Potential global Gospel reach climbs to 80%

International (FCBH) — The Gospel in audio can now potentially reach 80% of the world’s population. Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) recently added 16 languages to their expanding catalog of recorded Scripture.

Now at 813 languages, these recordings as a whole represent a potential outreach to more than 5.7 billion people in 189 countries. In cooperation with ministry partners around the world, FCBH seeks to make God’s Word available to every person in his or her own heart language.

The new releases are:
• Ache – Paraguay
• Antiguan Creole – Antigua and Barbuda
• Batak Simalungun – Indonesia
• Buamu – Burkina Faso
• Cora Santa Teresa – Mexico
• Cree Plains – Canada
• Crucian Creole – Virgin Islands
• Duruma – Kenya
• Lumasaaba – Uganda
• Maka – Paraguay
• Sambal Botolan – Philippines
• Sasak – Indonesia
• Tajik – Tajikistan
• Vincentian Creole – Saint Vincent

Two of the language names are withheld for security reasons. Of the current releases, Tajik is the largest people group with more than 4.4 million speakers, while the smallest is Cree Plains, spoken by about 260 people primarily in Canada. Combined, these newest releases represent over 10.2 million people who now have God’s Word in audio available in their heart language.

Faith Comes By Hearing remains committed to the mission of making God’s Word freely available to everyone in their own language and is encouraged that supporters continue to help make this possible. The ministry is also grateful to their translating partners, whose years of dedicated work have helped make these recordings a reality. For this month’s releases, the partners are: Bible League, Bible Society of Uganda, Canadian Bible Society, and Wycliffe Bible Translators.

“It’s an amazing blessing to have passed this milestone of 800 languages,” states Jerry Jackson, FCBH founder and president. “Whether it’s our talented and dedicated staff, our generous donors, or ministry partners from all over the world, we have one purpose: to get God’s Word to every person.”

Jackson has seen the growth of a small tape lending library established in 1972 to what is now the world’s largest resource of digital Scripture content.

Collectively known as the Digital Bible Platform, Faith Comes By Hearing offers free access to this digital collection of Scripture via downloads, podcasts, Internet radio, and satellite TV, while the Bible.is and Deaf Bible apps for mobile devices offer access to God’s Word right from the palm of your hand. Approved developers and ministries can also have free access to the content on the Digital Bible Platform to incorporate into their apps, software and websites.

For those areas that do not yet have regular access to the Internet or mobile devices, Faith Comes By Hearing continues to reach out by providing Audio New Testaments on solar-powered Proclaimers for listening groups. More than 350,000 Proclaimers are literally proclaiming the Gospel around the world.

The ministry’s goal is to record and provide access to the Word of God in every translated language, making the fulfillment of the Great Commission a reality in this generation.