November has been a month we prefer not to remember, however perhaps that is not the way we should look back at it.

First of all, we acknowledge that the whole world is suffering from the effects of the current global pandemic, i.e., the effects of health scares and sickness, bereavement, lockdowns, quarantines and isolation, job losses, vaccines etc. These issues all transmit deep psychological effects, one of the main results being a significant surge in levels of stress, depression and anxiety within the population.  We are not alone; past generations have had to live during world wars, economic depressions and famines, nuclear disasters, just to mention a few dire situations, and probably felt the brutal effects of fear just as we do today.  Although we have not been in direct contact with covid-19, we have been confronted with our share of personal health conditions which, compounded with the current world situation,  has led us to a higher level of anxiety. This has certainly made us more desperate in prayer; prayer not only for ourselves but for humanity in general.   

Jesus himself stated that in this world we would suffer adversity.  “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33.  Also, “I pray not that thou should take them out of the world , but that thou should keep them from the evil.” John 17:15.

Our rock has been the Holy Scriptures, as we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. But the victory is ours, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith! 1 John 5:4

In spite,we have maintained WP work, editing, answering questions, making corrections and adjustments and in general maintaining the site. We keep receiving lots of feedback from people and here are a few examples:

“My name is Pradheesh, from the last two year I am continuously Reading Wordproject – Malayalam Bible, it is very good and user friendly convey my gratitude and Congratulations to the entire team for this Good work.”

“I have long wanted to download the audio version of the Chinese Bible to listen to offline, but could not find it. Now, thanks to this application, I enjoy listening to the Bible in Chinese offline. Many thanks to the developers for such a wonderful application!” (R.)

The site has been working normally and we are thankful that we have good help to maintain the servers and keep them going:

Meanwhile, we have updated the verse of the day section of the site with Tagalog language verses:

Filipino community happy with new Audio Bible gift.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Jorge and Donna

This month the Luganda Bible was completely updated by brother Sserugo, in Uganda. Here is the story in his own words:

[from phone messages]

M. Sserugo: It all began with an American lady who was on a summer mission here.
She recited John 3:16 in Luganda and I wondered where and how she got it! She showed me an app on her iPhone.
A brief check showed me a lot of mistakes in it. I did not have a smart phone then.
The following year I got an iPhone and the first thing I did was to download the Luganda Bible app.
To my shock it was not a full Bible and it had been developed by a Rwandan national who had his email and flag of Rwanda in the app. I contacted him and after developing some good rapport he visited me (twice)
I edited his work only to have it lost after his govt server was formatted without alerting him to save his work. He did not know Luganda but had developed the app as a school requirement. I did the first corrections online. On the second visit he gave me an offline way to do the editing. By that time his work hard been pulled off app store. He asked me for as MacBook and $100 to renew and have the new work uploaded. I gave him and he vanished in thin air.
I got a Lutheran website and luckily found the original author. She was a lady who had come from Uganda many years ago and was living in Arizona.
She told me she had seen how technology was developing and decided to type the bible. It was her gratitude to God.
Asked of the mistakes she admitted and said that by the time she finished she could not edit her work. I offered to. She changed some verses and lost her as well. If I remember well communication was by email. After some time I lost her.
Other sites were not responding. All the Bibles had similar mistakes implying they were from the same source.
Then I came across
Your site
And here we are.
When I find many others now using “‘our”‘ work, I am not surprised. Many do not bother to do the hard work.
That is why I labored to have the work good.

Also, the Wordproject interface is being renewed. With Gabriel’s  skills and insight, we are changing the looks and feel of the main Wordproject site. It is a long process especially considering the thousands (more than 100K) of pages that need to be updated. Here is an image of the new page look – this is an ongoing project – thank you for your prayers.

When we left mainland China for Macau because of Covid, we never imagined it would be for so long… we could never return due to visa and quarantine restrictions, thus after two years we have now received some of the things we left there. Among those are several boxes of Audio Bibles. These audio Bibles are in Portuguese and English and we are and will continue to distribute them here to Portuguese and English speaking people. There is also a large Filipino community here and we want to share with them too. Thus, we are in the process of feeding the Tagalog language into the chip that is inside the player. With a small screwdriver we open the case and take out the chip, which we place in our computer and copy the Tagalog Bible into the card. After that, we place the chip back into the player and close the case. Voila!! It is a rather slow process but it is coming along, one by one. It is a blessing to be able to do it and we are glad we have these extra Audio Bible Players that we are able to bless others around us.

Audio Bibles is still a topic of the messages we receive from Africa, where they are very much appreciated. Pastor Paulo, from Portugal, went on a mission visit to Mozambique this month. Through a friend in Portugal we were able to supply him with 30 audio Bibles, which he took with him on his trip.  He reported to us just recently that those audio Bibles were a true blessing and they would like to have more… he distributed some in Zambezia, Nampula and Pemba. We are hopeful that we can have a better channel to send more to Mozambique.

From Kenya, sister Mary had been faithful to distribute them to the blind people. Here are more images that tell that story. They need hundreds, maybe thousands more. Pray with us to be able to accomplish that.

We also received news from Brother Patrick, who recently wrote to us and said:

“Some of our recent trainings in Tanzania. [see pictures] Thanks for being part of this. We gave some audio Bibles to some pastor who has Christians who cannot read. I gave one a blind participant who was so happy. One member followed up and found him listening next day.

