For the PDF Project 316 info form click here
For a complete list of what's on the audio players click here
The idea of using small handheld audio players was first considered through an excerpt in our missions FIM quarterly newsletter. As we contemplated what could be done with these players and by a clear understanding of God's Word and His will revealed to us in the Bible, and through the wisdom given by the Holy Spirit, we thought that this would be a very effective tool that we could use to make a huge impact in the lives of the Hmong people. Because the Hmong are from an oral culture only those who become Christians have a desire to learn how to read, primarily because the only thing that is readily accessible in the Hmong language is the Bible (although in highly persecuted areas even Bibles are difficult to obtain). So, more than 99% of the Hmong in South East Asia don't know how to read. However, even many of the Hmong believers don't know how to read or their knowledge of the written language is very minimal. So, it didn't take long for us to realize that a portable handheld audio player could become a very effective, life saving and life changing, tool.
After doing further research and contemplating some of the ideas as to what the audio players would entail, Mike started to work on producing the lessons that he thought would be important for the Hmong (and really for all believers) to learn. Our goal was not just to give the Hmong the Gospel message of "salvation by grace, through faith" and leave it at that (which is very popular today). Our goal was (and is) to give the Hmong all of the foundational teachings that they need "so that they can become fully developed (wholly independent and self-sustaining), authentic, evangelistic, disciples of Jesus Christ."
The knowledge of the Bible that Hmong believers have, in all of South East Asia, is very minimal. Most, for example, have a hard time just trying to find the book of Acts or Proverbs or where you would find the narrative about King David. One of the reasons for this is because they have been taught to believe that only those with a Bible education can read and teach the Bible. (Which is very typical in Asian cultures.) They have been taught to rely on someone else to "feed" them. Therefore, although they may have been believers for a long time, they are still like newborn babes in the faith. Because of this belief and the fact that most villages don't have a "qualified" teacher in their eyes to teach them, they continue to struggle in their faith. We believe and hope that the audio players will change all of that and many will also finally have a clear understanding of the Gospel.
Before we decided to purchase several audio players we bought three players to do a test run. So, with the material that had already been produced for the players we gave them to several Hmong believers and talked it over with them about whether or not these players would really be effective in the Hmong community. Although at first they were not quite sure how effective the players would be, it didn’t take long for them to realize how beneficial the players would become for our Hmong brothers and sisters.Praise God!
Just think, when a Hmong person/family receives one of these players, its like having their own personal teacher. Nothing so comprehensive, on this scale, has been complied together like this in all of South East Asia.
We could write much more, but we've also produced videos that explain more about the project and go into greater detail about the audio players. So please click here to go to our video page to find out more.