View other recent news
Journeys in Francophone Africa
Graydon Colville made his last trip to Francophone Africa exercising International Director authority
June 24, 2024
The last working day of 2023 saw our studio recording songs in Mongolian! The singer is Mongolian and studies theology in Sydney. He hopes to return home and plant churches in remote communities and sees audio recording as a useful tool for that ministry. We are training him to that end.
Aussie studio staff are recognized as GRN’s audio experts within the mission. Our team are called upon to provide training regularly. We have a You Tube channel with tutorial videos. We provide training in a variety of situations and plan on finishing our new studios this year to enable more in house training for our people around the world. We will also record music and produce videos more comfortably.
5fish continues to enable people to hear the story of Jesus in every language. The development team is working on new features and improvements. This year will see extensive testing of 5fish by people around the world in a variety of contexts. Pray that 5fish will become easier to use and available to more people.
Recording is a challenging process. Getting the paperwork right is important and tedious! The first version of Rekordo has been released. This is an App (computer program) designed to help our field staff with their recording projects. Now it is used to send their finished recordings to the studio via the internet. Soon it will be the place to record their field research and language data.
We are so thankful for Tim Wildig who has joined our team as a JavaScript programmer – the answer to a longstanding prayer. Our IT team is very happy to welcome Tim and we look forward to seeing Rekordo development accelerate as a result.
We have the privilege of supporting GRN offices in nine countries plus the work we do here in Australia. Two are in Africa (South Africa and Kenya) and seven are in Asia (Thailand, Philippines and the rest are better off unnamed). As you can imagine each office is in a different stage of development and facing its own unique challenges.
We have 10 recording teams who are working in way more than 10 different countries. Each team is working with partners to see their recordings used in church planting efforts in a variety of contexts. Some are using tried and true methods, others are more creative with their content and planning. Pray for us as we seek to support each team with training, advice, finances and equipment.
Our Kenyan team completed the Look, Listen and Live series in the Sengwar language this year and are planning to distribute recordings made in a sensitive language in January. This distribution assembles local church leaders and trains them in the use of GRN materials so they can effectively use them in their outreach efforts and congregations.
One Asia country better off unnamed has two competent recordists. Candra travelled to a remote people group a few months ago where he recorded several GRN programs in a minority language. Candra is currently editing and programming these recordings. While he was away he also distributed existing recordings in some neighbouring languages. He hopes to repeat this pattern next year when he distributes the recordings just made and will record in another local language.
An Asian country on the Open Doors watch list (high level of Christian persecution) is working well with the local church to train Christians to work with them in translation, recording and outreach. They have new staff needing training and are very courageous in the face of opposition.
Thailand and a neighbouring country have recorded the New Testament in a language that crosses their border. Our 4 recordists are busily editing their work and having it checked by the translation team.
Pray for these teams. Pray for us as we seek to support them wisely. Unrest and trouble is growing around the world, but our God goes before us. Pray that we might continue to tell the story of Jesus in every language.
Christine Platt, CEO
Graydon Colville made his last trip to Francophone Africa exercising International Director authority
Looking for something on our old website? Try an archival search.
