discounted rate of $20 for thirty minutes. With
the official blessing of the Bahamas Conference
of Seventh-day Adventists, Barrington jumped on
the opportunity and began soliciting financial
donations from individuals. The response was
magnificent. He then contacted the late Edgar
Williams, a leading Bahamian sound engineer at
the time with one of the first audio production
studios, and an alumnus of Bahamas Academy, to
produce the programs.
It was exciting for Barrington to move from CB
Radio to actual radio broadcasting. The
discipline and practice prepared him for the
actual radio program. The programs production
never interfered with the regular ministry time
and family involvement. He would go to the
studio 5 am in the morning, while his family
slept, once or twice a week to produce four to
six radio programs 29 minutes 30 seconds in
length. They aired late at night twice a week
,at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and 3:30 a.m. on
Thursdays. The goal of the program was to
reach the late-night workers, the sleepless and
restless, by providing soothing music and
inspirational thoughts. It was effective.
Letters and phone calls started to come in.
There were stories of encouragement and
healing. The program was changing lives.
It was amazing how many people could not sleep
or who were at work at night. One of the
sweetest sounds to his ears was when someone
told him that they fell asleep listening to the
program. The person could not sleep for weeks
and when they tuned in to Sounds of
Encouragement, they said that they received
encouragement, insight, and hope, enabling them
to fall asleep. Also the music helped them
relax and let go. That was exciting to hear.
Many taxi drivers told him that while they were
waiting at a hotel or airport for a client, they
would tune in to the program and were inspired.
Truly it was a blessing helping those he could
not see or hear otherwise.
Barrington Brennen spoke on interesting topics
that would speak directly to the soul and pain
of people. For example: Stress, Old Age, Extra
Marital Affairs, Headship or Partnership,
Choosing a life Partner, Loneliness, Pregnant
But not for My Husband, Shaking Up, For the Sake
of the Children, How Much Are You Worth? Kiss
Me, Kiss Me! Suicide, Homosexuality, Ghost and
Things, Laughter, Death, Peace, and much more.
The script for these programs and hundreds more
are still intact in his library.
Sounds of Encouragement continued on ZNS Radio
for a total of fifteen years. Yes, it was
interrupted when the family moved to Andrews
University, Michigan, where he studied for the
degree in counseling and marriage and family
therapy. Upon returning home in 1996, he was
the first marriage and family therapist in The
Bahamas. The program was started on air once
more for about two years, but it was difficult
to keep on air because the cost had increased
considerably and the work ministry was greater.
However, as stated earlier, in 2000 the
opportunity came to keep Sounds of Encouragement
ministry alive by having a website. A few years
earlier (1992 to 1996), while at Andrews
University, studying for the degree in
counseling and marriage and family therapy,
Barrington began publishing articles in the
Student Movement (The University student
newspaper). He needed to find an avenue to
share his creativity. The response was
encouraging.
In 2000, the website became an avenue to keep
the messages going and to help others, not only
in The Bahamas, but around the world. To date
on the Sounds of Encouragement website there are
over one thousand articles dealing with a
variety of topics for individuals, couples,
families, and teens. Sounds of Encouragement
would continue to remain alive in the heart and
soul of Barrington Brennen and all those who
read his articles around the world.
The opportunity to share again on the radio, but
in a different way came in 2017 on Word SBC 88.3
FM, Nassau, The Bahamas. It was when “Your
Daily Relationship Nugget” was born. A
10-minute radio program designed to teach, heal
and inspire. It airs midday Monday to Friday
each week. It was inspired by Sounds of
Encouragement radio program. The topics are
just as spicy and interesting. Although not
being aired on ZNS Radio Bahamas, Your Daily
Relationship Nugget is being aired, at no cost,
on Cayman Adventist Radio, Cayman Public Radio,
WGOD US Virgin Island, Belize Adventist Radio,
an Adventist radio in the United Kingdom, and
around the world on Spotify Adventist World
Radio.
Sounds of Encouragement website set the
foundation for inspiration for Barrington
Brennen to share around the world through Your
Daily Relationship Nugget. People from every
country around the world, except one, read the
articles, with the aid of Google Translate, in
the language they choose. The only country
where the Google Analytic Statistics indicate no
activity is the Central Republic of Africa,
located in the center of Africa. Some of the
countries where people are reading or listening
are in The Bahamas, Nigeria, Ghana, India,
Vietnam, China, Togo, South Korea, North Korea,
Jamaica, Trinidad, Chez, Ukraine, South Africa,
Isreal, Jordan, Brazil, Argentina, and the list
goes on. The articles and the radio programs
are reaching people around the world.
Barrington believes that for many more years,
people will find insight, healing, peace, and
strength from these outreach programs.
BEHIND THE SCENES: In 2000, Pastor Leonard
Johnson, the then Executive Secretary and
Communication Director of the Bahamas
Conference, invited Barrington to be an
associate director of communication responsible
for the Conference’s website which began in 1999
(26 years ago). He invited him because he
observed that the first Adventist Church
website, Johnson Park Church website where he
was the pastor, had become the most outstanding
and successful church website in the
Inter-American Division. He wanted him to do
the same for the new Bahamas Conference
website. Sure enough, for the almost ten years
he managed the conference’s website, it became
the most popular and functional website in the
Inter-American Division of Seventh-day
Adventists. As a result the site won two awards
from a local organization. Visitors indicated
that the website was user-friendly, easy to
navigate, and provided all they were looking for
on the web regarding the church.
Note that during the early days of Sounds of
Encouragement the sophisticated software website
development had not yet been introduced.
Content management software, CIG and PHP tools
were not available. Therefore, Barrington never
learned how to use those tools. Today, Sounds
of Encouragement website is still an old
technology website without those modern tools.
However, it still ranks high on search engine
optimization.
Sounds of Encouragement is a website “Dedicated
to the restoration of life” and “Helping people
smile again.” Your Daily Relationship Nugget
ends each program with the words “I am
Barrington Brennen doing my best to keep a smile
in your heart.”
Barrington Brennen is a retired Adventist pastor
of almost 42 years (1978 to 2019, an active
marriage and family therapist and counseling
psychologist since 1995, writer, musician,
husband, father, grandfather, armature graphic
artist, and a lover of people.
