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HCSB Online Study Bible

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

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.

We are researching the options for installing Bibles onto mobile phones and also ways in which learning opportunities for isolated Christian leaders can be facilitated.

In New Zealand, Australia and other developed countries life can be very convenient.  From our smartphones we can access the internet, we have applications which connect and provide us with virtually whatever information we want to subscribe to.  I subscribe to podcasted sermons – these sermons arrive on my phone without me doing a thing, so that all I need to do is listen.

They connect us in community also – communities like Facebook and Twitter send updates to our phones and connect us to our friends and family wherever we are.  The world can certainly be small for us.  My teaching pastor lives in California.

But in un-developed countries like Papua New Guinea there are Christian leaders isolated geographically, socially and economically.  If we can help remove the barriers they have through the application of sustainable technology then we strive to.

Please pray that we will be discerning in assessing the needs of isolated Christian leaders and be wise in partnering with them and training organisations so that technology can enhance their opportunities for spiritual growth and the growth of the people they shepherd.

I met Gabe Taviano at BibleTech 2010 and Digital Disciples is something he started up last year to inspire the coming together of like-minded Christians who are involved with digital technologies in some way. Groups are meeting across the US and also the UK. I am planning on initiating a group for Cairns in Australia once Im back in country.

Its really about meeting face-to-face in local gatherings but also connecting with other Digital Disciples through a global network.  I like that there isn’t a focus on any area within the digital world – its not just for technicians, software developers , photographers or videographers – it’s for anyone interested in meeting monthly to share some scripture, prayer and conversation about the digital world.  Another opportunity for like-minded people to connect.

If you’re in Cairns and this is of interest to you, contact me on twitter @cdsmythe

Digital Disciples global website – http://www.digitaldisciples.net/

Bible Navigator X includes a complete HCSB Bible, has search and bookmarking features and can be purchased for USD$5 or 400 Microsoft Points.

Aaron demoed the app on Saturday night and I liked how it looked. The highlighted verse changes as selected by the XBox controller, the theme can be changed to different colours, the font sizes easily changed, when shown on a widescreen HD television its a great resource for a small group looking at different passages. I can see our youth in front of an LCD TV Xbox plugged in, getting plastered with scripture. Cool.

Now that the text is on – who knows what we should be looking out for next:

• incorporated games – fighting battles alongside Joshua?
• movies, images and audio enhancements?
• virtual tours or interactive fly-overs across some of the locations mentioned in Scripture?
• shared online reading and discussing of scripture?
• game level styled Bible reading plans?

Great work by Aaron and his team!

Coffee table computing….

• kids jumping online to update Facebook on TV ad breaks
• quick email checks
• phone book – maps enables us to look up addresses and instantly add to contact address book
  

  Apple iPad

• LCD photo frame – scrolls through a bunch of fave photos when not in someone hands
• games – there will be some awesome games for the iPad, more space, more going on – imagine Flight Control……
• Family notepad – using Evernote family notepads sync – the iPad sits around just waiting for the next input
• Family photo album
• TV guide
• Newspaper
• Internet Radio – connect through speakers
• reading web pages
• movie player
• reading ebooks
• making Keynote presentations
• checking out the weather

Its going to make so many things we do so conveniently accessible in a great format.

But we dont have one yet………