Greetings, we have connected with pastors from southern Tanzania, the place we went. They work in difficult situations with the need of the word. We will need many Audio bibles with time. Think on how you can get us about 50 again for beginning before end of November. Great need thanks.

Some comments on the Wp Plus app are here:

Some online stats are here:

Praise the Lord for what He is doing through all of us. Thank you for your help and participation.

 Donna:   

October came upon us as a whirlwind!  In the beginning of the month we were confronted with two tropical storms, the second of which caused flooding in one section of our home. Our house is situated on the ground level with one section set in a significantly lower level. The continuous torrential downpour that lasted all night deposited an overabundance of water for our inadequate village draining system. The water actually leaked through seems in the wall at the floor level corners. We bailed out the water during the morning hours and thankfully, by late afternoon, the rain had subsided and we were able to dry out the remaining puddles. Subsequently, Jorge spent some time cementing a barrier between the outer wall and the sidewalk. Hopefully, it will be effective during the next downpour!

   Next to hit us was a debilitating bout of tinnitus in Jorge’s ears. This has been an ongoing battle for the past weeks and it has led to anxiety and insomnia.  We are learning the qualities of patience and faith at a time when God’s answers don’t arrive as quickly as we would like them to.

   The good news is that Zachary Soares is now 6 years old! Zach is very excited about life, kindergarten, soccer and Legos! It is so very interesting to have discussions with him about his projects, animals and sports even when the conversations are held via a cell phone connection!  Donna also advanced in age this month and enjoyed a delightful time celebrating with family! With so many brilliant dynamic people around it is hard to feel old as they keep pumping us with energy and excitement for life! ” I Thank God for them and the gift of good health to keep up with all that life throws at me as the years go by!”

  iMed is a conference for Medicine and Life Sciences Students in Europe.  This is a project organized by Nova Medical School’s Students’ Union held each year in Lisbon. There are different workshops, lectures, and activities held for all medical students in Lisbon. Gloria and a team of three other students joined in a competition and won first place. They will participate in the second round of first place contestants in 2022.

‘Maravilhosamente suscinto, simples, sem rodeios, A velocidade do audio é equilibrada (poderia ter uma opção de velocidade); O audio em português de Portugal é muito bem lido e respeita as vírgulas e interpreta muito bem a leitura, informando muito bem a intenção do texto. Para quem quer ler escutando audio , ou qualquer outra aplicação para audio , é uma respeitável aplicação.’

[Google translated] ‘Wonderfully succinct, simple, blunt, Audio speed is balanced (could have a speed option); The audio in Portuguese from Portugal is very well read and respects commas and interprets the reading very well, informing the intention of the text very well. For those who want to read by listening to audio, or any other audio application, it is a respectable application.’

This was the review of one satisfied user of our Audio Bible App. There are always some very interesting reviews and here are a few more:

From Africa we received again many pictures of the Audio Bible distribution. Mary, our friend/ sister in the Lord, who works with the blind association, is very eager to distribute the Word to the people and they wish to receive more. Check the following clips with Mary’s and the people’s plea for more audio Bible.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VvGDhePMNpvyGHASKdK841DmDk5YNqp9/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W7g-TP5FFdi0MwxUgm7pbjU0u1PpqbHm/view?usp=sharing

Here are some of the images of the distribution this month:

As we mentioned before, the brethren worked intensely in the production and shipping of the Audio Bibles. The shipment was successful both to Africa and Portugal. The shipment to Portugal included units in Spanish. Coincidently, or maybe not, Pastor Paulo, whom we know from our visits to Mozambique, has been in Portugal for awhile now and told us he could take some Audio Bibles with him on his next trip to Mozambique, which started just yesterday. He took 30 units. Also, Samuel, in Kenya, has been a great blessing receiving the packages and organizing the distribution to the different areas – the blind people ministry, the work in Congo (French audio), and the work in Mozambique (Portuguese and Macua languages). We thank God for all who make this possible.

The website is now receiving a new update in design and functionality, which Gabriel has been very kind in working on. We hope to bring it to you in our next update. The images below show you what is pretty much average traffic on any time of the day. Check the languages being served. We are thankful that all servers are working good and giving great response to the demand for Bible pages and Bible audio.

This September was a month of record high temperatures and also more covid outbreaks here. In our small territory there is zero tolerance for COVID-19 so when a case is detected there is a general shutdown and mass testing. Thank God the few cases detected were immediately isolated, quarantine measures were put in place and the infected persons have mild symptoms. We hope that soon daily life will normalize again, that is, students will return to school, sporting facilities open and border to the mainland returns to normal.
This month was also hampered by Jorge’s ear affliction. It started out like a case of tinnitus but later developed into something more intrusive
The doctor has said it could be an inflammation causing eustachian tube dysfunction. Jorge has taken the prescribed medication and yet the conditions persist. Out of the affliction has grown the desire to spend more time outdoors in nature as the sound of the wind and waves at the local beach help to mask the noise in Jorge’s ear. Thank you for your prayers.
We are thankful that during our times of affliction, if we draw nigh to God, He will draw nigh to us. James 4:6

On a happier note, Nuno celebrated his birthday this month over in Portugal with Cristiana and family members. We are all looking forward to the day when we can celebrate each other together at some time and place. By God’s grace it shall happen!! We wish Nuno a fantastic year to come.

Other than that, we have been in touch, through several means, with family near and far. Gloria, also in Portugal, is studying and working hard in medical school, the grandchildren are growing and learning and we are thankful that in spite of our trials, the Lord keeps us all growing.

