..because the world's 36 million blind are not an endless pool of need,
but a vast reservoir of potential disciplemakers.
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Sometimes when my love grows cold, the Lord brings a gentle reminder of the need out there, beyond our immense security in Christ in “the happy land of the Trinity.”
This time it came in the form of a YouTube video purported to be of some of the last hunter-gatherers on earth, in Tanzania. A travel blogger was interviewing one; he pressed him: “What is most important in life?” The man's only real response: “Meat, honey, and water.” Death was an unknown, and the skies were brass. This is a reminder to me of our call to get the Gospel out, “far and wide and fast,” as my friend David likes to say. Audio players are one good way to do this, particularly for niche groups without phones, like, say, hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.
This reminds me of another story from Tanzania. A Christian worker described to me how he sells microSD cards loaded with Scripture, at cost, to Masai tribesmen and others who come to his gate. In that economy, cards are highly valued for use in cellphones. This worker tried software-locking the cards to prevent people from erasing the Scripture to make room for their music and family photos, but found that buyers would sometimes destroy the card while trying to unlock it. So he settled on a western marketing approach – leave considerable room on the card for the recipient’s personal use, much as you might buy a hard-drive back in the day and get a free copy of AOL’s greatest hits. So he buys cards by the thousand and loads at least a couple of New Testament books (from each of the 70 or so languages spoken in that linguistic melting pot), while still leaving room for family photos.
But that isn’t the point of this story. Like RBI, he has had difficulty licensing Scripture content in some languages. So he has resorted to getting it however he can – cracking open devices, loading Scripture from bootleg websites, or, like the persistent widow, badgering content owners until, in exasperation, they tell him, “Here’s the password to the download site; just get the files.” I am not advocating this approach, but it is one more example of our broken Scripture-distribution system, and that too many content owners see themselves as publishing houses (focused on the bottom line), rather than early Bible societies (eager to distribute). Yes, the work of translation must be paid for, but couldn’t we build that into the production cost, not the essentially costless copying and distribution of audio files? Hence, one of the reasons for Gospel Access Partners.
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Let’s end on a positive note, shall we? We told you last month about our virtual camp for Philippine blind folk, necessitated by COVID travel lockdowns. Using Zoom, I was able to log on briefly to bring greetings. It was a very touching and completely surreal moment when Joyce, who is blind, asked the other attendees, all blind, to turn on their phone cameras, so that I could see them. So, 47 folk spent many hours over a couple of days being encouraged by one another and exhorted from God’s Word. Thanks for your part in that!
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Blessings in Christ,
Joel
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