Our Story

As an Australian Bible Society leader in the 1980s, Tom Treseder had a God-given desire to reach billions of people with God’s Word. However, Tom knew that many billions couldn’t read, were blind or were visually impaired. As one commissioned by God to distribute the Word, Tom felt passionately about the spiritual needs of those who could not read. He soon began directing his Bible Society team to use whatever technology was available to distribute audio Scriptures.

Thousands upon thousands of Bible audio cassettes and records were sent to the mission field. Response to the audio Scriptures by oral learners was encouraging, but an epidemic of equipment failures on the mission field made the effort extremely disheartening.

Tape recorders, audio cassettes and record players all failed on the mission field because mechanical machines could not survive the inhospitable conditions. Tapes froze in the northern climates and turned to mush in the tropics. Blowing desert sand ground record player gears into useless junk. “It was so demoralizing,” says Tom. “Every machine we sent out was doomed to fail sooner or later. On top of that, it took more than a dozen audio cassettes just to listen to one New Testament!”

Technology of the 1980s simply couldn’t survive harsh mission field climates. When Tom suggested to audio engineers that there needed to be an audio player without gears, they laughed and told him there was no such thing. They were right of course, but Tom didn’t give up and soon he and fellow Australians began praying for a radically new kind of audio player – one without any moving parts.

One day in 1988 while admiring a new car at a dealership, Tom heard someone say, “The door is open!” It turned out the voice was coming from a memory chip somewhere inside the car. Tom was beyond elated – if cars were now able to speak, why not a Bible? God was answering prayer.

Inspired by the “talking car”, Tom raced home and sketched what would soon become the world’s first solar-powered audio Bible – the MegaVoice. He jotted down that the device needed to be affordable, tough-as-nails, hold an entire Bible and be easy for illiterate and blind people to navigate.

With the vision on paper, Tom soon met Ken Crowell, an American engineer with a love for God’s Chosen People and a passion for God’s Word. The Lord soon added businessman J. Rudolf Geigy to the team. A biblical threefold cord was formed as the three pioneers begin turning Tom’s vision into reality. Before long they would produce the world’s first solar powered audio Bible. 

Today, Tom and his wife Merriel continue to live in Australia where they partner with hundreds of ministries spreading God’s Word in thousands of languages to countless millions.