Community & Business
12 December, 2025
Oakey on heaven’s airwaves
Oakey’s Campbell Street bakery recently played host to Vision Christian Radio’s breakfast program ‘Rise and Shine’ on Tuesday morning, December 2nd.
Hosts ‘Andy’ and ‘Robbo’ were on their final stop of a week-long broadcast tour to rural Queensland, featuring stops at Windorah, Quilpie, Charleville and Roma.
Local Christians Joanne Evans, Alan and Lesley Hughes, Kevin Rietveld and Jenny Gill all appeared on the program.
Joanne promoted Oakey Voices Choir carols concert (to be performed this Sunday afternoon at the Uniting Church), and Santa Fair.
Lesley, meanwhile, spoke about the work of the local churches in putting on a weekly community barbecue on Thursday afternoons at Rotary Park, and the local Chaplaincy Committee’s first Oakey Beef Challenge, which raised $25,000 for chaplaincy in Oakey.
While on air, Kevin talked about Oakey Community Christian Church’s upcoming Christmas Eve Dinner at the Oakey Cultural Centre, an event which is targeted at those who are home alone this Christmas.
Jenny spoke about how she had appreciated the uplifting presence of a Christian radio station on the airwaves since her time living in Rockhampton.
An unexpected visitor was health nurse Karen, a regular listener to the program on her commute from Yuleba to Surat Hospital.
Summing up their tour, co-host Andy said he had come away with a sense that small town churches were co-operating in a way churches were not.
“This is my takeaway Robbo, from all these country towns we’ve been visiting - the churches are working together,” he said.
“They’re all on the same page.
“All those petty divisions, you’re not seeing it. They’re having combined services and they’re working on Christmas outreaches (to the wider community).”
