God's Word in Audio - Testimonies
Faith Comes By Hearing associates gather information and testimonies about what God is doing in and through Audio Bible listening programs in the heart language.
Audio Bibles for the Blind
Faith Comes By Hearing has a close relationship with the Ukrainian Bible Society, an important ministry partner in the former Soviet Union.
The listening program in Ukraine started modestly in 2002 for some of the neediest children – blind children attending specialized boarding schools, who had no access to spiritual material. Faith Comes By Hearing listening programs are very popular in these boarding schools for the blind; so much so that the school in Lviv had to replace their Audio New Testament because they played it so frequently! Ukraine Bible Society is also reaching out to the country’s estimated 12,000 unregistered blind children who do not attend the special schools. Typically, this outreach starts with a visit to the pastor of the village church, where field workers obtain the names and addresses of disabled children who live in these small communities.
At first, some of the teachers, principals, and government officials had reservations about incorporating FCBH into school curriculum for fear that it might proselytize one denomination to the detriment of others. Over time, however, they realized that the program contains only the pure Word of God. When the Minister of Education was convinced that the Audio Bible listening program does not discriminate among denominations, he asked the Bible Society to expand the program to include some schools for the non-disabled.
After the Orange Revolution in 2004, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko decreed that schools should teach a new subject, Christian Ethics. Ukraine Bible Society was able to take advantage of this new platform for evangelism and obtain historic permission from the Ukrainian government, allowing the Bible Society to establish FCBH listening groups in every school (and prison) in the country.
Today, FCBH Ukrainian and Russian Audio Bibles are an integral part of the Christian Ethics curriculum for children throughout the country, helping to bring the Good News to an entire generation.
Ukraine’s rates of literacy and technological development are comparable to those of the U.S., but high levels of literacy and sophistication do not lessen the appeal of the Audio Bible programs. The General Secretary of the Bible Society recalls a conversation he overheard between two Ukrainian boys. One child invited his friend over to play computer games. To his surprise, the friend declined, saying, “I am planning to go with my mom and dad to my neighbor’s house because they have the Audio New Testament and we are going to listen to it.”
