Breaking the Silence
For at least two centuries Bible societies, Bible translators and Christian educators have worked diligently to bring
the written Word of God to people in many languages. Wherever vibrant Christianity took root, literacy became a highly valued possession because reading the Scriptures brought truth, hope, light and life.
Literacy and Christianity have traditionally traveled together and this has brought blessing not only to individuals,
but to entire nations. However, in spite of valiant efforts by the Church to bring the message of the Bible to every
man, woman and child, half the world still remains unable to read the Scriptures. For those who do not read, the
life-giving message of the Bible remains tragically silent.
Breaking the silence. Beginnings…
In the 20th century, the emergence of audio technologies opened a new door for bringing God’s Word to the Church and the unreached. Fledgling audio missionary works began to move forward as audio devices improved and technology advanced.
For most of the twentieth century, missionary audio endevors around the world used a hodgepodge of mechanical devices to playback Bible messages to waiting listeners. Unfortunately, those machines had considerable mechanical limitations, especially when they were deployed in difficult climates. Sand, wind, snow and water played havoc with everything from record players to cassettes and CDs. The message was right, hearts were waiting, but the machines remained unreliable. For those unable to read, the Scriptures remained silent.
Breaking the silence. Born in prayer…
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| Tom & Merriel Treseder |
In the mid 1980’s a group of men in Australia began praying for God to show a way to break the silence for billions of non-readers. One of those praying Australians was a Bible Society leader named Tom Treseder. Tom's dream was to find a way to play the entire Bible on an audio device that had no moving parts - one that wouldn't be subject to the realities of harsh environments.
A vast leap forward in technology would be required if such a miracle were ever to occur. The advent of
the MP3 player was still a decade in the future. That was the scope of change needed to make a reliable device that
would reach billions of people. Undaunted by "reality," Tom sketched the initial drawing of a
talking Bible that would later be known as the MegaVoice. The concept was in place what was needed now was solid
engineering.
Breaking the silence. A team is born…
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| Ken & Margie Crowell |
In 1988, God put Tom together with Ken Crowell, a Christian electronic engineer from the USA. Ken and wife Margie were working diligently to build their electronics business from the ground up. They were also developing a fixed tuned radio for missions work together with Canadian, Allan McGurl, and American, Harold Kent. With Tom arrived the Australian connection. God was taking His digital team global.
The Crowells and the Treseders, shared a passion for the Bible and envisioned
3 billion non-readers hearing God's Word in their own langauge. All that needed to be done now was the impossible!
Their focus and passion - to record the entire Bible, an incredible eighty hours of Scripture audio.
Overcoming daunting technological challenges, Ken and his development team brought the audio capacity of the player
up to 15 minutes, then extended it to 30, then 60 minutes and beyond. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, their team
accomplished the impossible. The digital audio Bible is reality and today the Crowells and the Treseders give glory to God saying,
"It is the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. Now we must finish the task of reaching almost
3.5 billion non-readers with God's word on this little digital miracle, the MegaVoice. "