SETTING North India (2015)
One Christian worker sat with a church planting national partner in 2015. They went over the partner’s church planting and leadership maps. His network of believers have been using MicroSD memory cards in their outreach for approximately one year. [MicroSD cards were introduced by the Christian workers and are loaded with digital content. These are given to those who can insert and use them in their mobile phone.] Those using this approach are mostly illiterate farm laborers. The national partner reported that his lay leaders and church members are teaching more than 30 new house groups, which all have been started with the introduction of the cards and since the beginning of 2015.
MicroSD CONTENT
The Christian worker has essential elements for church planting recorded in audio on the memory card. This consists of beginning a gospel conversation through the JESUS film and Magdalena film, which can be watched on the mobile or put into an adaptor and watched on a TV. Then, they include a set of 35 gospel lessons which each have a color illustration and the audio story. For discipleship, they have eight audio lessons for new believers. Following this they have a T4T (Training for Trainers) type church planting training which is also in audio form. This includes a section on healthy church. They include a Baptist Faith and Message audio teaching which helps to develop healthy doctrine in leaders. Lastly, the entire Bible is available in audio or written form on the MicroSD card, as well as in a daily audio Bible format.
CONCLUSIONS
The Christian worker has discovered that simple farm working or day laborers are using their cell phones to lead Bible studies. After the first generation of believers, the following generations are almost 100 percent illiterate. Yet, most of the nationals they work with know how to use the technical aspects of a cell phone – even better than the foreign workers!
They sit with their friends or new contacts and play the audio stories. After anyone comes to faith, they entrust the new believers with a MicroSD card and give them instructions (using their cell phones) on how to lead others to faith. They also teach them how to do church. The MicroSD card allows more consistency in what is taught from generation to generation.
In addition to all the trainings on the card, the Christian workers periodically use teams from the States to teach special studies. They invited some 3rd-4th generation believers to this training. The training was on the role of leaders and their characteristics, which is something that is also taught on the MicroSD card in the T4T section. It was at this meeting that the believers said that the material in the training was what they had already learned from the previous generation of believers. So the truths had been passed down unchanged. This has lead to the conclusion that the MicroSD strategy maintains the integrity of the biblical material within multiple generations.
Story Submitted by: Mike M.