India (MNN) — The World Cassette
Outreach of India (WCOI), a ministry partner of Audio Scripture Ministries, has long been
making plans to upgrade facilities to accommodate growth.
Their old location proved vulnerable to
flooding, and the building was aging fast.
For years, the money for a new facility has been trickling in, as the
ministry leadership began finalizing and approving plans for the new ministry center.
Originally, the team was looking for
land to buy, and then rebuild. Challenge after challenge arose, and now, after a
few years of waiting and praying, it has become clear that the best option would be
to stay in the current location and build there.
While the staff is glad that the wait
is over and a new chapter is about to begin, they're praying for wisdom and continued
patience.
In the meantime, they're continuing to
produce Scripture in audio form for the illiterate in India. Their teams just finished the distribution of
150 units to a remote tribe in Northwest India. Already, region leaders are requesting at
least another 300 units.
Another aspect of
the growth has been surfacing: churches have begun raising money for WCOI for
language recordings. One of the
big supporting churches is a slum church in the city of Bangalore.
Recently, they donated enough money to fund the recording of a New Testament in
Northeast India.
The significance
of their participation is ownership. For
decades, church-supported local funding hovered around 2%. In 2011,
over 20% of the total budget was funded locally. WCOI is hoping to see
support go up to 25% in the coming year.
