Has your heart been technologically blessed and encouraged?

Posted : 26 Jun, 2011 01:34 AM

Troy Carl's heart has!!! :dancingp::dancingp::dancingp: ... and reading about Troy's service to God, mine has heart has been too!!! :yay::yay::yay::applause::applause:



Troy is the National Director of Faith Comes By Hearing, a ministry that utilizes advances in communication to help achieve the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-30.



Columist Sandy Feit shares about Troy Carl's inspiring ministry in the following article from the June 2011 issue of Charles Stanley's IN TOUCH devotional magazine, which includes distributing Audio Bibles to the remotest spots on earth.



Hear Now My Words

Audio Bibles reach the remotest spots on earth.

By Sandy Feit



Back in the 80s, Troy Carl�s first mission trip involved hiding Bibles all over his body so he could distribute them in a closed country. Today, the former pastor does similar work, but without the risks, travel expense, or limitations�he simply pushes a button and sends God�s Word right through the phone.



Carl is National Director of Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), a ministry that utilizes advances in communication to help achieve the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 (www.faithcomesbyhearing.com). To illustrate, he�ll often start a presentation with, �Take your cell phones, and go to Matthew 24:14.�



As the audience grasps the irony of how drastically phone usage has changed, Carl will read the verse aloud: �This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations��a goal that for the first time in history is technologically within reach. The Greek word for �nations,� he points out, is ethnos, which actually means �of the same language and people group� rather than shared geographical boundaries. �Bible translation and distribution ministries,� he continues, �have determined there are 6,809 ethnos in the world, most of which cross political borders. The Scriptures say that the end will come when every language group has the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. What�s exciting is, we know what they are, and as Habakkuk 2:14 says, knowledge of the Lord�s glory will cover the earth like the sea.�



Why �Hearing�?



To many Christians, �world evangelism� brings to mind linguistic teams, cartons of Bibles, and village-wide reading classes. While that remains an important aspect of the work, it�s far from the whole picture. Fifty percent of the global population is illiterate. �In other words,� Carl says, �half the world will never be reached for the gospel if we don�t provide it to them in a form they can understand.�



The church, understandably, places great emphasis on the written Word, but Carl adds an interesting perspective: �This whole �literacy thing� has only been around since the Gutenberg press�500 and some years. Until then, everything was passed down through oral tradition. And so orality is all throughout the Scriptures: there are over 1,800 references to hearing God�s Word, but only about 88 references to reading. And of those, two-thirds are to reading the Bible aloud.� In fact, every seven years, the priests and elders were to �read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing� (Deut. 31:10-11). Unfortunately, there�s no indication whether or not the Israelites complied more than a few times. Yet the public reading under Josiah resulted in one of the greatest revivals in Jewish history (2 Kings 23:2-3).



Evolution of Devices



�In the early �70s,� Carl says, �technology stayed pretty stagnant, and we continued to distribute Scripture on cassette. Now, we don�t do cassettes anymore. We barely do CDs.�



Starting in 2005, the ministry had to advance its technology rapidly to keep pace. They developed the Proclaimer, a device large enough for 300 people to hear distinctly. This �nearly indestructible pure audio Bible� is fitted with both a solar panel (for use in remote areas) and a hand crank (for times when there�s no sun). Later came the Mini Proclaimer, which is useful where small home listening groups are appropriate.



FCBH also developed a unit for the First-World market. Before the advent of smartphones, many people had MP3 technology on their computers but didn�t know how to use it. The Bible Stick�a digital audio player the size of a pack of gum�met the need and also proved valuable in a way personally meaningful to Carl: the Military Bible Stick. He explains, �My son was at West Point when we first started working with the military. He and his buddies said, �This thing is awesome! And we�re sharing it with other cadets.� However, when chaplains serving deployed troops saw the Bible Stick, they anticipated a problem for soldiers in the field: since the exterior was white, it stood out, and the little light that blinks could be picked up on infrared.�



"So they gave us a list of engineering requirements, and now we produce a black one that�s military-compliant. All a soldier has to do is ask the chaplain for one, and we send it. Over 104,000 have been distributed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo . . . Chaplains are requesting thousands each week�more than we can keep up with.�



