Audio Bible United States
You've Got The Time
People need God's Word, but research by Gallup and Barna shows that Americans today are not getting it:
- Lack of time and being too busy are main reasons people give for not reading the Bible.
- 65% of adult Bible readers have never completed the New Testament.
- A small percentage of Christians read the Bible daily.
- A large percentage of Americans are actively seeking spiritual information.
The mission of Faith Comes By Hearing® in the USA is to get every person in a congregation into the Bible daily. To help leaders accomplish this, we have done word-for-word recordings of most translations in an exciting and enjoyable audio drama style and, most importantly, developed a program that stimulates congregation-wide listening at no cost to the church.
Visit the You've Got the Time website
God's Word in the Midst of Suffering
Shima knows suffering—two of three children killed in alcohol-related accidents and three rounds of chemotherapy for cancer—but so does her Jesus. The relationship she has with Christ keeps her going, as does the hope that her family will abandon the traditional beliefs that stifle most expressions of her faith.
Dear friends gave her a Navajo Proclaimer® to use with headphones while recovering from treatments. It is her way of keeping the Lord close through her battle with cancer in a manner that is inoffensive to family members who aren't yet willing to listen.
You’ve Got The Time Testimony
The Gathering Place, Mechanicsburg, PA
Pastor Duke Bendix
Pastor Bendix of The Gathering Place made a presentation to his congregation in August 2008 about the You've Got The Time listening program. He knew they were committed to supporting an audio recording of at least one book of the New Testament in a mother tongue for a people group who cannot read; he just didn't know to what degree.
The pastor asked everyone to pray and determine what they each wanted to contribute to the project financially. He had planned to approach them in one month to take up an offering.
After the pastor spoke about this fundraising opportunity, one of the men approached him about getting some of the other men together to remove the steam boiler and radiator units. The old church building had, at one time, been heated with a steam boiler and radiator units, which cost a lot of money to use. A couple of years ago they were able to replace those expensive units with forced-air, gas-heating units, cutting the cost of heating the building way down.
The men told the pastor of their idea to cut up the boiler and radiators into scrap iron pieces to sell as a way to raise money for the recording. The pastor said, "When I arrived on Sunday, there were large 'slices' of the steam boiler leaning against a tree along the side of the building. Also, two or three radiators were all ready to be sold as scrap iron!"
The amazing thing was that before all of the scrap pieces came to be on the church lawn they were kept in the dungeon-like basement. This meant that the sections of the steam boiler had to be carried up a set of stairs. The pieces were so heavy that the steps had to be reinforced in order to bear the weight of carrying the pieces out. Also, the dolly strap they used had broken a couple of times in the process because of the weight of each piece! And it had taken all the strength that the five men had to maneuver the boiler up out of the basement and onto the lawn.
Numerous other steam radiators also needed to be cut out and removed from the building. The group plans to sell all of the pieces giving the proceeds to help spread God's Word to the nations.
Thank you to The Gathering Place in Mechanicsburg, PA for their creativeness and willingness to help reach poor and illiterate people around the world with God's Word.
What Can a Penny Buy?
The Moken are known as sea gypsies and live in their boats along the coastal islands off the shores of Myanmar and Thailand. Though the written Bible has been available to them since 2002, the majority of them cannot read it even if they had one. Less than one percent are Christian.
To reach this people group with God’s Word, Cool Kids Ministries did something new this summer. As they ministered at vacation Bible schools around the US, they tried to get the children to realize ‘little is much when God is in it.’ Steve Haney said, “These children emptied their piggy banks, mom’s and dad’s piggy banks, and even went looking for pennies on the sidewalk.”
Children from one camp and six churches in Ohio and Missouri collected $2,744 (274,400 pennies, to be exact) to go toward recording the Moken Audio New Testament. Most of us think that pennies are worthless; but in the hands of the kids at Cool Kids Ministries, pennies are helping to bring God's Word to a people group who has largely never heard it before.
