(Photo courtesy of International Mission Board)
South Asia (MNN) — In poverty-stricken, rural villages in South Asia, everyday life is a challenge. Most villagers are day laborers who struggle to meet their physical needs, and many are illiterate.
In these areas, electronic luxuries like cell phones may seem unexpected. But strangely, they’re quite common. And that’s helpful for Gospel workers Brennan and Veronica Masterson.*
The Mastersons have served in South Asia for 10 years with the goal of sharing Christ and equipping others to do the same. That can be difficult when working with illiterate and oral cultures, so this is where the cell phones come in.
The Mastersons use a variety of electronic resources: a full audio Bible, a New Testament film, 35 Bible stories, Christian doctrine studies, Training for Trainers (T4T), discipleship material, and worship music. They load these resources, some of which are available for download through the International Mission Board, onto microSD cards. They then share the content with local villagers so they can share Christ with others.
“We want to put these resources out there for everyone,” Veronica says, according to an article by the IMB. “It’s not just for pastors. The expectation is for everyone–whether a grandma or a teenager–to be able to do this, to share the gospel and make disciples.”
And that’s exactly what’s happening. One woman, Diya,* labors during the day to provide for her three children, then holds Bible studies in the evening. When she received the microSD card, her ministry began to flourish.
“After getting the SD card, her ministry just boomed,” Veronica says. “She went from 7 groups to 12 to 17. She has started over 30 house churches.”
(Photo courtesy of International Mission Board)
Those numbers don’t appear to be diminishing anytime soon. At the end of 2014, more than half of the country’s population had a cell phone, and that’s expected to rise.
Most villagers own regular, feature phones. Only 1 out of 10 own a smartphone, but that number is also expected to rise by 2020, with predictions of 40% of the country’s population becoming smartphone users.
That’s a powerful opportunity to share the Gospel. And it’s one you can take part in as well. Click here to find some of the same resources used by these Gospel workers, then download them and share them others!
*Names changed
Can you tell me where to find the Mobile Gospel Sharing by Showing for mobile phones. It is no longer on the IMB site. I loaded a bunch of stuff on a micro SD card about a year ago, but cannot find it anywhere.
Eric–
There are a number of ways you can do this:
Evangelism Explosion:
http://evangelismexplosion.org/ministries/eehelps-mobile-app/
The JESUS Film Project:
https://www.jesusfilm.org/app
or The Bible.is app:
http://www.bible.is/
These may not be the same resources you were using when you last downloaded, but they will allow you to share the Gospel via mobile phone. Hope this helps!
This is great.
I love this site, thank God I found it.