Digital Bible on Phone - Too Happy to Hide It

From Bob Creason, President/CEO, Wycliffe USA

Moise Yonta joyfully read aloud a Scripture portion on his smartphone, punctuating the phrases with vigorous gestures. This was God’s Word in his mother tongue—the Ngiemboon language of Cameroon—and he was seeing it on his phone for the first time! As he came to the end of the selection, he jumped up and delightedly shook hands with a colleague. With a huge grin, he exclaimed, “Wonderful! Wonderful!”

It was indeed wonderful!  Moise, who works with the Cameroonian Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL), was the coordinator for the Ngiemboon translation project.  Since the New Testament was dedicated in 2007, he’s used both the printed and audio version, but gaining access to the digital version took his experience to a whole new level!

He says, “I was so happy that I couldn’t hide it! Immediately I applied the lesson we learnt by selecting a verse and sending it to my dear wife, and she was happy to receive it.” 

  

Matthew 1 in the Ngiemboon
language of Cameroon 

Now when Moise travels, he carries the Scriptures with him on his phone. His special joy is helping others access God’s Word the same way.  He encourages them to get the written Scriptures from YouVersion and the audio version from Faith Comes By Hearing.  At the request of his pastor and church elders, he is preparing a training course for his church on how to use cell phones for evangelization, and CABTAL would like him to present the same course to other churches as well.

Moise is one of more than 650 million cell phone subscribers in Africa, where cell phone service is far more available than landlines. As I’ve traveled, I’ve often found better service in Africa than I get in my own home in Orlando, Florida. I have no doubt that God is behind the development of digital technology, and while cell phones are used worldwide for communications, financial transactions, healthcare, and much more, I believe that God also intended this technology to support the distribution of His Word.

Some of you have heard about the Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) alliance. ETEN brings together a group of philanthropic investors/donors and three Bible agencies—the American Bible Society (representing the United Bible Societies), Biblica, and Wycliffe USA (representing SIL and The Seed Company).  The initiative was launched by Mart Green, a long-time friend of Wycliffe who is passionate about Scripture engagement. ETEN’s vision is to eradicate Bible poverty worldwide in this generation. 

The primary focus of ETEN is the development of the Digital Bible Library (DBL), which was officially launched in December 2012. As of August 2013, the DBL holds 535 texts—including the Ngiemboon Bible that Moise reads— all standardized for easy downloading and secured against improper use or corruption. Wycliffe/TSC and SIL have contributed more than 290 texts so far and many more are on the way.

In addition to overseeing the progress of the DBL, the investors/donors also provide financial support to accelerate the completion of translations and add texts to the library. Last year Wycliffe (along with The Seed Company and SIL) was pleased to receive major funding designated for the completion of translation projects in difficult-to-fund and sensitive areas of the world. 

If you haven’t already downloaded the YouVersion application to your phone, I’d encourage you to try it.  Among the hundreds of versions, I’m sure you’ll find one that speaks to you, and—like Moise—you’ll be able to take your Bible with you wherever you go. Then when you have a moment, you can grab it, soak up the Word, and grow!

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #  # # # # #

YouVersion @ bible.com is a simple, ad-free Bible that brings God's Word into your daily life. A free Bible on your phone, tablet, and computer.

Faith Comes By Hearing now has Scripture recordings in 746 languages.
Free Audio Bible Download

July-August 2013 WattsLine Posted

Note: 

My July-August 2013 WattsLine 

was posted under Newsletters.

Summer 2013 Summary

 

June 10-21: Child Evangelism Fellowship - “Teaching Children Effectively” course, 4 hours per day.  This was a great refresher, prep to better serve with a weekly Yaounde neighborhood Bible Club.  Topics included: The Child in the New Testament, Importance of Conversion, How to Lead a Child to Christ, Scripture Memorization, Visual Communication, Bible Lesson Preparation & Presentation, Reaching the Child in the Neighborhood, Importance of the Teacher, Teaching with Music, Wordless Book, Effective Sunday School, Counseling a Child for Salvation, Organizing a Good News Club, Discipline, Teaching Children to Pray, Encouraging the Newly Converted Child, and practicum presentations.  
The "Teaching Children Effectively” course is offered by Child Evangelism Fellowship throughout the United States and around the world.   

 “Peter” prays for  “Dorcas”

“Dorcas” restored to life and “Peter” helps her up.

At our neighborhood Bible Club, we often help children understand Bible stories via dramatization.

