ATLANTA (ABP) — More than 500 churches affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship participated in a yearlong Bible-listening project, raising more than $185,000 to support translation and distribution of the Bible around the world.
The "You've Got the Time" program, part of an ongoing partnership between the Atlanta-based CBF and Faith Comes By Hearing, an audio-Bible ministry based in New Mexico, enlisted individual church members to listen to the Bible for 28 minutes a day for 40 days.
A number of CBF congregations used the program to prepare parishioners spiritually during the 40-day period leading up to Easter known as Lent.
The "Proclaimer" allows people in remote areas without electricity to listen to audio recordings of the Bible in their own language.
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"We have been overwhelmed with positive responses from churches," said Bo Prosser, the coordinator for congregational formation at CBF. "To immerse one's self in the Scriptures for a 40-day journey has been very rewarding. We've heard stories from across the Fellowship of creative ways of sharing in this adventure in biblical faithfulness."
Along with listening to Bible passages, participants were invited to donate money to Faith Comes By Hearing. The group translates the Bible into languages spoken by the half of the world's population that is functionally illiterate.
Money donated by CBF-affiliated churches will help fund the New Testament in five new languages: Kambaata is the language of hundreds of thousands of people living in southwestern Ethiopia. Chin, Tedim, is spoken in the Chin Hills State in Myanmar and also in India. Two languages, Eastern and Western Karen Pwo, combine to form the second-largest group of the Karen languages spoken in Myanmar. Arabic Saudi is the dialect spoken in Saudi Arabia.
It costs just over $25,000 for one new language translation. The balance of funds raised by the project will purchase and distribute solar-powered digital audio players called "Proclaimers" to remote areas such as Myanmar and Ethiopia through local Bible societies and field personnel.
The devices contain a microchip recording of Scriptures in the "heart language" for each people group and have a battery life of up to 15 hours. They can be recharged with the built-in generator and solar panel to play the entire New Testament more than 1,000 times. The audio quality is loud enough to be heard clearly by groups of 300 or more at one time.
"When a group of people gather around a Proclaimer, whether that is every day or once a week, a church is born," said Roger Hunter, national coordinator for Faith Comes by Hearing. "Our partnership with CBF ensures that we can continue to serve a world that is hungry for God's word."
Faith Comes By Hearing also recently developed an iPhone application called Bible.is, which offers audio Bible downloads in 50 languages. It's available at the Faith Comes by Hearing website.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. The story includes reporting by CBF writer Lelia King.