http://beta.mystudybible.com/

HCSB Online Study Bible

The first attached document #1 gives an introduction to the OL3C project with an early initial proposal. By the end of the three year project the following four outcomes are expected:

• Shell book Creation: Hundreds of resource shells are available in Shell book format for localization by local learning communities, and thousands of localized editions are available to demonstrate the success of the approach.
• Library System: Development agencies and local learning communities alike are using the Open Library for Local Learning Communities (OL3C) to share both resource shells and localized editions.
• Training Development: Development agencies and local learning communities have access to the training they need for creating resource shells, making localized editions, and using the Open Library.
• Community of Practice: A self-sustaining consortium of all the agencies participating in the OL3C is functioning as a community of practice to share results, promote best practices, establish standards, and make strategic decisions regarding the future of the OL3C.

The specific tasks and responsibilities to accomplish these goals are given in attached document #2. OL3C Preliminary Plan. In this document the detailed objectives that MAFLT has been asked to be responsible for are given in 1.1a through 1.1L. We are being asked to manage the development of the online open library that will allow worldwide multilingual sharing of shell book and PDF resources. The online library will facilitate the search for and downloading of existing resources in major trade or national languages so that they can be contextually moved to local heart language resources and uploaded to the online open library.

A preliminary model of this functional concept has been created and is located at www.worldvision.ol3c.org This pilot site will guide you through the extensive shell books resources it contains and gives access to. This is mean to only be a concept example and not a GUI design for the OL3C project. It is an example of a tailored agency portal within OL3C.

Zambian pastor, Michael Mutale, writes to MAF-LT’s Mike Holman,

Mike,

Am fine. I have been doing trainings. I had a group of pastors who had interest in Digital library and we had a good time together.

Please do pray for me as I go next week out to meet 60 pastors from the North western part of Zambia.

Please do check some of the testimonies from the brothers here. I will send more testimonies.

Thank you for everything.

Michael

Pastor Victor Mwila. He has 12 churches under his denomination. He is always checking for lessons to teach his members. (my members grow spiritually each time I spend time checking for more teaching materials. Thanks

Rev. Boston Mwwebela. He is the training officer for the Australian Baptist Churches in Zambia. He holds training programs through out the year. (This tool, meets the needs of many of my trainees. It is a miracle and thank you very much.)

Pastor Weston Mwape. One of the trainers who have imaged as a result of being with me all the time. Now he spends time working in the oral school. (my time with people is made easy with this tool.) Thanks Mike.

Pastor Mpatisha. Works with AWANA. He is doing his work throughout Zambia. (stories are easy to tell to children now that my head is full of these bible verses. Thanks)

Evangelist Webby. He is working with CMML. He is all over Zambia. ( I reach new areas and people gather around me to hear the bible. This does it it all for my calling people together. I just summarize. Thanks.

Darkness will not stay with us any more. The light is on and we serve with confidence. Pastor Lester. He is a trainer and works with different denominations. He is also working at interdenominational level and He is working with me to burn cds for pastors.

While in PNG I met with:

• PNG Bible Society
• Leaders from the Baptist Union of PNG
• Staff from the Christian Leaders Training Centre (CLTC)
• Staff from New Tribes Mission
• Staff and management committee of CRMF (Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship)
• MAF Papua New Guinea Board
• John Kupp, Senior Pastor PNG Christian Centres
• Staff from MAF Papua New Guinea

The MAF LT component of my visit was to share with various groups of people the ministry of MAF Learning Technologies.  It is important at this stage of the ministry in Asia Pacific for our staff and those connected closely to us, that it is clear what MAF Learning Technologies ministry looks like so they can communicate to others and potential partners the ministry services and vision.

The most common need described to me was for resources. Learning materials (printed or digital), Bible studies, courses. When I talked about audio resources such as sermons, books, Bibles there was a great amount of interest. The barrier here appears to be access. For example, many of the MAF national staff can afford an MP3 player, but cant access audio Bibles or teachings – and want to! Internet accessible resources are not an option to them – dial-up is slow and unreliable, broadband is new and very expensive, VSAT remains the best option for the near future although Telikom now provides a 3G/CDMA USB modem wireless service which is providing good speeds, but still an expensive option for people in PNG, internet cafes where the public can get online are as rare as a coconut in Antarctica. Christian bookshops have music CDs but not teaching. Digital audio players called the ‘Proclaimer’ are being distributed by the PNG Bible Society (on behalf of Faith Comes by Hearing), but no-one I talked to had heard of them or seen any such device around Goroka or Mt Hagen. Feeding resources for ministry is certainly a service being sought by the Church there.

