"Do you have any more of those?" Godfrey, our yard worker, had just been introduced to the "Mega Voice Player" (a solar-powered audio player) on which I had recorded several Bible stories in Lusoga, the native tongue in our region of Uganda. I had brought one out to him in the garden to see what he thought of it. I let him take it home for a few days to test it out. He brought it back with the battery (good for 15+ hours) almost depleted. He himself had just gotten through 8 of the 32 stories, and then his wife and his neighbors wanted to have a turn with it. His eyes were shining as he retold some of his favorite stories back to me (Joseph, Isaac and Rebecca). They were totally new to him, even though he is a believer and regular church-attender.
The people amongst whom we are working are primarily oral learners, meaning their preferred method of learning is through listening (storytelling), as opposed to reading. Learning this has caused us to pursue various avenues in which we can best communicate God's Word to the people, so that the Truth will not stay on the pages of the Book, but will find its way to their hearts.
Our most recent find is the "Mega Voice Player" a hand-held audio player that can be programmed..
In the past year, we have been working on translating and recording a number of Bible stories into the Lusoga language. The stories we have been working on correspond with the Ambassador Institute curriculum that we have been teaching in two villages. Each of the students have now received a Mega Voice Player with 37 of the stories recorded on them (over 4 hours of audio). Here is how it works...
I edit and organize my audio files on the computer to get them into the format that is required by the software. After the audio files are ready, they can be transferred to the Scribe (larger gray/black unit pictured above in my left hand). The Scribe is then able to program each of the individual players. The beauty of the system is that any time I want to add more stories to the players, I can program the Scribe at home and then bring it to the village locations and program the players there. It is battery-powered and easily transportable. The plan is to be continuing to add new stories as we complete translation and recording.
We currently have 25 players programmed, and I distributed them to my students this past weekend. (Please see our blog - www.jorenews.blogspot.com - for pictures) I am very excited to see the impact as people hear the Word of God in their heart language. Pray with us that the Word of God would go forth with power and that lives would be changed.
For the Kingdom of God in Uganda,
Nate Jore
