CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE NEED BIBLES

Globally there are millions of Christians that need Bibles. It is the Word of God that changes people’s hearts. A big word to describe that is SANCTIFICATION. Having a Bible helps a Christian grow in his/her Faith. A Bible enables any Christian to share the good news about Christ with others.

That we recognize this is evidenced by the global Bible translation effort. Bible translators keep at it year after year because they know how important it is for those people to have a Bible, at least a New Testament in their language.

Christians who read need printed Bibles. Christians who do not read need their Bible in audio. Thank God for the Bible Societies and those organizations like the Gideons providing printed Bibles in many different languages for those who read.

With the proliferation of various digital listening devices, we must now engage in a global, cooperative effort to provide the Bible, or a New Testament, in audio for the millions of Christians who do not read. Every translated New Testament must be made available in audio. This should be among our highest priorities in world mission involving a participation by churches in every country, including our own.

Naturally, we commend our digital Talking Bible to be among the best. It should be because we designed it so that non-literate people and the blind would find it easy to use. Even the appearance of the Talking Bible conveys a message that the person who has one has in his/her hand the very Word of God.

I hope readers will join me in praying for a great awakening among Christian leaders and among those with the financial means to support making the Word of God available to Christians everywhere.

Christians everywhere need Bibles. Readers need printed Bibles. Non-readers need Talking Bibles.

Because they need to hear,

Harvey Hoekstra – Harvey@talkingbibles.org

www.talkingbibles.org

Goal: AN ANNUAL TALKING BIBLE SUNDAY IN EVERY CHURCH TO HELP PRO VIDE TALKING BIBLES FORF NON-READERS AND THE BLIND

ON BEING A CREDIBLE VOICE AT THE TABLE

At my age, one does a lot of reminiscing about one's experiences. I frequently find myself praising God for how He led me to form a 501C3 organization first called Audio Scriptures and later renamed Talking Bibles. I praise Him for leading my two youngest sons, Mark and Paul, to join this ministry and serve as President and Vice President.

I praise God for how he gave Mark the vision that gave us the world's first Talking Bible a decade ago. I marvel at how Paul suggested that technical people he knew in India could put feet to Mark's ideas.

In retrospect, that first Talking Bible was like a miracle in that an entire New Testament was on a single cassette sealed inside. But, in fact, it was soon to be upgraded to become a beautiful, easy to use, digital listening device with a New Testament or even an entire Bible in audio all on a tiny micro-chip.

They trademarked this Bible-shaped, black and gold listening device with the name "TALKING BIBLE." They wanted this listening device to be protected so that anyone receiving one would know from its name and its appearance that it was, in fact, an audio Bible with an authentic recording of Scripture in whatever language it spoke.

And here they are, ready to manufacture the first 1,000 upgraded Talking Bible for field testing, powered by solar, smaller in size and much cheaper in price.

By the grace and providence of God, we were among the first saying that every translated New Testament should be recorded in audio and made available for non-readers, especially Christians, and for the blind.

In considering how this can be accomplished, I believe we bring a lot of credibility to the table. Having been a Bible translator, we recognize how essential it is that such a costly, sacrificial, disciplined effort requiring years to accomplish be made available, not only in print, but in audio for non-readers and to make it possible for struggling, poor readers to become better readers. Having lived among them, we know how pastors with Talking Bibles now preach better and from passages previously out of bounds because reading from them was too difficult giving limited understanding.

We are convinced that the various national Bible Societies and the relatively small number of audio ministries need to cooperate with one another in this task. We must seek ways to share our recordings for use in any of these ministries so that time, money and effort need not be wasted unnecessarily. We must all self-examine our ministries to be sure we are not inadvertently or, even, intentionally obstructing another ministry's desire to make a particular recording available in its own listening device.

Because of our history, it might well be that Talking Bibles International needs to lead the way in seeking an equitable solution to questions relating to copyrights and how we can share our original recordings with one another called of God into our various audio Scripture ministries.

I invite all who read this to join me in prayer over these important considerations.

Because they need to hear,

Harvey Hoekstra - harvey@ talkingbibles.org

www.talkingbibles.org

Goal: AN ANNUAL TALKING BIBLE SUNDAY IN THOUSANDS OF CHURCHES TO HELP PROVIDE FUNDING FOR TALKING BIBLES IN EVERY LANGUAGE

ON BEING A CREDIBLE VOICE AT THE TABLE

At my age, one does a lot of reminiscing about one's experiences. I frequently find myself praising God for how He led me to form a 501C3 organization first called Audio Scriptures and later renamed Talking Bibles. I praise Him for leading my two youngest sons, Mark and Paul, to join this ministry and serve as President and Vice President.

