India has over 1,000 languages. While most people can speak at least a few languages (mother tongue and state language), they really connect most in their mother tongue. Bible translators have realized that. Many of them have devoted their lives to translating scripture into a new language. However, literacy is not a part of most of the Indian culture -- many can't read, and many who can don't have an interest. It is much more of a story-telling culture. Unfortunately, that results in much translation work having little impact, because the people aren't reading the translations.
The mission of WCOI is to address that every need. As the name implies, the organization began when cassettes were the medium (actually, even earlier to when cassettes were the cutting-edge technology). Their basic process was, and still is:
- Go into a village with a translation, find a reader, and record the reader reading though the whole Scripture.
- Take that audio and edit it for quality. This is the most time-consuming of the steps.
- Return to the village with cassettes and player for the residents.
God has been moving through the ministry. You can hear story after story of individuals' and communities' lives being changed.
The one requirement to receive the cassettes has been to commit to play the Scriptures for 1 hour each day with 10 people in the room*. Initially, I thought this requirement was quite strict -- I would have a hard time doing it, for instance. There is such a hunger for God's word, that people don't have a hard time at all meeting it. In fact, oftentimes what happens is that the rooms aren't big enough to hold all the people who want to listen. Most of these languages have no literature, so the advent of an audio Bible fascinates many around, even if they have no idea what it's about. You hear from so many people that they just wanted to hear what the audio player had, and soon after that they gave their lives to Christ (many are now training to become Christian leaders in their local communities).
What's also happening now, both a concern and a joy, is that so many people want to listen to God's word, that the ministry is usually out of players and oftentimes has to turn people down or make them wait (until enough support money comes in to buy more players). They do have some funding, but when a new order of 600 units comes in, they go through it quite quickly.
Recently, the ministry has upgraded from cassettes to the MegaVoice unit:
This unit is much smaller than the cassette player, more transportable, lightweight and durable, and is solar powered (batteries for recorders can be hard to come by).
When I spent a summer here, it was with steps 1 and 2 -- we recorded the New Testament in Vasavi, and we edited the recording. This time, it will be with step 3, in a slightly different context.
Hearing the Bible can be quite helpful if you have never been taught to read. It can also be quite helpful if you are blind. One blind woman, when she picked up a unit, said she had been waiting her whole life for something like this. She also picked up a unit for her blind, unbelieving brother, and for her pastor. Within the next few days, we will be visiting a local blind community and handing out some players. From my host, James, there isn't a huge demand for the players in that particular community, maybe just a couple dozen (imagine: even just a couple dozen people hearing the Bible for the first time!). Soon, though, once the word/Word gets around to the other members of the community, many more people will be asking for copies.
Excellent videos of the organization, their vision, and just a few stories of change can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/wcoindia. One of those was done by the legendary Bryant Brozik. If you just watch one, watch Bryant's on "The Need for Audio Bibles in India."
* This has changed with the advent of the new handheld players, but something the ministry is hoping to return to. The cassettes are still available for groups.
There's so much to talk about there, too -- what you see is just the surface of what I've seen, and what I've seen is just the surface of what the ministry sees, and what the ministry sees is just the surface of what the local missionaries see, and what the local missionaries see is just the surface of how God's working.
ReplyDelete