“No one in your household has an audio copy of the Scriptures?” I asked the visiting woman. “Neither your husband nor your parents-in-law can read? What about your next-door neighbors?” I persisted.
“No,” she answered.
“How do you know what God says and grow in your faith if you can’t hear His Word?” I asked.
“Oh,” she assured me, “We hear it in church on Sunday.”
I asked, “What would happen to your body if you only ate one meal a week?” “Wouldn’t you starve to death? What do you think happens to your relationship with God if you only hear from Him once a week?”
Unfortunately, hers is not an isolated case. In a small community of third-generation believers, we are discovering a surprising ignorance of the Bible. Even though the New Testament in both print and audio has been available since 2016, many professing Christians are illiterate and do not even have access to the audio Scriptures.
The Christians among this people group are a real minority. There are thousands upon thousands more who have never heard the Good News. How will they hear?
Translation of the Word is an absolute necessity, but it is not the end goal itself. Producing a translation is not enough. We don’t want a pile of Bibles gathering dust in an office somewhere. Instead, the message must be both available and accessible so that it can go out into communities and bring transformation.
We need literacy workers who can develop reading materials, educate locals how to teach their own people to read, and build a sustainable literacy program. Over 95% of the people here are illiterate, so we need to rely heavily on producing audio materials.
But, as seen in the opening vignette, mere production does not automatically translate into access. The message will not go out unless there are messengers who promote and distribute the Bible in both paper and audio versions. And even more importantly, there must be Christians living out the gospel in everyday life.
Finally, and most vitally, we need prayer warriors—people who are willing to sacrifice a million other pursuits for unglamorous hours in their closet. For unless the Spirit of God quickens the hearts that hear the message, there will be no resulting life and fruit.
—RS, Madara project