Philip Bungo, CLTC TEE coordinator, was very interested in DEScribe/DEViewer to put some of his TEE material into a digital format. He gave me some of his learning material so that it could be put into DEViewer as a demonstration of concept – this may become a project for the CRMF Learning technologies position holder. CLTC have over 1000 students doing their TEE courses (each under K40 in cost) and believe they would have many more if others in remote, poor communities could afford the fees.

I gave Richard Wali from Papua New Guinea Bible Society a GoBible (audio NIV NT in English, with scripture, stories, key verses available from the menu) which I bought while in the USA. I was prompted by their desire to reach out to the youth of PNG with audio New Testaments, and to develop audio NT in Tok Ples (mother tongue languages) for people in remote areas.

Richard Wali with GoBible

The church leaders I met host conferences annually for their pastors and typically cannot have all pastors come into the conference – both groups of church leaders I met with showed interest in the concept of recording conference speakers and distributing via MP3 or CD. Again their need was for resources – audio or written. John Kupp is running a Bible College in Mt Hagen for a small number of students, but the college lacks formal structure, course curriculum planning and material, and is probably typical of many small Bible Colleges being run by churches in PNG.

Nikolai Ballin (wife of MAF pilot Brad) attended an STS Workshop in 2009 in the USA and has since run a brief introduction to orality teaching technique with her home group. She is very keen to co-ordinate an STS Workshop in Mt Hagen once suitable dates for the program are advised by program management. Other MAF staff were also interested in learning oral teaching strategies.

MAF learning technologies can certainly meet some of the needs in Papua New Guinea. Whether by equipping the isolated church or equipping our staff in order that they may provide spiritual leadership within their communities. CRMF have budgetted for a Learning Technologies position on their staff and I believe this person will assume responsibility for co-ordinating MAF Learning Technologies ministry projects within PNG.

Please give thanks and pray with me:

• For continued contact with people we can serve and minister to in Papua New Guinea
• For the future MAF LT country co-ordinator for Papua New Guinea
• For the enthusiasm and excitement showed by many who heard of the various MAF LT ministry services
• That we can connect people in PNG to other ministries willing to serve the people in PNG

At one of the evening board meetings with MAFLT partner ProMETA, Judy Musselman gave Mauricio a box of Spanish versions of the Bible in cassette format, some cassette players and some cranks to power the players in places with no electricity nor available batteries.

Mauricio and his wife Rosalia were invited to the small rural village of Abangaritos, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, to attend a short weekend mission trip with their local church youth group. Mauricio had to preach that Sunday in San Jose, but decided to be in Abangaritos from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. Very short trip.

Because of MAFLT’s involvement in Orality, Mauricio had learned that almost 70% of the worldwide population are oral learners. Mauricio decided to bring some of those Bible cassettes and devices with him, as maybe the Lord had people in that area needing access to the Word but without the possibility of reading the Bible.

His van was already full with his kids and their luggage, plus one more invitee; 6 people total. However, they made room for some of those kits.

They had a great opportunity to share the Gospel, pray, and spend time with some of the families in the area, as well as share some groceries with them. Mauricio preached on Friday night even though electricity was gone for most of the message (fortunately, his flashlight worked well).

In this joint project with the Faith Comes By Hearing ministry, staff from the PNG Bible Society distribute the Proclaimers to isolated churches through the four ministers fraternals operating in Papua New Guinea.

What is a Proclaimer?
The Proclaimer is a digital player dedicated to playing God’s Word in the local heart language.

• An installed microchip contains Scriptures in the heart language; the chip will not erase or wear out from frequent playing.
• The battery will play for 15 hours and can be recharged enough times to play the entire New Testament more than 1,000 times.
• The Proclaimer has a built-in generator and solar panel to charge the battery.
• The solar panel, in addition to charging the battery, will run the Proclaimer even without battery power as long as there is sunlight.
• The sound is digital quality and loud enough to be heard clearly by groups as large as 300.

