If you have not heard yet, there is progress with the IOS application. As you know it is being developed by our friend in Korea, Hison Kahng. He has done a great job and the test phase is about to begin.  We are excited to see it through and we want to thank Hison for his time and dedication in making this possible.

The Android App, is also being improved by Konstantin, from Greece. He also, has been putting hours of time and effort to improve the already quite good and acclaimed app we offer online. If do not have it yet in your Android mobile phone or tablet, you should installed from here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.WordProject.HolyBible&hl=en

We sent 20 Bibles to TZ through our friend Pastor Jack. He works with the Masai in Central Tanzania. They really need and appreciate the AudioBibles in Swahili as many people there cannot read. They have a project to record the audio in Masai language and we have promised to assist with technical advice and some equipment. The living conditions in that area are less than ideal and one of their major problems has been lack of water – generally a problem in many areas of East Africa. He sent us some clips and a plea for help. (*Link below). Here you see their church, (‘where two are three are gather together in my name there am I in the midst of them’) and also the drilling of their first bore hole and the water coming out. Halleluiah. Water is Life. It is worth seeing.

We met with several other people this month with whom we shared AudioBibles, especially in Swahili and English. These are greatly appreciated and make many people happy. We have received testimonies of how people are increasing their time in the Word every day simply by turning on their audioBibles any time and listening. In cities like Nairobi, where the traffic if heavy and congested one can spend 1 or 2 hours sitting in the car to go from one part to the other… the audioBible offers a way to spend that time learning and getting to the other side inspire and uplifted.

Above are some samples of happy recipients of this great gift:

East Africa: Water is Life from J. Soares on Vimeo.

Even small changes make big difference: the index page for each Bible language had English references for every book of the Bible in that language. This could be confusing for people who are not acquainted with the Bible, or read it for the first time in non-English speaking countries. So we decided to eliminate those references. Now, after we had done that we received almost immediately this email:

” You have recently made a significant change to the way non-English bibles display the list of Books in the Bible (eg Genesis, exodus etc etc).  The list of books used to display in both English and the particular language chosen (eg Mandarin).  Now only the names “Old Testament” & “New Testament” are displayed in both English and the particular language.  This makes it very difficult for me to locate a particular passage and then display it for my non-English speaking friends in their language.  Would you be able to restore this function please? It was extremely useful.”

So, we went back to the ‘drawing board’ and came out with this solution:   https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/gb/index_en.htm#1 – Now ou see it… https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/gb/index.htm#1 –  now you dont…. it is simple (some JavaScript Guru could do it better, but sometime, somewhere, someone will send us that code…)

This is an example of how there are always improvements to be done.

New Index page sample

Other issues to be resolved are brought up in this email from this user:

“Hello, Your offline bibles contain scripts which require access the internet.
You should remove these scripts in order to protect from metadata tracking, unless of course that is your intention. An HTML bible without scripts is preferred.
Example scripts that could harm anonymity:
‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;
</script–>
</script–><script type=”text/javascript” src=”../_assets/js/jquery-etc., etc.
In countries where the bible is illegal, accessing these third-party scripts can cause a risk to the user. The same goes for .swf file.

Kind Regards.

On the Android front these are some of the comments, in July: (translated from different languages)

– Great! The Word in our original language, pure! The richness of the Word with a great story! Recommend! M.H.
**

– Very very good application.  Everyone Dwld I just downloaded the app. I like very very much bcoz of the downloaded section the app provide for audio purpose. If it is online hearing only , every time we hear, huge  data will loose and thereby  more money. P.Z.

**
– The word we read and listen without advertising, in several languages. The best application without the need for internet once downloaded. G.J.

**
– Iam rich sacred Excellent C.C. (translated from Thai…)

**
– Show!!! I’m listening to passages in the Portuguese language Portugal I’m learning! Very good!!! Y.J.

**
– GOD bless you and thank you very very much for best app (Thai name)

**
– Great Now I will have no excuse not to study the word of God !! Glory to God * – * D.F.

**
Wonderful everything you are looking for  in one place. H.G.

**
– God bless you. May God reward them for sharing the holy words. S.R.

**
– Very Good but… I love the app but because I use it with a Portuguese translation, I am going to comment in Portuguese. The application is very good but I think it missed the chance to share verses – “share”. What is very important for those who read the Bible. T,M.

**
– This service is more practical than the Gutenberg press printing the Bible, to describe it somehow. Thank Mr. Continue to bless you and your work to all who use it . T.B.**

Comments page on App controller

A new language has been added to our website this month: Kazak.  We have noticed that users from Kazakhstan have been accessing our site (probably using the Russian Bible), so we decided to add yet another language to serve a population of around 18 million.

Kazak onine Bible

On other front, all links in our Verse selection  now take us to the context of the verse in the respective Bible language. Placing links in all 2400 pages took us almost the whole month.

