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Making Disciples with the Uzbek Bible App

November 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Uzbek Bible App in Cyrillic Text
Uzbek Bible App in Cyrillic Text

    We have heard from many workers in the field who are using Bible apps to help unreached people groups to engage with God’s Word. This term unreached people group refers to an ethnic group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers (less than 2% of the population) and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance. Language and culture often cause barriers of understanding and acceptance. The Joshua Project provides information about such groups including the Uzbek people group.
    Please read this article to see how God is using technology to help reach the unreached. The Uzbek Bible app in this article was made using Scripture App Builder, the software that Chris helps support and develop.

    A group of grandmothers gather together to study the Bible, pray, sing, and fellowship. They meet once a month to encourage one another and to share the good news of Christ with the new ladies who are brave enough to attend. This is not your typical Bible study. It is special because this particular group consists entirely of Muslim-background followers of Christ. … One of the grandmothers starts to preach. She wants everyone to turn to a certain passage in the Bible. … ‘All of a sudden, these old ladies whipped out their smartphones and quickly navigated to the passage in the Bible. They didn’t miss a beat!’.

(read the full article by Feruza Krason)
Filed Under: Mobile

Partners in Scriptoria

November 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment

    We started work on Scriptoria in the spring of 2018. We completed the minimum viable product (MVP) back in April and made Scriptoria generally available. We are so thankful to Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) for providing the funds to hire DeveloperTown to assist with making the software. While working with them, we started to learn what we would need to know to continue the work. Over the summer and fall, we have been working on fixing bugs and adding features to make it work well (more than just the minimum 👍).   
    We have also been making changes needed for our partners: Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), Kalaam Media, and Scripture Earth. Both FCBH and Kalaam have hundreds of apps that they are currently maintaining on their own. They have so many, that Chris is working on some special code to make it easy for them to create all the projects and in Scriptoria. We are looking forward to these partners being more productive using Scriptoria!

Filed Under: Language Software

Gospel Films

July 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Faith Comes By Hearing presents about Gospel Films at EMDC

    Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) was at EMDC and presented on a new partnership that they have with the LUMO Project. Gospel Films are a ground-breaking, multi-language biblical resource that will transform the way people around the world discover, study, and engage with God’s Word.
    For the first time, the complete unabridged text of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have been faithfully brought to life in visual form by the LUMO Project. FCBH is combining this compelling cinematic portrayal of the life of Jesus with their word-for-word audio Scriptures in the languages of the world.
    Using the complete recorded audio Scripture greatly simplifies the process compared to the JESUS Film. The latter requires a lot of work to create a script based on the Gospel of Luke and lip-synch the recorded dialog (which often requires re-recording) so that it matches with the video. This is very time consuming and requires expensive audio/video editing software and experienced people. There are adjustments that have to be made due to the length of the audio for a section. The LUMO Project accounted for this and have different lengths of scenes to be able to accommodate.
    Both the LUMO Project and FCBH are freely sharing these videos* and allowing them to be distributed in many forms. They can also be embedded in or streamed to Scripture apps created using Scripture App Builder. It is exciting to see how these videos will impact the spread of the Gospel in many language communities where this might be the very first film available in their language. Try out the Gospel Films in the New International Version (1984).

*There are certain limitations on the distribution of some majority language versions in some regions. However, there are virtually no restrictions for minority language versions.

Filed Under: Content

Crossing the Finish Line

July 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment

  In early April, Chris traveled to The Netherlands for the Eurasia Media Distribution Consultation (EMDC). This is the conference that Chris has attended for the last 4 years which alternates between Thailand and The Netherlands. About half of the participants are on-the-ground language workers, church planters, etc. and the other half are either service providers (like Chris) or media experts/providers.
Similar to previous years, Chris spent the first four days assisting with the Mobile Apps for Ministry training track which help attendees learn about designing, developing, and marketing mobile apps. There were also sessions on using Scripture App Builder to create apps using their existing content (including video — see about Gospel Films). The days were busy with training, answering questions, and helping attendees with projects. The evenings were filled with preparation for releasing Scriptoria during the main part of the conference.
    When Chris left the United States, there was still quite a bit of work left to do. With the help of his colleague back in West Virginia, David Moore, they were able to complete changes necessary for the initial software release, deploy the new software to Amazon Web Services, and migrate all the projects (over 600) from the previous Scripture App Publishing Service to Scriptoria.
    While at the conference, Chris was able to talk with several organizations (like Faith Comes By Hearing) interested is using the service. We are now working with them to add their apps to the service and to develop features they will need to best utilize the service. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to use the skills you have given to provide more access to your Word to more of your people!

Filed Under: Language Software

Worth the Sacrifice

March 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment

We have been wanting to share this video for a while. It was recorded two years ago and at that time, they thought the Bible translation would be completed at the end of 2017 for the Kwoma* people.
    Chris contacted the translation consultant at the end of last year to get an update that we could share with you and see how we could pray for them and their team in Nigeria. The consultant shared with us that there have been setbacks that have delayed the completion (which is common when approaching the finish line). God is faithful though! They have recently completed the translation of the New Testament and hope it will be published early this year. You can learn more and pray for the Kwoma people (and others) in The Finish Line Africa 2019 prayer guide.
*name changed to protect the people

    Ben and Renee Kuwitzky — along with their four kids — live in Jos, Nigeria. Ben serves as a translation consultant working with Nigerian translators, helping ensure that the translation is being communicated in a natural and clear way. Renee serves on the care team while also homeschooling their kids. 
    Although living overseas has its challenges and difficulties, Ben and Renee believe it’s worth the sacrifice so that people can receive Scripture in their own language. And when they see people excited about God’s Word in their own language, they are once again reminded why their work is important. 
Wycliffe’s mission is to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by 2025.

Filed Under: Missions Tagged With:

Approaching the Finish Line

March 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment

   Prayer is vital for Bible translation to move forward and is especially critical during the final stages of the process. A pattern of increasing spiritual opposition toward getting the work finished often emerges. We see this even in software projects! Last year, we had some significant technical hurdles to overcome. We asked you to pray and God answered! Chris and his colleagues were able to reach that goal and receive valuable feedback from their partners.
    The finish line is quickly approaching for the release of this major upgrade to the Scripture App Publishing Service (now called Scriptoria) and we need your prayers again. This release is planned to be made during the Eurasia Media Distribution Consultation (EMDC) in early April.
    We have experienced some personal challenges over the past few weeks which has hindered progress for Chris. Michelle was very sick for a week with the flu (and still recovering) so Chris had to take care of her and the family and didn’t have much time for work. Then, Chris was in an accident which totaled the car. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Filed Under: Missions