In our Alternative Christmas Gifts catalogue of 2009 there was a gift ‘Change lives with a Bible on an MP3 player’. For just £8 you could ‘buy’ an MP3 containing the whole Bible.
The vision of the project is to place the Word of God in the homes of 100,000 Paraguayans in the form of specially designed audio players. These are the homes of 'oral learners' who retain information much more readily by listening, than by reading.
Tom Stout writes, ‘I have worked in the interior of Paraguay for over 15 years and I have seen first-hand how much more effective the Word of God is when it is presented in audio form.'
As the majority of rural Paraguayans are semi-literate but prefer to learn orally, they have not done much reading since they left school, so they are not comfortable with reading for getting information. With the Bible on MP3, the canon of Scripture can be preserved.
From a shipment of 1300 audio Bibles the first 758 audio Bibles were distributed with the help of 80 volunteers from 4 local churches from the distribution area. 'With the help of many Paraguayan partners we continue to learn how to be more effective and efficient in our distributions. We eagerly await the arrival of our next 9000 audio Bibles so we can begin their distribution.'
One of the recipients Alicia de Kira'yty says, ‘I love the audio Bible a lot. We often listen together as a family. Our kids listen to it because they understand all of that technical stuff. We are so grateful that you have made this player available to us. Thank you’