Online attack to one of our sites – the Blog that generates this Newsletter – resulted in that we had to spend two days cleaning up the Malware and trying to prevent this problem from occurring again. We also made copies and backups of what we could, but there is much more to be done in that area. It is a stern warning that we need to be careful and prevent any damage to our sites.  Old links of this Newsletter will not work and are now here.

Red warning … do not go here… this is a distressful sight, to say the least

On the good side, we received news from our friend in Korean, Hison, concerning the development of Wordproject IOS app. (for Apple devices) and it seems that it is coming along quite well.  He has been very diligent in building an App for IOS that performs and looks like the Android counterpart.

We continue to distribute IBibles personally whenever we feel there is a need. We have given IBibles to school teachers, heads of Children’s homes, dentists, nurses, CEO’s of Christian organizations, pastors, Catholic priests and even blind people, to name a few. God’s Word is so essential in our lives, we could not survive without it, and we are so thankful that God has provided such a strategic way for us to share it with others! Many testify that their time in the Word has increased manifold because they can hear the Word even while driving or doing chores in the house, any time of the day or the night, with or without light – Psalm 119:105

Pastor Isaac happy to receive a Swahili+English audio Bible.

Samuel and team came back from Congo with some exciting news from the mission trip there. He took many evangelistic materials to share the Gospel of Salvation with  people there. From our side, we supplied him with 20 audio Bibles in Kiswahili and English, to share with those in need We have been told that everyone who received an audio Bible showed so much appreciation –  we actually a letter from one of those persons, Ernest, who thanked everyone who has helped to make these Bibles freely available to them.

Samuel sharing the Word with Congolese friends

Audio Bible to Congo / Sharing the Word.

We have sent 3 packages, with a total of 50 audio Bibles in Portuguese, English and Swahili, to the North of Mozambique.  We hope and pray they are a blessing and encouragement not help to minimize de the deficit of the Word in areas where it is difficult, if not completely impossible to get any kind of Bible, much less an electronic one that reads the Word to you just with the pressing of a button.  A real blessing.

Audio Bibles Packed to be sent to Mozambique

Inside the Packages are these…blessings!

This map from wordproject Google Analytics show that in May we had accesses from every single country of the world, except those tiny islands near the North Pole… The intensity of the color shows from where most users came from:

wp May users worldwide

The following image shows the number of accesses of the top 18 countries where users came from during the month of May:

WP May Access by country

Our worldwide rank on May 31st is here:

May ranking

Ranking India and other countries

Audio downloads are hosted in other servers therefore they are not shown in the above images. When someone clicks on an audio link in worpdroject site, the audio is not on the same server as the text. Many users copy link to our audio, and many organizations have sites that offer audio linked from our servers, therefore audio volumes may be quite large. During the month of May we recorded  a total volume of audio downloads that equals 9.8 terabytes, or 9.8 million megabytes. Since the average audio chapter has a volume of 1MB, we roughly estimate that 9.8 million chapters were downloaded from our 3 audio servers during the month. Interesting enough, although our site has less than average visibility in China, the volume of audio downloaded from there reached 1.14 terabytes in May – our second largest in the world. This could mean that there are sites in China,  which are eventually offering links to our audio. In any case, we thank the Lord that the pure Gospel of the Word is being freely served to the whole wide world. (Mark 16:15)

To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven:  “ Ecc 3:1”  Right now in Kenya it is the rainy season! Recently, it has been raining so intensely that shoddily made houses, walls, and buildings are collapsing, killing innocent people along the way. Roads are flooded, and at times people have had to depart from matatus (the local transport vans) through the windows when the vans get stuck in the deep swamps that accumulate in the inadequately constructed roads! Young entrepreneurs are cashing in during the crisis by ferrying pedestrians through the city streets for a small fee! Water and power shortages are the norm and temperatures have dropped . We are blessed to live in a usually dry compound, nevertheless, we and many homes around us still suffered flooding issues. Thankfully, we were at home at the time and able to sop up the water, thus sustaining only minimal damage to the floor. Join us in prayer that the rain does not exceed its limits or the crops will all be ruined and that will be bad news for the entire country.

Matato in flood road in Nairobi

Out in Limuro muddy road

We enjoyed a visit from Joseph, the Swahili narrator. He stopped by to record the verse section for the Wordproject audio section in Swahili. It was a pleasure to have him, and we were able to catch up as a few years have passed since we’ve worked together on the project. It also was happy to receive 5 samples of the new SR600 audio Bible device, which he took with him back to the coast. Samuel, from Trinity Fellowship, has also received 20 audio Bibles to take on his mission to Congo, where he is at the moment. There are also contacts to take audio Bibles to Mombasa. Morogoro, in Tanzania, and Nangololo in Mozambique. Thank you for your prayers for a courier or means to deliver audio Bibles to these areas.

Joseph recording Swahili Bible verses

Joseph (with Jason and Gloria) showing his new audio Bible

Samuel receives audio Bible