I praise God for how he gave Mark the vision that gave us the world's first Talking Bible a decade ago. I marvel at how Paul suggested that technical people he knew in India could put feet to Mark's ideas.

In retrospect, that first Talking Bible was like a miracle in that an entire New Testament was on a single cassette sealed inside. But, in fact, it was soon to be upgraded to become a beautiful, easy to use, digital listening device with a New Testament or even an entire Bible in audio all on a tiny micro-chip.

They trademarked this Bible-shaped, black and gold listening device with the name "TALKING BIBLE". They wanted this listening device to be protected so that anyone receiving one would know from its name and its appearance that it was, in fact, an audio Bible with an authentic recording of Scripture in whatever language it spoke.

And here they are, ready to manufacture the first 1,000 upgraded Talking Bible for field testing, powered by solar, smaller in size and much cheaper in price.

By the grace and providence of God, we were among the first saying that every translated New Testament should be recorded in audio and made available for non-readers, especially Christians, and for the blind.

In considering how this can be accomplished, I believe we bring a lot of credibility to the table. Having been a Bible translator, we recognize how essential it is that such a costly, sacrificial, disciplined translation effort requiring years to accomplish be made available, not only in print, but in audio for non-readers and to make it possible for struggling, poor readers to become better readers. Having lived among them, we know, also, how pastors with Talking Bibles now preach better and from passages previously out of bounds for them because reading from them was too difficult giving them limited understanding.

Now we are convinced that the various national Bible Societies and the relatively small number of audio ministries need to cooperate with one another in this task. We must seek ways to share our recordings for use by any of these ministries so that time, money and effort need not be wasted unnecessarily. We must all self-examine our ministries to be sure we are not inadvertently or, even, intentionally obstructing another ministry's desire to make a particular recording available in its own listening device.

Because of our history, it might well be that Talking Bibles International needs to lead the way in seeking an equitable solution to questions relating to copyrights and how we can share our original recordings with one another, called of God, into our various audio Scripture ministries.

I invite all who read this to join me in prayer over these important considerations.

Because they need to hear,

Harvey Hoekstra - harvey@ talkingbibles.org

www.talkingbibles.org

Goal: AN ANNUAL TALKING BIBLE SUNDAY IN THOUSANDS OF CHURCHES TO HELP PROVIDE FUNDING FOR TALKING BIBLES IN EVERY LANGUAGE

ON MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRIST'S MISSION

Our Lord Jesus, made it very clear as to what mission he was commissioning his disciples to carry out. The "what" is very clear. The "how" would be as varied as the circumstances and people involved. We are now obeying Christ's Great Commission to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations in ways we once never could have dreamed of or envisaged. With modern technology linking the peoples of the world together as never before, the "how" of World Mission has changed dramatically.

Even traditional facets of doing World Mission are changed and will continue to change. For example, we now have the global internet giving non-Christians the opportunity to learn what the Christian religion is all about. International Radio and TV programs reach additional millions of people. And there are ipods and cell phones everywhere with Scripture in different languages and the spoken messages about Christ.

And the Bible translation effort itself is increasingly being done by well-educated nationals. The end product is improved and the years required to complete a translation are significantly reduced. But, the most dramatic change lies in the audio listening devices making these precious, costly translations available to non-readers and the blind and to those struggling to become better readers of God's Word. And we are all blessed as we enjoy listening to our Talking Bibles speaking God's Word.

So how does it all take place? The "how" of World Mission is by and large made possible by churches and individuals who pray and give.

It is tempting to focus on supporting primarily the live persons involved in particular aspects of "World Mission". Such support is essential, but it's not the whole story. We need to be reminded that these live mission participants, in many cases, need the equipment and tools that make their ministries possible or to be effective.

I'm thinking, of course, of Talking Bibles. They must first be designed, tooled and manufactured before people engaged in "World Mission" making disciples "of all nations" have this marvelous listening device with God's Word in audio in a needed language available to them, making their ministries more effective.

Contributors sometimes are comfortable making their donation to support people involved, but have less interest in funding the costs involved in producing the tools their mission partners need to make their ministries most effective. The up-front costs involved in manufacturing the Talking Bible illustrate my point.