Listening Programs



The mission of FCBH is to �evangelize and disciple with God�s pure Word.� Partnering with groups that show the JESUS Film, drill wells, and minister in schools or prisons, FCBH offers Listening Programs in Third-World countries. Carl says, �Every week the people gather to listen for 30 minutes and then share. Leaders commit not to give comment�they simply let the group discuss and debate and challenge themselves, as opposed to being taught by a single person. And the wisdom of the group comes forth. It�s amazing to see how many lives are transformed just by hearing God�s Word in their own language.�



The Konkomba people of Ghana are a good example. They were listening to Mark 5:1-20, in which the demons Jesus cast out of a man ask to enter a herd of pigs. Upon hearing that the pigs ran off a cliff and died, one person suddenly asked, �Wait a minute! Did Jesus know that the demons were going to go into the pigs?� Someone responded, �Well, yes, He�s God. He knows everything.� Another inquired, �Did He know it would kill the pigs?� �Well, yes.� A woman wondered, �Did Jesus reimburse the village for the pigs?� For half an hour, they discussed, �Why would Jesus do this?� and �If we invite Jesus into our village, is He going to make us lose all of our property?�



After much debate, the elders silenced the group and said, �We think we know what Jesus was teaching us. You know that we have a man in our village that�s demon-possessed�he�s crazy. And he�s worthless. We�d rather he die than even one of our animals.� Everyone agreed. �Well, we believe that Jesus was trying to teach us that the value of one man�s soul is worth more than the economy of the whole village.� And the entire group said, �Oh!�



Carl adds, �God provides the Holy Spirit to teach, and great wisdom came out of that exchange. Just because they�re illiterate doesn�t mean they�re stupid. That whole tribe came to Christ as a result of hearing this.�



Staying Current



Keeping up with technology�s warp-speed evolution is key to success. To illustrate, Carl borrows a quote from athlete Wayne Gretzky: ��A good hockey player skates to where the puck is. But a great hockey player skates to where the puck is going.� I�m challenging the body of Christ to say, �Let�s quit playing catch-up.� You�ll never win a game that way. It�s time to go to where the puck�s going.�



Sometimes that even means scrapping a successful project that took time, money, and energy. A couple of years ago, FCBH developed a download software system that delivered Scripture to hundreds of thousands around the world. Then smartphone technology debuted. The organization, wisely recognizing its system had suddenly become old technology, changed direction immediately. �That was a good decision,� Carl recalls. �People couldn�t care less about downloading now. What they care about is access.�



Today, access is largely synonymous with cell phone apps, coupled with real-time systems that deliver information intercontinentally without any delay or speed issues. So where is the �puck� going? Of the 6.7 billion people on the planet, 25 percent can be reached via Internet, while more than 70 percent can be reached via cell phone. And that�s just the beginning: The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an organization with nearly 200 member nations, sees the cell phone as a banking tool and the means of lifting the economic infrastructure of poor countries. Funded by the United Nations and World Bank, the ITU has a goal of getting a cell phone to every person in the world�by 2015. As Carl says to his team, �What does a clue look like, folks?�



While the ITU and others strategize from a financial standpoint, Carl sees technology developments as part of �God�s master plan.� He summarizes the progress toward completing Christ�s Great Commission: �When we finish 2,000 recordings by the year 2016, that will account for 97 percent of world speakers. And by 2025, all 6,809 languages will have a translation in progress. This can happen in our lifetime. How exciting is that!�



For more information about FCBH initiatives and their impact, visit www.intouch.org/magazine.





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History of Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH)



In 1972, Jerry Jackson�the organization�s president�and his wife Annette were missionaries on a Hopi reservation. They discovered a sizable stash of Hopi Bibles but realized the treasure was of little use, as the tribe was mostly illiterate.



The Jacksons understood that hearing Scripture in one�s �heart language� enables the listener to make a deep connection with it. So, with a goal of �providing the Word of God to poor and illiterate people in a culturally relevant format,� they founded the ministry under the name �Hosanna.� Their son Morgan came on board in 1983 and now serves as International Director.



Today FCBH partners with more than 145 Bible ministries to get God�s Word to �every tribe and tongue and people and nation�

(Rev. 5:9). As soon as an approved translation of the New Testament is finished, FCBH begins the audio version. Currently a new recording project starts every other day. And with 525 languages completed, FCBH is the world�s largest producer of audio Bibles.



Copyright 2011 In Touch Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. www.intouch.org. In Touch grants permission to print for personal use only.

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