International (FCBH) — Over 40 years ago, Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) began offering Audio Bibles on cassette tapes.
When CDs came into existence, the ministry also took advantage of the advancement in audio players.
Less than a decade ago, they again adapted to technology and developed their own digital playback devices: the BibleStick for individual use, and the Proclaimer for group listening.
Today, the ministry is pleased to announce they have produced and distributed over one million units in their mission to provide access to the Holy Scriptures for all who want to hear.
Audio Bibles heard around the world in hundreds of languages on ministry’s suite of digital audio devices (Photo by FCBH)
Mike Jayne is the engineer who invented these playback devices, and he continues to innovate with quality and efficiency updates, as well as developing new designs that meet the needs of listening groups in various parts of the world.
“I’m truly grateful to be able to use the skills I’ve been blessed with to help bring God’s Word to those who otherwise may never have a chance to hear,” says Jayne.
The BibleStick is a small, portable device that runs on a AAA battery and individuals listen with the ear buds that are included. It can be loaded with any of the ministry’s Audio Bibles, which are now available in over 800 languages. The standard BibleStick is one of the few items that the ministry still sells to the public, rather than their program outreaches that are donor funded and provided free of charge.
An example of a donor-supported program would be their Military BibleStick outreach. Wanting to meet the needs of troops in deployed situations, FCBH collaborated with a handful of active duty chaplains to design a deployment-friendly model that would meet military specifications. The chaplains quickly discovered Bible listening was particularly effective in engaging this younger generation of soldiers.
Since the start of the project in 2008, more than 430,000 units have been distributed. Between both the standard and military versions of the BibleStick, over 678,000 units have been produced.
In contrast to the BibleStick, the Proclaimer was specifically designed for larger group listening–which is the model FCBH has used for many years in their work around the world. The self-contained digital playback unit is about the size of an older transistor radio and can be heard clearly by groups of 300 or more people. It has a built-in solar panel to re-charge the battery and contains a hand-crank, or dynamo, in the absence of sunlight. The Proclaimer can also be charged through the AC-adapter, but many of the regions where it is used have little or no access to electricity.
As Jayne explains, “We are reaching some of the poorest people on the planet. We never want them to have to choose between food for their family or putting batteries in the Proclaimer. That’s why we’ve made it self-sufficient and cost-free for them.”
Jayne has also developed several smaller versions of the Proclaimer to meet the needs of various-sized listening groups. Between the several iterations of the device, there are more than 370,000 units proclaiming the Word of God in hundreds of languages to millions of people worldwide.
Faith Comes By Hearing currently provides Scripture recordings in 829 languages, which are spoken by over 5.7 billion people globally. In addition to their digital playback devices, FCBH offers free access to this digital collection of Scripture via podcasts, Internet radio, satellite TV, and the Bible.is and Deaf Bible apps, all of which are powered by the Digital Bible Platform.
My DAUGHTER IS A LAW OFFICER IN AMERICA. It would be great to start a ministry for our law officer and home land security as well.
how to order the Bible stick and micro chip for old cell phones there million of people in the America’s need this chip. thank you. I am go to Israel on the 20th of May for @ weeks ,it would great to have a BibleStick on the plane. thank you. Robert