Rewind to 1439. Johannes Gutenberg has just created a printing system by combining other technologies and adding innovations of his own. Its impact will be profound.
But let's imagine an alternate outcome. In our revised history, there will be no posters, booklets, circulars, flyers, broadsheets, sermon reprints, pamphlets, handouts, tracts, or paperback books. Just lovely, durable, hardbound editions, costing $20 or more in today's currency.
What impact would this restriction have had on the spread of the Gospel? On your own faith journey?
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Estimates vary, but perhaps as many as 2/3 of the world's 7.5 billion people either prefer to learn by oral methods, or can't read.
Of these 5 billion oral learners, most can access Gospel content on cellphones or radio. However a significant fraction cannot or will not -- due to economic, cultural, or governmental restrictions, or because they are simply too distracted.
Various Gospel ministries make excellent audio players, but they start at about $20. Vast groups of the blind, students, prisoners, shut-in women, remote villages, the elderly, and others need a lower-cost solution. This is a critical hole in our outreach.
Historically, there were good cost-of-production reasons for this lack. But not now. The prices of memory chips, batteries, solar cells, and circuit boards have all drastically declined in the past few years.
The world will now happily sell you a player for less than $5, though it won't last long, and can't be easily recharged off the grid.
The good news is that this need for high-quality low-cost players is starting to be recognized by mission agencies and the ministries that distribute players. RBI is designing such a unit, and we are delighted that ministries like MegaVoice and others are also developing solutions.
We look forward to seeing what the next year or two brings for the blind and the rest of the world's oral learners through these new players.
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