Tyler and Emily in PNG

In the first six weeks of the New Year God has given me opportunities to get my feet wet in recording scripture and utilizing technology such as AudiBible and HearThis.

The latter part of 2014, men from the Tay language which recently dedicated their New Testament last July were in town to record the New Testament with their advisor. They were not able to completely finish the recording but they left the files and data so I could compile and transfer to the AudiBibles. (The AudiBible is a small digital audio player that includes a solar panel on the back.) I was able to complete this task last month and now have three AudiBibles with much of the recorded Tay New Testament ready to go back to the village. The process was not as complicated as originally thought and went smoothly. Once the whole New Testament is recorded it will be a simple process to transfer the remaining scripture to micro SD and insert into the AudiBible. The Tay people will not only have the printed text but will have a recorded version as well. PTL!

The second opportunity for recording came rather quickly. The Mborena Kam language group are struggling to finish their New Testament. They are very close but there are a few small hang-ups in the text. It was presented to bring in three guys from the village to record parts of 1 Corinthians and the book of Mark. Then we will take the recorded scripture back to the village for testing to see if what has been recorded is true and correct. The neat thing about this is we are using for the first time a new recording program called HearThis. It is a SIL program that integrates with translation software, Paratext.

The photo below shows the text to be recorded in yellow. The speaker records only the yellow text otherwise known as a block. The next line below the yellow text will advance forward and be the next block to be recorded. In the end, you simply click ‘Publish’ and the program will join all the blocks together to form a single chapter of recorded scripture.

The third opportunity will be a training and technology conference in Australia. I plan on traveling to Australia in April to attend the PacTech Consultant. The focus will be to learn more about the program, HearThis as well as other developing technologies such as putting scripture on smartphones like the mobile app YouVersion. The conference is a joint venture between SIL and Every Tribe Every Nation which PBT was invited to attend. It will be a good opportunity for me as well as PBT to learn more about the cutting edge technologies that are changing how we can reach the Bibleless language groups.

It is exciting to see how fast technology is changing and growing that brings new avenues into the arena of Scripture Impact. Probably the greatest impact of the recent years has been the mobile phone and smartphone movement in developing countries. I look forward to learning more about how God can use me to fulfill His promise to the nations.