Finally, after several months in the works, the audio Bible devices manufacturing was concluded in China and our friends there were able to process them and send them to the respective shipping companies to be forwarded to Europe and Africa. It has been a different approach not only because the board of this MP3 player was redesigned to accommodate another kind of memory chip (the previous memory chip became unavailable in the market), but also, because we were not able to personally supervise the production and shipping due to the fact that we are not able to go to China (because of covid restrictions and visa issues). Therefore, we have been doing all this by proxy, so to speak, with our brother in the Lord / electronic technician, in China, doing all of this for us. We trust all will be well and the audio Bibles will be a blessing, as they always have been, to the many recipients waiting in Portugal, Kenya, Congo and Mozambique, which, for the moment, are the fields we are committed to help.

The online work has been mostly maintenance work, although there were some major changes done this month to Punjabi language, as our friend and brother in the Lord, Anil, has found time to re-record the audio and correct the text of the Punjabi Bible. This is the kind of improvement we have done to online Bible texts, as some Bibles were digitalized by unknown sources, who (sometimes) left errors and misprints on the digital versions. This requires that the digital version be compared to the printed version and duly corrected when necessary. This can only be done by native speaker, as obvious. We have improved a few of the digital Bible versions available at our website and, perhaps, one the reasons why we are called Word “Project” – that is, running a course, dynamically constantly projecting to the future.

Another purpose for ‘our existence’ is to provide Biblical resources to other people and ministries. Constantly we receive requests for cooperation and pleas for help, as follows:

“Dear Word Project. Greetings, My name is William, I am born again and love God passionately with all my heart. am located in Kenya Africa. Please could you help me spread the gospel through your prayers and mentorship, discipleship. I reach out through evangelism in the villages and marketplaces. and we meet in housechurch gatherings, Ihave pioneered 100 of them, each having 30 adults. Please would you help me with Swahili bibles, that I can share with those that get born again and also believer in the villages. by doing this, we will be able together to empower the born again with the word of God and also enable them to have reference in daily life and grow spiritually. I also welcome you to Kenya for gospel mission. God bless you – W.M. [We forward this to our brothers in Kenya, so they may see how they can reach this friend with some recently sent audio Bibles]

This month Donna has been helping with some of the computer indexing of Tagalog Bible, as we need to speed up the process. After one month, with two people working on this, we are finally reaching the final stages. TG.

For my 71st birthday I receive several gifts, all of them very precious and meaningful, not least this new WP interface (web page), sent to me by Gabriel.

More App reviews this month

By Donna:

August passed by like a breeze with an abundance of rain and sunshine! Reminds me of the poem: “Everyone wants to be happy, nobody wants pain. But we can’t have a rainbow without any rain!” 🙂 Yes, we have had our ups and downs this month, but we had many rainbows just the same!
Regarding life celebrations, we added two more anniversary festivities to the August marathon. Jason is now considered an adult by reaching the big number milestone of 18! He is working as a coach for the young aspiring footballers in Macau and he is happy that his ankle is recovering. God willing, he will soon be able to return to training sessions in preparation for the coming season. Jason also began his first university classes in Umac. Due to a covid incident, the initial month of classes are being taught online, but it will change to face to face classes in a few weeks. It’s a new day for Jason!!

Also, Jorge also has reasons to celebrate as he enters his 71^st year full of health, energy and zest for life! He is very active with many things, not least in sports, whereof he is now participating in a local football ‘Veterans’ team! We held a simple but happy celebration for his birthday here at home.

Sweet Isabel and Aurora are back to school! For Aurora, 3, this is her first year in K1, and she is one excited student, looking forward to all the friends and activities this new experience will bring her way! Veteran scholar Isabel is now on Primary 1 and loves learning! We wish them both a wonderful school experience this year!

All the teachers are back to work. Mandy and Gabriel are working at the university level and Joana in full force with the younger ones! The world needs these very talented and dedicated teachers. Let us always remember to pray for them.

‘J’ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à méditer la Bible tout en prenant soin de mes enfants, ce qui aurait été difficile si je devais lire uniquement. Sur Dieu bénisse tous ceux qui ont rendu cela possible. ‘That means:
‘I had a lot of fun meditating on the Bible while taking care of my children, which would have been difficult if I had to read only. God bless everyone who made this possible.’
Comments like this, found on the page of WP app, remind us of the variety of uses and the impact of our online ministry. We are encouraged to improve and respond to the increasing demand for the Word, all around the world. These are peculiar times, and as trust in humans is waning everywhere, the quest for transcendent answers and spiritual strength is ever more urgent– some of our users wrote:
‘Praise God, am a new born again actually during the first wave of covid-19 in march 2020. I Would therefore to be getting literature to strengthen me spiritually in my new path of God. Thank you, may God richly bless you…’ N.A.
‘My name is Ronald, I am based in India and I am one of the users of your app. I am writing to appreciate the work you are doing. I listen to the Bible in Hindi language and it has been a blessing to hear the Word of God, I listen while I am at work or just lying down on the bed. Please continue the great missionary work you are involved in. I would love to visit you sometime. Thank you. God bless you all.’ R.