 On August 3rd at Bible Club, we honored co-teacher Sandy Mitchell (seated in green) the last week before her retirement and return to the U.S. The children absolutely love to color Bible Story pictures. (Some do not have crayons at home.)

Praising God that 12 children at our Tropicana neighborhood Bible Club in Yaounde prayed to invite Christ into their hearts on July 20 and others during other weekly sessions. Please join me in praying for the growth and maturing of these new Christians and pray for our club staff as we minister with these youngsters.

 Vacation Bible School at Mission Evangelical Church of Cameroon in my Tropicana area. It was fun assisting Silas Nfor and family with puppet songs from the stage behind us. I presented a paper cutting Gospel lesson both days and a swan balloon sculpture object lesson. Fabienne Freeland interpreted into French my praise testimony of God's protection from the falling tree and my visual lessons.  It did not work to visit a village this summer as I had hoped, but I count it a privilege to share the Gospel with these precious children who live in my neighborhood. “Bloom Where You Are Planted!”

At the SIL (Linguistics) Library across the main road, I covered the lunch hour of the library assistant four days in July while the librarian was on vacation. I enjoyed working in an academic library…it reminded me of the academic aspects of my last 18 years in a public library system before coming to Cameroon.

A Strategic Prayer Workshop on July 31 led by Jan Crowell, Wycliffe Global Alliance -International Prayer Information Coordinator.  We learned to write prayer requests about sensitive topics for web-level clearance that are about 100 words each. We practiced writing and entering a prayer item into the database for publication on www.wycliffe.net.

The Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy asked for volunteers to assist at the information table following their presentations in Yaounde churches. It was my privilege to do this at two bilingual churches this summer. 

     

Fallen tree: I praise God and will always remember His grace and protection from this termite ridden tree whose branches landed exactly where I had stood in front of my apartment less than 30 seconds / approx. 20 steps earlier on Monday evening July 8. More details @ previous post, Amazing Grace and Protection from Falling Tree.

Celebrating the 30th Wedding Anniversary of Louis and Monique Clay. Teacher colleague Monique was a real blessing to me in acclimating to the new environment; she knew great places to shop and often arranged transportation. I am a Saturday “prayer partner” for their son Jeremiah and for another Rainforest International School student, Theresa Lambert. I love the way this school arranges daily prayer covering when their students leave the country.

Nicoline Yuyar honored her employers, the Louis and Monique Clay family and Dan Duke with a farewell dinner in her home before they left the country. Naomi Emberson and I were invited also. Beautiful time of expressing thanks, singing, and prayer. A precious time of fellowship.

           

 One simple and enjoyable way I support missionary families is critter sitting. While the Bradford family was away this summer, "Cammie" enjoyed sitting on me. Critter care...during the August Joint Learning session, I'm feeding Isaac family cats at the Newland compound. (The family is not allowed pets on compound where they stay this time). The kitten came indoors several evenings and repeatedly jumped in my lap. When I washed dishes, "Cream" found another place to sit. Cream (now “Hugo”) has been adopted and his mother & grandmother are my greeting committee each morning and evening.

At the Educational Resource Center, I averaged 3 days a week dealing with book repairs, re-processing, and shelving. Extremely grateful for teen volunteer Martine van den Berg processing 90 acquisitions into the catalog and assisting with storytime and shelving. There were 3 official check-out days, one storytime program, plus planning and prep for next school year. I also hired Cameroonian former ERC volunteer Edna to come in on average twice a week for French tutoring. 

The other potential goal I had for the summer was to get started back into Christian Education writing, such as revising one of my out-of-print books and/or turning past workshop handouts into a book…I chose the latter. I am working with “pocket chart” workshop handouts  and a book outline I’ve had on the back burner for years. There are a number of books published for this teaching tool commonly used in academic school classrooms, but I am not aware of any books that explain how to use it in children’s ministry settings for scripture memory and Bible games, etc. I plan to change that! I regularly use tabletop pocket chart in Bible Club…will experiment further and research potential uses in ministry settings.

Great times of summer fellowship and food with fellow missionaries and Cameroonian friends.

There were two 4^th of July picnics for us Americans including the one pictured above at Newland. I enjoyed hosting a meal for three individuals/families new to Cameroon or returning to Cameroon.

There are no churches of my background in Yaounde; this summer I began attending Grace Baptist Church that is much closer to where I live and is also bilingual.

BUSY summer!  Thankful for the many and varied opportunities to serve God in Cameroon.