The Proclaimer was developed primarily as a playback device for poor and illiterate people who may not have any other source to hear God’s Word.

PNG Bible Society Vision

The PNG Bible Society has a vision and a passion to see more young people involved in reading and hearing the Scriptures – especially in their own language or ‘Tok Ples”.  They have plans to build a studio in their existing warehouse in order to make audio recordings of the New Testament.  There are over 800 different languages in Papua New Guinea and they have determined that the best place to start is with the Enga region tok ples, which amazingly is spoken by the one people group.

Their goal is to be PNG’s leading mobile data service provider.  At the moment Digicel mobile web data is available on GPRS enabled handsets and Digicel charge this data at the rate of PGK1.99 per MB (equivalent to AUD$0.82/MB)

To compare this to what option we have in Australia right now – Virgin Mobile offer 3G web access plans AUD$15 for 1GB of data (AUD$0.015/MB or 4toia per megabyte)

Mobile Web services currently available in PNG for mobile web access:

Digicel Web Access – GPRS – PGK1.99 per MB, to GPRS handsets or Digimodem (USB)
at PGK2 per megabyte, Im not even going to try this one out…….

Telikom X’Cess – 3G-CDMA – PGK0.20 per MB, to X’cess EVDO (USB)

I picked up a Telikom Xcess CDMA modem from Telikom Mt Hagen a couple of days ago and did some speed tests around Kagamuga (Mt Hagen, WHP, PNG) using www.speedtest.net (with nothing else running in the background, and connecting to the Brisbane server).

The modem itself is an ADU-510c (pictured right), and came with a USB extender and software disk.
I had to install  run it on Windows 7 in compatibility mode for Windows XP.

Results from speed tests so far:  (fastest download – 2270kbps at POM International airport)

May 25 Tuesday 530pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 40Kb/s Upload – 10kb/s
latency 453ms

May 25 Tuesday 545pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 310kb/s Upload – 10kb/s
latency 276ms

May 25 Tuesday 6pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 40kb/s Upload – 10kb/s
latency 1333ms

May 25 Tuesday 850pm
couldnt connect – verifying, terminated

May 27  Thursday 410pm
Raining
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 350kb/s Upload – 40kb/s
latency 244ms

May 27 Thursday 415pm
Raining
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 710kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 244ms

May 27 Thursday 420pm
Raining
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 850kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 284ms

May 27 Thursday 600pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 980kb/s Upload – 60kb/s
latency 229ms

May 27 Thursday 610pm
Kagamuga Airport, Mt Hagen
Download – 1290kb/s Upload – 60kb/s
latency 224ms

May 27 Thursday 710pm
Kagamuga
Download – 320kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 235ms
May 27 Thursday 745pm
Kagamuga
Download – 860kb/s Upload – 50kb/s
latency 206ms

May 29 Saturday
Mt Hagen Squash Club
Time          Dwn (kbps)     Up(kbps)
400pm      1240                50
405pm        540                50
410pm       1460               60
415pm       1160               50
425pm      1740               60

May 30th

POM International Terminal

515pm     1430     70
520pm    1870     80
530pm     2270    80

Here are some of the differences noted by Gizmodo about this iPhone – which Im hoping comes available in Australia this year as my current contract is due to expire -

What’s new:

• Front-facing video camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internal components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

For more details on the iPhone itself and the complete story on how they got it and Apple’s response is on their site.

Im really enjoying what X-Marks enables for me.  X-Marks is software which when installed on your devices will synchronise your web browser bookmarks.  More than that though, it also synchronises across the PC and Mac browsers and bookmarks are always accessible online.

I was a Delicious.com user for a long time but like how X-Marks makes my bookmarks available whether Im on my desktop, laptop or Macbook. With my iPhone I can browse to http://my.xmarks.com/mobile/ and access my saved bookmarks through their “designed for mobile” website but Safari on the iPhone once connected to my Macbook Pro will sync the browser bookmarks.

One of the features I only discovered today is that X Marks will show ratings and a rank number in a Google search on Firefox, depending on X-Marks user reviews.  I dont see this feature in Safari yet.  And while it will even synchronise open tabs between Firefox browsers it doesnt yet sync open tabs between Firefox and Safari.  I like it.