We also receive requests, such as these:
‘We have a Bible School here in Uganda and work with Refugees from Rwanda,Congo DR,Burundi, Ethiopia,Erithrea, Sudan. May You Please help us here in Nakivale Refugees Camp Mbarara-Uganda Where we work with more than 100 local churches to help them being equipped for their Discipleship, pastoral, mission, leadership, church planting effectiveness and spiritual growth. We ask You to help Gid’s people get Bibles. Yours in Christ,’ U.
‘Hello Wordproject, I’m P.T from North East Part of India and I belong to Kuki tribe. I wanted to know if there is any help to work with the organization for audio Bible with the organization. Thank You.’ P.T.
Thus, to update and maintain the website and Apps is a fulltime task and requires many hours of work.

The WP Plus app, requires that the audio and text be synchronized, through a process we call indexing. We use a special program developed for that purpose, called Audio Editor. Right now, we have brother Mathias Sserugo working on the indexing of the Luganda Bible. We are also starting the indexing of the Tagalog (Filipino) Bible. This work is time consuming because we must listen to the beginning of each verse in the Bible and adjust the respective timecode using the special Audio Editor program.

If you look at WP stats, you will notice that we maintain a regular average of users and pageviews – Last month we recorded over 40 million requests just from Wordproject main site where the total visitors reached more than 1.6 million.

On another front, from brother Patrick we received the following pictures of the Bible training he has been providing in the coastal region of Kenya:

By Donna
There was no school this month but there were things to learn just the same: Isabel is learning piano and ukulele so we have instituted a morning practice schedule. We also have some baking projects and the girls help turn out a lovely variety of cookies!

Jason helped his team to victory to keep their position in the first division, but unfortunately suffered an ankle injury. He has been off it for a week and is gradually returning to normal activity.

To our dismay, we noticed that the kitchen tiles were literally coming loose from the walls. We were able to arrange help in replacing them and although still in the works, we are expecting a whole new look soon!

(August 2) Celebrated with a family get together for Joana’s birthday! She is teaching up a storm at her center where so many children are invested in learning English during the summer holiday. She is one very busy teacher!

(August 3) Sweet Isabel turned 6! She was surrounded with friends and family for her birthday! She patiently sang the Happy Birthday anthem in four languages before she could blow out the candles! Isabel is surely a blessing of the Lord!

From Comments on WP plus App:

“Great, WP is for sure one of the best Bibles and is still and will continue to be improved to better thank God first and to those that we provided this excellent tool for the glory of God amen” 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙇🏻‍♂️

“best tts I've found yet. Great voice, not a robot voice. scrolls great. Worth every cent! Haaahaha. "freely you received, so freely give." Obeying God here!”

“Super dear this app, I recommend it, it advances as the narration, easy, just install it and enjoy the beautiful word of God! It is magnificent!! Thanks.”

“Pleasantly surprised by the quality of the application and the possibility of moving easily through the different books of the Word of God. The clarity of the audio and the ability to read simultaneously is great! (Matching would be nice to make it a study tool). But I'm already very satisfied. I delight in knowing that I could read my favorite book without it. interruption, apart from my will and especially that of God, through Bluetooth in my car.”

"I love it. Definitely the best option for when one is working ❤️

Africa:

We received further news from Brother Patrick. The training meeting has been a success and the workers are ready for the field.

Audio Bible distribution

History:
 It has been around 15 years since we produced and used our first audio Bible device in China – the S100 – Many still use this one. Then went to Kenya to record the Swahili Bible –millions have been blessed with the audio version of the Bible in kiSwahili.

Going strong online:

Verse of the day:

Every morning we spend time sending our VOTD, verse of the day, to many friends, family and acquaintances – around 100. This has proven to be a very effective way of sharing the Word.  Many who receive this daily Bible verse probably would not read the Bible otherwise, probably some never did before. We get many enthusiastic and thankful reactions to the scriptures we share in a random manner. This is a simple process I would encourage others to try. Great way to keep in touch with friends, relatives, and acquaintances. We live in dark times of daily trials. Daily light from heavenly sources to encourage, build and illuminate is a way to change our world.  

by Donna:

Another milestone has been reached this month! Jason has graduated from high school! Congratulations Jason!!

Now I am looking back to the beginning and amazed at how fast we have reached the end. How time flies! I guess we begin at the starting line! It was nearly 40 years ago when Jorge and I made the decision to homeschool, and it was one of the best decisions of our lives!! At that time, we were young and full of energy, faith, and idealism and it was fun teaching our two energetic and clever young sons, Philip and Gabriel, the basics of Bible Scripture, ABC’s and 123’s while traveling the extensive Brazil frontier as itinerant missionaries. We took our books and pencils with us everywhere and school was held at home, in hotel and motel rooms and waiting for the bus. (We took a lot of buses!!!) We were always learning and learning always together!
Then, according to His plan and perfect will, the desire was planted in our hearts to move to China to work in the great fields which were so lacking in laborers (on the Lord’s work). As we followed the calling East, God began to add to the family more and more blessings. Our dear baby Andrew joined the team and then the Lord saw fit for him to graduate to the heavens above while in our far-flung home in India. This was the beginning of another major set of changes in our lives and in the Lord’s amazing and mysterious ways we were soon transplanted to the field of Macau, a doorstep to China!!

Well, to make a long 33 yr journey short, the Lord added six more blessings to our family while in this territory! We spent some years enrolled in the traditional Chinese school system so that the kids could learn Cantonese and Mandarin but we kept our English Homeschooling program alive on the back burner. We continued to home study during our years in África alongside other families who had made the same choice. In due course, as each child followed their individual pursuits within the basic framework, all the students finished their high school years with their home school program and all graduated with honours! A successful and wonderful journey indeed!!!

