..because the world's 36 million blind are not an endless pool of need,
but a vast reservoir of potential disciplemakers.
|
|
Come, behold the works of the Lord (Ps 46:8)!
Thursday, 11/18
A friend, Anna, introduces us to a winsome young Christian couple from India (we’ll call them S & J), recently moved to Knoxville after their arranged marriage. Her father, a blind schoolteacher, has a ministry to ~1000 blind folk, most of whom are non-Christian. His father, a sighted pastor – through arranging the marriage – has been moved to start a similar outreach in a neighboring Indian state. I wonder where this might lead! Please pray for direction as we meet with S & J.
Friday, 11/19
David, our SeedPlayer volunteer representative in Oregon, sets up a Zoom call with Tom. A retired marine, Tom was involved a few years back in an effort to get Scripture to less-open countries using several cutting edge technologies. While that effort didn’t initially reach its potential, Tom’s resulting contacts with Faith Comes By Hearing may be of great value in trying to secure access to their approximately 2000 audio New Testaments.
|
|
Monday, 11/22
David calls me. He has met Trevor, a former short-term worker in Kenya, now delivering packages for an Amazon subcontractor. They hatch a plan for 25 red Swahili and 25 green Maasai SeedPlayers (we try to use colors to regional and ethnic advantage) with at least the New Testament, for Pastor Samuel, a Kenyan missionary to the Maasai tribe. These will be built in Tennessee and shipped to Oregon, to be delivered to Brad, who leaves for Kenya in a week-and-a-half. We decide this can probably work -- if we run all three 3D printers flat out for several long days, can source and license the Scripture, and can assemble and get the shipment out before Thanksgiving. I crank up the printers.
Late in the afternoon, I send a request to Mark of Davar Partners, for a license and access to the Maasai audio Bible. It reminds me to also try to enlist Davar for partnership in the GAP goals of facilitating Scripture access. Mark responds almost immediately, sets up a future Zoom call, and asks me to submit a request through the Digital Bible Library, which I finish after supper.
Tuesday, 11/23
On waking, I discover that Nathan at Davar’s South Africa office granted access at 2 am (one of the upsides of cooperating globally). However, the downloaded Bible is too large (13GB) for the intended microSD cards, so I spend some time finding and learning software to automatically down-sample 1189 chapters inside their existing book folders. Then I manually rearrange the folders (from alphabetical to canon order) and begin duplicating microSD cards.
Trevor will call David on his package-delivery lunchbreak, and David, who is nominally retired (except for his near-full-time SeedPlayer gig), will drive to whatever town Trevor happens to be in to deliver a sample player (delivering to a delivery driver en route is stretching my brain a bit).
After supper, the 3D printers finish the cases, and Hannah, Beth, and I assemble SeedPlayers, hoping to make the last FedEx box cutoff (10 pm at the airport) to beat any Thanksgiving holiday slow-down. At 9:30 we realize it isn’t happening tonight.
Wednesday, 11/24
Since there is more time and room in the box, I throw in about a dozen players for David, who has an insatiable demand for handing them out to (almost) everyone he meets. I am delighted to see that FedEx says they can get the whole heavy package to Oregon in two days for a three-day, Saturday-delivery, heavily-discounted price of $22. Haven’t seen that before – I wonder if I could travel in a FedEx box?
|
|
We receive an excellent report from Lorrie, at RBI Philippines, regarding 100 MegaVoice players sent to them. They have now all been distributed by the blind disciplemakers, and there has been some touching feedback. This distribution emphasizes to me the need for three-level navigation for full-Bible players – something available with the higher-end MegaVoice players (and hopefully with our new design, as well).
Monday, 11/29
David and Brigitte have dinner with Trevor and his wife, and deliver the SeedPlayers. Trevor’s boss has found out about the 50 players and offers to cover the entire cost!
|
|
Wednesday, 12/1
Great call with Mark at Davar. We have a green light to use their materials in ministry. (Note: There is another incredible chapter to this story, but it must be saved, perhaps for Glory.)
Hanging up the phone with Mark, there is a totally unexpected email from Cru. After pursuing a license with them for months, we have been granted non-profit permission to distribute all their Jesus Film-related audio and video materials, for adults and children, free, worldwide, in all (~2000) languages! This is a huge answer to many prayers over many months.
On the flight to Kenya, Brad meets a Mennonite couple starting a two-year assignment among Swahili speakers; they express interest in the SeedPlayers. Brad, who speaks neither Maasai nor Swahili, stares at the yet unlabeled players, guesses red (correct!), and gives them one.
|
|
Thursday, 12/2
Brad, pulled aside in Kenyan customs, texts Trevor, who texts David, who calls me. We pray for Brad over the phone. [12/6 update: as various folk prayed, Brad explained to the customs officers that these were Bible players – gifts for pastors. They immediately handed back his passport and allowed him to proceed.]
Friday, 12/3
An email from China. After not hearing for a couple of weeks despite several inquiries, it looks like the new player design may be “back on track.” Would you pray that we would have some production in hand by the MissionConnexion conference mid-January in Oregon?
So why tell you all this?
- Most weeks aren’t like these; they are often a slog. But these have been special. And, like Nebuchadnezzar, "it has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done…" (Daniel 4:2).
- We love to see God’s work through His Body – through Anna, David, Hannah, Mark, S & J, Samuel, Tom, Trevor, Trevor’s boss, Brad, Lorrie, and many, many others!
- We need prayer and volunteers. David and I can’t begin to do justice to all the Lord seems to be opening up with RBI, SeedPlayer, and GAP. We need help with end-of-year receipting, telling the stories of God's faithfulness, administrative paperwork, downloading and reformatting Scripture content, database entry and updating, improving our processes, enlisting prayer cover, producing and assembling and shipping SeedPlayers, thinking through microfinance for the blind, shepherding disciplemakers overseas, and probably many other things we haven't considered. Maybe the Lord is prompting you to be a larger part of this adventure in the new year?
|
|
Blessings in Christ,
Joel
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.gif){kind=small}
