Christmas 2006

MegaVoice Ambassadors – Huichol New Testament

There are between 20,000 – 30,000 Huichols and somewhere around 1,000 believers among them. God is doing an amazing work as more are being added to the number of believers daily. Only about 5-10% of the Huichols are considered literate, and even fewer of those have a great proficiency in reading, since very little exists in writing in the Huichol language outside of the Bible. The written language was actually created just 50 years ago so that the Bible could be translated. The good news is that they have the New Testament in their heart language; the bad news is that many can’t read it. So an audio Bible among an oral culture with a high level of illiteracy will make God's Word available to many more who would not have had it otherwise. There are many thousands in the mountains who have never heard the Gospel and don't have access to the Scriptures; likewise, many who may have access to a Huichol New Testament and desire to read it, cannot.

The plan is to digitally record the entire New Testament (which has been completed on schedule) then transfer the recordings in Mp3 format to palm-sized, nearly unbreakable, with no moving parts, solar-powered players, called MegaVoice Ambassadors (some people call them “God-Pods). The players operate using speech compression that will allow up to 160 hours of information, in this case, that includes the entire New Testament and an evangelistic message preached by Pastor José Lopez.

The high-quality message is secure; it cannot be erased or changed. The simple scrolling feature, with easily understood symbols, can be used by anyone, anywhere. Since they operate on their own internal power supply, they are perfect for remote villages where electricity is non-existent. The message can be heard by individuals or by an entire village community through external speakers. $30 per unit is a fraction of the cost of other digital units in today’s audio market.

Literally thousands could profit from the completion of this project. In ten short days in January and in 6 additional weeks in June and July, the recording of all the books of the New Testament was completed. You can hear a sample of the recording from Philippians (Piriputari) 1:12-30 here.

The recording process alone represents great sacrifice on the part of the six readers. One of the best readers traveled 14 hours out of the mountains, sacrificing time working on his corn fields in order to participate, which is quite a loss in a subsistence society where one eats what he grows. The people from the churches of all the readers helped them out so that the best could afford the time to use their gifts for the cause. They are so anxious to have the Mp3 players available so that many Huichols can hear the Word of God, believe it, accept it, and grow in it as a result of this project.

If you want to see some pictures of the actual recording process, go to this link and this link.