Now, the History, Chemistry, and Physics books sit neatly on the shelf. Pencils are packed away, pretty much replaced with a computer… No more deadlines to meet or tests to prepare for! I learned so much!! Jason will move on to learn in new ways as the others before him have. The good news is that we continue to learn together and in this digital age of information, in or out of school there is much to teach and learn! The biggest lesson I learned is to value every moment I have with my loved ones. “There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s who we spend it on” L. Christopher. All is well!!

Fathers’ Day

Father’s Day was celebrated with the precious liturgy of a family dinner. It is so special to have everyone together. 🙂 Psalm 128 reveals the truths of how a godly man is blessed “Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His ways.” Godly fathers and husbands are greatly encouraged in this Psalm: blessings of labor through which to care for their family, the blessing of children, like olive plants round about the table, a vision as well as influence on the generations to come. We greatly appreciate all the godly fathers in our family and everywhere!

Miranda had one more lovely birthday and we were happy to share a special moment with her! Our prayer is that she is very blessed in her calling as wife, mother, teacher, sister and friend in the years to come! We are so thankful for you Mandy!

Gloria can now add one year to her age, although she doesn’t look much older! Youth!! Glória enjoyed celebrations with family and friends in a land far from us. Prayers for joy in your labors and continued success in exams and another year of med studies!

Times have changed and homeschooling is perhaps less viable today. Thus, the grandchildren are following a more orthodox school path – at least for now:
Zach, of Philip and Julie, and Isabel, of Emanuel and Mandy, living in two different countries, both graduated from kindergarten. Zach received a reward for the peacemaker of his class. Way to go Zach!!

From China: “Hello, I’m a college student from China. My grandmother is a rural woman who believes in Christ. My grandmother’s educational level is very low. Although she has learned a lot from the Bible, she still can’t understand many chapters. Moreover, she can’t use her smartphone to surf the Internet. So my father and I hope that we can download MP3 format and use Walkman to help my grandmother understand the Bible. When she goes to do farm work, she can also listen and work (my grandmother insists on doing farm work every day, We can only comply with her wishes), but after searching for a long time, I found that there is no Chinese version of the Bible in MP3 format available on Chinese websites (I can’t buy it), and I only found the web version on your website, so I hope your website can upload the audio files to the well-known social networking platform or book listening website of Chinese people in the official name, It’s my little wish that more Chinese people can learn the Bible more conveniently. I hope to get your reply”.

From Germany:  “Hallo our Lovely Wordproject Team, God bless you for your Work to serve our God & the Lord Jesus Christ to reach the World by the Bible in different languages for the whole World. I am so blessed with your Website, using the Bibles in your Webs,to Preach the Gospel  of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

From India: “Hi, Very much appreciate the work that you all have done in WordProject. I thank God for the ministry of His Word through your lives. Your ministry has also inspired me to undertake the design of an Audio Bible Device, called BoxBible. I have currently completed the design, prototyping and testing of the device. Would like to know if there’s a way we can collaborate to use hardware devices to spread abroad God’s Word.  The device is designed to be easy to use even for the blind and solves the navigation issues that traditional mp3 player devices face. The vision is that it’s simple and accessible enough for children to get proficient in handling the Word”.

From India: “Greetings to you in the name of our lord Jesus Christ. I am pastor Ajay Kumar from India. I am doing ministry at Prathipadu village. Here we have some blind People with me, some are Pastors, Evangelists and some people who attend the services and also I have illiteracy people. This is my Humble request that I need audio Bibles to give them and encourage them in lord Jesus Christ. please do come forward and do this, I will give full report after when I receive the Audio Bibles. please do kindly pray for my Ministry. Thank you so much….”

From China: “Dear Wordproject, Thank you so much for your work in producing and maintaining this site.  It has very valuable features that I don’t find elsewhere.  I particularly find the parallel display of Chinese translations and audio very helpful over the years.  However, I have also noticed many errors in the pinyin version.  I think a team of competent Mandarin Bible readers needs to review the whole version and correct the errors.  For example, the pinyin for the word 祭 in Ezekiel 42:13 is repeatedly incorrect.”

These were just a few of the reaction received in our email box this past month. This is the Lord’s doing.

Two languages were added to the WP Plus app this month: Russian and Tamil. Also, there will be some changes to the first page of the app:  the language page will display first so people may chose their language. We realized that some users did not even know there were other languages besides English. Now it will be clear.

WP Plus has an approval rate of 4.9, which is rare for any type of app, and has reached the 7-thousand users mark. Nothing outstanding when we compare with the 48 thousand users of our IOS APP, which has been online for much longer, but WP+ is growing steadily. Thus the Word of God is being proclaimed and kept in many peoples’ hands – “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”.

A new circuit board for the SR600 audio Bible device is being developed. This has been one of our main struggles this month. Due to the lack of chips in the market, our develop had to change the circuit board, to be able to use another chip still available. There have been some technical problems but we hope to have a working sample very soon. Thank you for your prayers.

From the field of Africa we received news from brother Patrick. He reports on a Biblical training course he is conducting on the Coastal side of East Africa. We are helping this effort to prepare teachers to teach the Word to a world in need.  

