Evangelism to unlettered people pt 2: audio Bibles
When I started noticing that the people group I was working with was not understanding Arabic, I decided to try and get some audio bibles. I thought this would be an easy task. I imagined that there would be many cheap providers of audio bibles that I could get and easily give away.
When you start researching audio bibles you will find that it seems like there is only one or two groups providing them. This is not the case. There are actually many different groups. I will briefly talk about a few.
Renew Outreach has two of the best devices. However they are both quite expensive. Their papyrus device, is loud and has a good battery life. It also can be recharged by solar panel. The downside is, each device costs 50 dollars.
They also have another device called the proclaimer, which is also available by faith comes by hearing. The proclaimer is larger, louder, and more fragile. It can either be bought from renew outreach for 100 dollars, or you can one free one from faith comes by hearing. However, if you get one from faith comes by hearing, they expect to get pictures and stories of the progress of the device. In closed countries, this can sometimes be difficult to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fhaQsNVqD0
The next device I found was from Davaar partners. Their device, audibible has a much smaller sound than the other two devices. The staff were very friendly, and the device is 20 dollars cheaper than the papyrus. I have passed out probably 40 or so of these so far. There is a big problem with the device though… They have a micro sd card, that is quite easy to find. As a result many of the people that requested the audio bible simply wanted to get them so they could resell the sd card chips. Also many of the devices were stolen from their homes (for so they say) and the SD cards were stolen.
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e next two devices I found were from Megavoice. They had two devices that interested me. The first one was the Story Teller. The device is the cheapest of the devices. However, it does not come with that much space to load material on.
This device would be good for a group that you visit once a week and can change the material on. However, I found that a lot of people simply gave these devices to their friends. I haven’t seen one of these since I passed them out. They all simply vanished among the people. Some parents just gave them to their kids as toys.
The biggest drawback is not being able to fit the whole bible into the device.
Following the storyteller, megavoice has released a new device: Envoy Micro. However like the davaar device they also have a SD card. However, unlike the davaar, theirs is hidden more. That however did not stop a father from trying to dig into the device and eventually finding the sd card.
The next device is from The Audio Player.org 
Their device is the only one that I will be mentioning that does not have a solar panel. That being said their devices are less pricey than the other ones. Including shipping they worked out to about 20 dollars per unit.
One of the nicer things about these devices is the fact that they do not have those pesky SD cards. I can give them away without worrying about people trying to sell it.
They, like all the other products mentioned today are not rewritable by the end user.
This device uses double A batteries. That being said, they do have a long life using the batteries. They do not quickly drain them.
The hardest part about making investments into these devices is knowing who to give them to. It is really hit and miss. Sometimes you will find a good fit, and even someone using the devices in group settings. Other times people will just put them into storage and never listen to them.
For more technical information check this out: Which audio player?
Previous parts in the series:
Using stories to share the Gospel to illiterate people
Discipling the illiterate: no shortcuts
Filed under: evangelism