Audio Bible Distribution

Dan Reich was up in Asuncion for a couple of days and invited me to join the group handing out Audio Bibles in one of the rural villages outside of Yuty after church on Sunday.  I jumped at the chance as I have heard so much about SIM Paraguay’s Audio Bible work.

The idea was conceived a couple of years ago to make Bibles Paraguayans could listen to rather than read.  Whilst literacy levels aren’t really low, Paraguay is not a nation, generally, drawn to reading, instead people prefer to share information through speaking.  You could hand out written Bibles but they could, conceivably remain on a shelf unread.

Whilst audio Bibles exist in Spanish, there is nothing like hearing God’s Word in your heart language, so SIM Paraguay recorded the whole Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible in the Guarani language (with various voice actors and sound effects to bring the accounts to life) and put them all on custom built MP3 players designed by a Chinese company they know.  You can find out more about the project here on the SIM website (and also here on the project website) and ways to support and raise money to distribute hundreds of thousands.

On Sunday we had about 160 to hand out, and it wasn’t a case of just dropping them off impersonally, but rather speaking to each recipient and explain how to work them, and share their own faith with them in the process.  To do this church members from San Francisco travelled down by motorbike and 4x4 to join others from the Yuty church to go out in teams of 2.  There must have been about 30 of us.

Getting kitted out.

When the group split up and went out two by two it reminded me of Jesus sending out the 72 followers to proclaim The Kingdom of God is near you, as recorded in Luke chapter 10.  They were heading out into the dusty, hot roads, with God’s power, a day similar to what the followers in 30AD faced.  Only here whilst some walked, others went on motorbikes.

Heading out in twos!

Whilst the town is in range to hear the Reiches popular weekly Bible radio show transmitted from Yuty, this could have been for most the first time the locals would have heard the Truth.  There is a Roman Catholic chapel in the village, but in the rural areas, whilst most call themselves Catholic, they are actually animistic as they mix in local superstitious beliefs and witch doctor teachings and drape over it a mixed-up belief of the errors that Roman Catholics believe about idolatry.

To illustrate the faulty teaching of Rome, and the melding of local beliefs, one lady rejected the Audio Bible as she said she was “close to the Virgin of Caacupé” (an ‘appearance’ of the Virgin Mary in Caacupé, a place which about 300,000 Paraguayans make a pilgrimage to a year), and she believed the Virgin would not like her accepting a Bible!  She believed the Mary, who we know only about through the Holy Bible, wouldn’t want her to have a Bible!  Such deception was heartbreaking, but the good news is that only a couple of people refused the Bibles.  Most families were thankful to get them, and seemed keen.  We’re hoping and praying many families will listen to God’s Word in their own language, and God will do great things in the village, and people will join the Bible studies put on by the Floyds.  It was great to be able to see people listen to the first verses of Genesis (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”) and think of them as now hearing from God through His Word besides the general revelation of Him they have had since birth.  Exciting times!

Here are some more pictures of the great day:

An older man receives his Audio Bible

He had a cross above his door, but didn't seem to know what it really meant

Hannes and Mr Floyd heading out by bike.

A man and his granddaughter are introduced to their Audio Bible.

Facing the foliage to get to more isolated huts.

A kid in the rear view mirror.

As the Reich kids and the Floyd kids were together, there was much jocularity going on back at the base!