The photo was taken of a framed picture sent to Calvary Road Ministry by the Albuquerque, NM based ministry known as "Faith Comes by Hearing" (FCBH). The plaque at the bottom reads "In recognition of your gifts to allow non-literate people to know of God's love for them, Calvary Road Ministry, for providing the Word of God in audio for the Sudanese people of South Sudan, Africa."
It was a nice touch for FCBH to send the beautiful framed picture to us. They sent it to show their appreciation for the fact that we purchased over $15,000 worth of their solar powered MP4 player known as the Proclaimer in 2016. We distributed them in refugee camps located in northern Uganda through our on-the-ground partnering organization, the Baptist Convention of S. Sudan (BCoSS).
Each Proclaimer is loaded with a digital form of the New Testament in 4 Sudanese languages. The capacity of this player's speaker can enable up to 75-100 people to hear at one time.
Our partners on the ground distribute these players to the members of their churches who they know will be faithful to not only use the players for their own families and neighbors, but will take them to various sections of their camps and play them for people of other tribes. That's where having up to 4 different versions of the NT on one player becomes important. The reports we have received from the field thus far speak highly of the effectiveness of this tool for enabling people who cannot read, or who do not own a Bible/NT, to hear the Word. And that in turns feeds into evangelism, discipleship and church planting.
FCBH played a big role in putting on one web site the New Testament in hundreds of languages in digital form. They can be seen and listened to at www.bible.is. Many different English versions are posted there and can be downloaded for your own listening use.
FCBH takes their name from Romans 10:17 "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." That verse also sums up the priority of our own ministry. We want to do all we can to help South Sudanese refugees have access to God's Word, whether in printed or in digital format.
The current conflict in S. Sudan will end one day. But then what? Unless the world's newest nation's leaders and leading citizens begin rebuilding their nation on the foundation of God's Word, even future attempts at state building may lead to more collapse and chaos.
David Crane
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