From Donna:

May has been a month of preparation and testing. Jason is justifying his abilities to academia by taking the Official SAT tests: English, Math, Chemistry and Physics. This has taken hours of preparation and the final exams will be in the beginning of June. Gloria has begun her preparation for year 3 final med exams, which takes immense study and Emanuel is preparing his heart for the results of the Bar exam he sat for recently! Joana is studying for the TESOL certificate to enhance her teaching skills. Cristiana is investing time to improve her Spanish language abilities and Mom is making advances in Portuguese. Isabel and Aurora are training ballet while Isabel learns piano. With all this added knowledge we pray for the wisdom accomplish all our goals and pass all our tests!
So far, we are still safe from Covid in our town, but with the gigantic increase in tourists we never stop praying. Gabriel has been shut down in Singapore again as the covid cases have dramatically increased recently. He has been working hard and uploaded his app OKKI. This application can connect people in the same area for the purposes of exchange of services such as teaching, fixing, supplying, counseling etc…If you can offer any services or need someone in your area, please connect to the link below and share it as well.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.okki&hl=en&gl=US

We are only in May and the temperature has risen over 30°C quite a few times already! Amazingly, Emanuel and Jason are able to pull up the stamina to assist and even play 90 minutes of intense soccer in the heat and humidity! It takes a lot of hydration and training! Jorge also has joined the veterans team!!

Our Mother’s Day celebration was happy Indeed! With all the local family members joined together we enjoyed a great meal and a good laugh! Oh the joys of a loving family! God bless them all!

Praying for India

From international News we got this:

“The situation in India is dire. The country is witnessing perhaps the worst crisis any nation has suffered since the pandemic began, with hospitals overflowing and desperate people dying in line waiting to see doctors — and mounting evidence that the actual death toll is far higher than officially reported. Officials say they are running desperately low on supplies, including oxygen and protective gear, as a deadly new variant is thought to be behind a rise in cases.” [NYT]

The images we see on media and TV are scaring and look right out of the underworld. Our brother Raj, who lives in Chenai, and another contact we have in Hyderabad, report that recent election campaigns (and perhaps a recent Hindi religious festival) are some of the main causes for the widespread. Either way, we have a real problem in our hands, and not only for India but for the rest of the world.

We can watch detailed images from Mars, and dream about placing humans there. Going to the moon or orbiting around the globe is now a tourist package for those who can afford it. Besides, here on earth, the most precise and powerful weapons are being conceived to kill humans – our enemies. Meanwhile, this virus, quickly becoming public enemy number one, is free to multiply and people die for lack of  something that should be abundant and cheap to produce – oxygen.  Just imagine a fraction of what is spent on weapons and space research be invested to equip the world with the best FREE health care system, anywhere in the world. ..

Coincidently or not, we face one of the greatest apostasies of the Christian era. Widespread denial and deconstruction of Godly, righteous, and moral values. India itself has been one of the countries in the world where suppression and even persecution of Christians and the return to nationalism and Hinduism has been greatly supported by the government – this has been a problem, and had been described to us by our friends in India, Raj, Anit, Vincent and others, for quite some time now.

These are perilous times, and we are to pray for the Lord’s mercy and grace to go through them. Meanwhile, at WP we are where we should be, giving the Word of God to the world, spreading the good news of Salvation, in many languages and tongues as possible, including 12 of the most important languages in India.

By the way, India is one of our main fields today, with thousands of people accessing and reading the Bible in several languages at our website and app. The pictures below are not graphics of the pandemic spread, but of the people accessing the Bible at a given time today (around 4 and 7 am in India today!), as reported by Wordproject server control.  

Precisely from India we received the following  message last week:

“Thank you so much for this site, i always use this to read right before going to bed.  One problem i always encounter is that there is no DARK MODE, since i use this site during night time, its hard for the eyes. Hope you guys do the needful.” [A.K. – India]

Now, sometimes, we too find it stressful to our eyes when reading our web pages online, especially at night. So, we went right ahead with finding a good piece of code that could solve the problem. It took us about half an hour to find the right solution. The hardest work came later, as we had to adjust text colors in some of the pages that did not contrast well in the dark mode. Because we have over 80 thousand pages on the site even a small change takes time and a bit of work.

The good news is that the dark/night mode is ready and available. Thank God.

On another development, we had our Tagalog narrator read the verse selection on the Wp site, and now audio is also offered for the 40 different topics, with specific verses on Salvation, Prayer, Praise, Love, Fear, Comfort, Honesty, Children, Marriage, abortion, etc, etc. being read or narrated in Tagalog. This is a important feature for people who seek answers and guidance on specific topics and areas of life.

 The link is HERE.

Not least, we were able to finalize the digital recording of the Portuguese Brazilian narration of the Old Testament and we are please to announce that the full audio is now available online.

Here

We thank you for your prayers and support. We leave with this TV clip on a Swahili station in Kenya, recently sent to us by our friend Mary, who works with the blind and handicapped. This is in Swahili, and if you do not speak it you may not understand what is going on… basically, this is part of a larger report and includes wordproject audio Bibles donated to a certain community…

The good news is that Donna’s knee is performing much better now and she is back into walking and exercising more each day. Thank you for your prayers for this situation. She has been blessed with the fact that we live nearby a beach and we can go there almost every afternoon, and take some fresh air and sunshine. With the start of the ‘bathing season’ swimming pools are now open and hopefully she will be able to enjoy some water therapy.

And from Donna we receive this report:

On the home school front, Jason has been working hard to finish up all his requirements for his high school final year. He is studying for his College Board tests and will finish off most assignments by the end of May.