I hope readers will join me in praying for God's provision to enable us to immediately manufacture the new, updated version of our beautiful Talking Bible which embraces the latest digital technology and is solar powered. A thousand units are urgently needed right now to provide other ministries with this wonderful listening device for which they are waiting.

Because they need to hear,

Harvey Hoekstra --

harvey@talkingbibles.org

www. talkingbibles.org

Goal:

An annual Talking Bible Sunday in thousands of churches to help provide Talking Bibles in needed languages for non-readers and the blind.

SHORT TERM MISSION AND TALKING BIBLES

The paradigm for doing world mission has changed. The era when missionaries from the West were almost the only people crossing linguistic and cultural barriers to make disciples among unreached peoples has dramatically changed. Today there are thousands of missionaries going out from churches in non-western countries. And the gospel is being proclaimed via international radio, television, the internet and various digital listening devices.

During our time millions continue to come to faith in Christ with small and large churches coming into being in Africa, India, South America, China and among many other linguistic groupings. Many of these Christians are people of an oral culture.

To become knowledgeable and able, both to defend their faith and to communicate the message about Christ to others, they need Bibles. The problem is that a printed Bible is virtually useless to them because they do not read. Even though the New Testament has been translated in their languages and printed, the number of readers is very small in comparison with the vast majority who do not read. They are people of an oral culture and many, if not most of them, will not become readers even if we have the best possible literacy programs. And our experience is that when a non-reading Christian has a Talking Bible that person is sometimes motivated to want to learn to read the printed text.

But, there is good news for everyone. With the many digital listening devices like the Talking Bible, these Christians who do not read can be given immediate access to God's Word when these NT translations are recorded and made available as Talking Bibles.

This is where Short Term Missions can shine. Talking Bibles International, based in Escondido, California has designed a backpack, recording studio to enable one to record a single voice narration of a New Testament where professional studios are either unavailable or perhaps to inaccessible for potential narrators or too costly to use.

A week of intensive training, will enable anyone with normal skills to go anywhere in the world and record a New Testament. When that audio recording is completed using the backpack studio, it will then be formatted in our facility in Escondido to become a Talking Bible in that language.

So here's my challenge! Is this something God may be calling you to consider doing? Would your church be open to finance your going out for this kind of Short Term Mission? We will do the training and coordination required if you and your church will engage with us in such a challenging Short Term Mission project.

For more info call 1-800-318-7262 and ask for Mark. Or visit the website:www.talkingbibles.org

Because they need to hear,

Harvey Hoekstra - harvey@talkingbibles.org

Goal: AN ANNUAL TALKING BIBLE SUNDAY IN THOUSANDS OF CHURCHES TO HELP PROVIDE TALKING BIBLES FOR NON-READERS AND THE BLIND

TALKING BIBLES MAKE NEW MISSIONARIES

We live in an exciting new "information age". It is breath-taking to ponder what already is a fact and to envision the unparalleled opportunities before us.

Make yourself aware of the tremendous growth of the church in the non-western world. Millions of new believers who need Bibles in audio because they do not read.

Envision: Millions of Christians receiving Talking Bibles.

Envision: Millions of Christians going out to distant neighbors and beyond to share the good news about Christ using their Talking Bibles.

Among those going out, some cross the linguistic barrier when a bi-lingual person hears and relays the message to others speaking his/her language.

I saw this happen in the cassette era in Ethiopia. A middle aged man who did not read and who was a recent convert himself, came in one day with a knotted grass string on which there were 105 knots. A larger knot near the middle told the story. Each knot represented a new believer. The larger knot showed that half of these new believers were from a neighboring, previously unreached, people group.

That's what is happening with the Talking Bible. The gospel spreads rapidly when we equip non-reading believers with Talking Bibles in their languages. With their Talking Bibles, this is how the gospel will be carried to the ends of the earth.

In our American churches, our responsibility and opportunity is to provide Talking Bibles to our new brothers and sisters in Christ. They will be like missionaries as they share. Their Talking Bibles gives instruction, gives confidence and actually creates the opportunity.

I pray our churches will be informed and inspired to pray for and financially support this kind of global effort. And on Talking Bible Sundays, churches will be thrilled and inspired as they hear the testimonies from those who tell what God is doing. May God be thanked and praised.

Because they need to hear,

Harvey Hoekstra - harvey@talkingbibles.org

www.talkingbibles.org

Goal: An Annual Talking Bible Sunday in Every Church to Provide Talking Bibles for these New Missionaries Going Out to "the ends of the earth."