The children have seen that even though it's just a penny, it can make a difference. They want to have a part in seeing the Bible recorded in the Moken language. They want to make a difference in the lives of these precious souls. Some of them ask,
How close are we now? Will they have their Proclaimer soon?”
For more information about You’ve Got The Time, click here.
For more information about Cool Kids Ministries, click here.
Renewal Comes to a Church Family
Pastor John Hancock at Southwest Heights Baptist Church is excited about bringing the Word of God to an unreached part of the world. He says of his congregation, “I am even more excited about the renewal that has occurred within our own church family simply by taking the time to hear the heart of God through our Audio Bibles.”
A Truck Driver Couldn’t Put Down the Audio Bible
Tom at Mogadore Baptist Church is a truck driver and says, “Listening to the Bible is much nicer than trying to find something decent on the radio. He continues, “I have been trying to read the New Testament for two years with little success; but with the BibleStick I have had the pleasure of going through it in less than two months. At times I couldn’t put it down; I would listen to it on the way to work, during my lunch, and on the way home.”
The Audio Bible is making a big impact on Tom and he says,
At times it was like I was sitting next to a fishing boat with them—powerful stuff.”-- Tom at Mogadore Baptist Church
Children Raise Money for Four Villages
Pastor Richard Johnson at Radcliff Church of the Nazarene in Kentucky says that “The forty days from Easter to Pentecost for us were great.” The church usually averages around 40—45 people in Sunday morning worship. The pastor says that “lots of good stuff is coming out of everyone trying.” Some of the people downloaded the New Testament to their cell phones and listened as they drove. Others put it onto MP3 players so they could listen while they worked in the kitchen or their office. Pastor Johnson says, “Technology is great!”
On Pentecost, the pastor challenged the congregation to give at least $157.50 so they could support at least one village. He says, “One of the children asked if I would preach from the roof of the church if they raised enough for two villages.” When he agreed they decided to make it a competition for the children to see who could raise the more than $300.
Pastor Johnson says, “By Monday they had raised enough for the two villages;” but they even surpassed that by raising enough for more than four villages - $650.34! Pastor Johnson says “I spent that Sunday on the roof of my church preaching. It was great. Many of the neighborhood families came out on their porches to see what was going on.”
He ends by saying, “Our local newspaper carried the story on the front page of the newspaper.”
Eight Year Old Boy Listens Through the Night
Ana at Primera Baptist Church says it was a special day for her son, Samuel, when he first listened to the Bible. She says, “My son is legally blind and it is difficult for him to read his kid’s Bible. The first day that he listened to the Bible it was Spring Break. [At] about 10:00 PM I told him that he could listen to it for one hour. At 11:00 PM I told him that it was time to go to sleep; but he begged me for more time because he said he was learning a lot. I saw he was very interested so I let him stay longer.
“At 12:00 PM I was ready to take him to sleep and he told me ‘I know that God is so proud of me because I’m listening to the Bible and I cannot stop. It is very interesting and awesome. I like it so much and I am not sleepy because God is keeping me awake.’” Samuel was very enthusiastic when he said this to his Mother. Ana knew that the Holy Spirit was touching him. She “allowed him to listen longer and surely he had the energy to keep on going for a longer time.”
Ana continues saying, “At 3:00 PM he was still listening, but I had to tell him that he had to go to sleep and the next day he could continue.”
A Woman Finds the Time
Janie at Bethel Church says, “I am so thankful that God directed Pastor Mark to your ministry. What an awesome opportunity we were given to experience the New Testament on MP3. It has truly been a blessing to our entire congregation.
“In our hectic society, people find it more and more difficult to squeeze enough time out of their busy lifestyles to be in the Word. The MP3s have been so instrumental in helping to solve that problem for many of us, by giving us time to listen while driving to and from work…or out running errands. Personally, my husband and I listened mostly while having our breakfast or while taking a walk.
“I love the dramatization. It makes the Scriptures come alive. By having God’s Word in audio, I was able to absorb so much more of the Scriptures in a lot less time than it would have taken if I had sat down just to read them.”