In April, Benjamim provided Wordproject with banners based on key Bible verses in Russian. These will be put out on social media. Ben also celebrated his 25th birthday on the 25th of the month, and he performed some of his beautiful songs at an artist’s gathering downtown the same evening. We were happy to spend some fun family time together with him as he is a very busy man indeed!

Sweet Aurora turned 3 on April 9th. She is such a precious soul and understands so much of the Lord’s Word already! She can explain very clearly that if anyone is afraid, they can pray to Jesus and He will help anyone to not be afraid of the dark. So precious is the faith of a child! Oh that our faith was so strong and so simple. A little child shall lead …

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Some years ago, our friend Darrel, while on mission in China, sent us this precious song he recorded, in Chinese. The lyrics are here, in Chinese, Pinyin, with English translation (scroll down), for your enjoyment, this Easter Sunday:

We re-establish contact with the factory in China for the production of new Audio Bible devices. We were surprised to learn that production is now delayed, because of the factory’s difficulty to find (memory) chips available – yes, those little components, so important to almost every electronic device now-a-days. This seems to be a new challenge this year.

We keep receiving very touching pictures from the field of Africa, where we have sent hundreds of Audio Bibles in recent past. It is a blessing to see that someone is benefiting from our (and your) efforts in producing these useful evangelization tools:

From Kenya, we received news from our friend Patrick, who has been working with the training leaders for evangelization. We have supported this ministry with Audio Bibles, but also with other kinds of help. By the way, we just learned that Western Union, the money transfer corporation that we have been using, just closed their office in Macau. Thus, we are now trying to use their online service, which, so far, has proven to be more complicated than we asked for, due to all the security checks that have to be done – i.e. answering questions like: ‘why do you trasfer this money?’ ‘do you personally know the person?’ ‘what is the money for?’, etc., besides they want us to upload photos of ID cards, etc.
Meanwhile, and also for security reasons, from the Bank we hear that our credit card has been cancelled. Fortunatelly, we have been told a new one will be issued within 15 days…! We are sorting through these things now. Meanwhile, in Africa, hopefully, life is more simple:

Mozambique has been on the international news for all the wrong reasons. There has been great trouble in the Northern Province of Cabo Delgado. We have been assisting friends there in several ways. Actually, and just for your information, the Catholic church (not the UN) has been until now the main actor in helping the almost 700 hundred thousand refugees around the capital of the province – Pemba. Prayers and support are both needed.

On the good news side of things, our friend, who is a Catholic Priest, whom we met a few years ago on a trip to Pemba, sent us the following images of people who have received the Audio Bibles donated by WP:

On the online front we are busier than ever. Of course, with so many people under confinement, it is only fair to assume they are spending more time reading the Word. (?) Here an image showing online visitors at a certain time on a certain day this past month (notice the South Arabia, Emirates and Kuwait pageviews:

“A little thing is a little thing, but to be faithful with the little things is a great thing” – so the saying goes. This reminds that this month, Hison, our Korean friend and brother in the Lord, who develops the WP IOS App, placed his immediate help to solve a problem that is described by the user in the message below. We are thankful for people who see urgency in solving problems no matter how small they are, which brings us to the words of the master that say: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much”.

Here is the request that triggered such immediate response:

I am helping my Japanese friend who has very limited eyesight to be able to listen to and see the Bible on her iPad. She is thrilled it is possible. However she still cannot see the WordProject font on her iPad — it doesn’t increase in size enough. The previous android app allows the font to be increased unlimitedly large. This stays large between chapters and so it only needs to be increased once. This is perfect for my friend. The problem is she owns an iPad and on iPad, the largest size of font is still much too small for her to see. The online web-version allows enlarging of the font but this enlargement needs to be repeated for every chapter every time. — and the little menu item to increase the font size is light color and tiny – my friend cannot see it on the screen at all so will not be able to read her Bible by herself with the webpage version.
Please may I ask you to you add the unlimited enlargement function to the iPad version of your wonderful app, to be able increase the font as large as needed like the original android app? This function is wonderful and I hope you will also add it to the new version of your app for Android, in due time.
Thank You So Much! J.P.

Two other interesting comments from users, in this case, of the android WP app, originally in Spanish and French:

By Donna

This month was a test of our trusting and patience. Donna suffered another painful knee dislocation and was forced to slow down to the point of total rest for one week and then hobbling around on crutches for the rest of the month. What a blessing it was for her to have loved ones who offered, with much ado, to assist her in her needs and to fill in the gaps around the home. We are happy to report that the knee tissues are responding well, and although complete healing is arriving slowly, we are convinced that it is on it’s way. Psalms 103 reminds us to:
“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases”;
– And all the people say “Amen”!

Jason has found himself a place on the local Sporting soccer team. This signifies lots of practice trainings which produce lots of sore muscles and ligaments! This is a great chance for him and Jason is happy for the opportunity!

Gloria is putting in training hours at the hospital. She is stationed in the surgery ward and emergencies and is learning through observation and assisting the doctors which she follows.

Sweet Julie celebrated her birthday this month! She is so far away, we don’t get to spend much time together, but we are happy to see that she and Philip and Zach and Riley are all doing well !!

As usual, we made further improvements to the home: This time we changed the covering of our pergola up on the terrace. We had some workers do the work as it was too dangerous for us to climb up to the top of everything. It is well done.

The Portuguese – BR, narration of the Old Testament is coming along and we have made progress. We have finished the first 11 books and they are already online. Please go here to check the audio that has been recorded:

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/po-BR/11/1.htm

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/po-BR/01/1.htm

We received lots of invitations to cooperate with other sites, blogs and radio station, in order that our audio files may be used by them. We have granted permission, as usual, on the basis that our goal is to spread the Gospel, not to compete for audience. It is much better for the Gospel’s sake that the audio is spread in many different servers all over the world, than if it would be concentrated on few servers. Should something happen to our servers or our ministry, the work of the Lord, the broadcasting of His Word, will continue. Thus we welcome the copying and propagation of other websites, apps and blogs, based on ours or even copying our site. The fact is, our user base, averaging over 60,000 per day, are still there and our audio, averaging around 30 Terabytes per month, keeps up.

Our audio Bible Apps, with a user base of around 70,000 users, draw a considerable amount of audio data from our servers. We have 3 main audio Servers that remain pretty busy. We are glad that other ministries copy our audio to their own servers and generate their own traffic, to release ours from overloading.

This is the reality of the digital world we live in. There were the days, when we had the printed Bibles, which were heavy and bulky to ship or transport to the field. Now, we multiply the Word by the million with not much of a logistic burden. We believe, despite the dangers and the maleficent effects of the digital world, it is God’s design for us to be here, doing this, to engage, to use the means and resources available today, to bring the Word of God to every creature – just as commanded in Mark 16:15 and other scriptures.

Here are a few comments, received during February, at the Google Play Console of our Android Apps:

WP APP – Grade ten, I loved the app very well, God bless //  To read and listen to God, thanks.  //  Great App! // Excellent, I recommend that God bless the administrator of this page //  Praise be to God for making such rich material available to all of us … it is a very great blessing … I can only thank you. 🙏🙏🙏 // The Bible is the way to peace // This app is really a great one and I am extremely happy to use it now. If you are interested in Holly Bible It actually works. //  May the Lord God bless everyone involved in this service, but it would be great if a more dictional solution could be found instead of a robotic (Turkish) voice. // I’ve been using web version for long time and I recommend this App because the way it is built is unbelievable and great work team. //  It returned to work 100% then yes it gets four stars again, in fact it deserves to receive more, but it can even better thanks for existing wp.

WP Plus App – I can spend time in the sacred word and die anytime and anywhere //  Good experience // Very good this application. I like it, the scrolling is supper, the track is very good. // When you cannot see you can hear the words of life and the teachings of Jesus. // THE WORD OF THE LORD WILL ALWAYS BE THANKS // The app is light and stable, it allows the option to take audio offline, this is great. Audio downloaded in MP3 can be stored on the memory card without any problems and is very accessible. The choice of language is excellent, a wonderful job without a doubt. Accessible to anyone, the word of God is available to everyone. Everything is a choice. // Awsome app // Versatile app, I love it! Thank you that the Word that is now available to me no matter where I am. Best app of it’s kind that I, personally, have tried. //  This app is the best! I will disable the others! It is complete and dynamic, it does not get tired. // Lively and expressive reading.   // Excellent I liked it a lot // Loved this app // Amazing. Best bible audio app with human narration so far, although I haven’t heard everything yet. // Great app, sometimes I like hear word God and voice used in this app is sharp and clear I like it // The audio is very good, only that the pronunciations of some names are not correct. // Easy to choose language, book, chapter and verse. // Top. I recommend. So far it has satisfied all my needs. // This app is fantastic. I love that it has the text along with the audio. // It helps me, while I follow the Bible, to understand French well, with excellent pronunciation from the readers. It is a wonderful application. Thanks!!! // Very well thought out. The option that I like a lot is the automatic scrolling when reading 👍👍👍👍👍👍 /// Fantastic application // I didnt find luganda language yet its there on your website please add Luganda // Today 02.21.21 I started with the biblical audio and it is comfortable to listen to the narration. I am grateful and would recommend using this version. Very grateful  // This app is very pleasant to read and listen to. Thank you // Very lovely app // What a beautiful app .. I felt the blessing of God. The word of the Bible is wise and magical. I hope it is the same for you // Good is this application: Good audio. It works very well. It has no stumbling blocks. Its AUTOMATIC function is: Verse by verse. Chapter by Chapter. Book to Book. And something very interesting, that every application must have regarding the word of God, is that it DOES NOT HAVE ADVERTISING, And this, the users like. Truly, God bless you, for your FAITH and trust. // Easy to use voice is distinct, no more suggestion this is excellent for me. No ads nor sell my personals Thank you. //

Africa is always present in our lives because we did, and do, invest lots of resources there. Our resources are mostly of the spiritual kind, with time, prayers and intervention in our field of intervention: supplying the Word of God. Audio Bible devices we produce are being used by thousands of people there. Recently a new shipment of 100 Bibles arrived in Uganda while the blind people ministry in Kenya continues to share the Gold of the Word. We are all blessed to be part of this.

The above caption means, roughly translated from Swahili: “Hello Mary, On behalf of Lydia Maithya I am grateful for the Audio Bible you gave her through George / Geofrey Musyoka. He overcame it by listening for a long time and that helped him to grow in faith. once again I say thank you. God bless you”

Mozambique, with the almost 600 thousand people displaced in the North, due to Islamic terrorist attacks, is in dire need. We are in contact with friends there who appeal to our prayers and solidarity. We have helped and continue to help with funds through the Catholic church there, which is pretty much in charge of feeding and taking care of the refugees.

Thank you for your support and prayers.