A VOM worker visiting Niger was astonished by the welcome he received at churches that had been planted just three months earlier. While he had expected to meet only a handful of people at each church, he instead was greeted by upwards of 30 people in each village. “It was apparent that the storytelling method they were using was attracting people in this oral culture,” he said. He and the frontline workers in the area realised, however, that these new believers and seekers could not be discipled through storytelling alone. They needed audio Bibles so they could hear God’s Word for themselves.

Over the past two years, the audio Bibles have proved fruitful. After a frontline worker shared the Gospel and left two audio Bibles with a Fulani couple who make their living breeding livestock, the couple soon called him back. They told the worker they had accepted Christ after listening to the Bibles but had many questions. The frontline worker returned to spend three days with the couple and provide intensive discipleship training, and a few months later they were baptised.

A frontline worker who ministers among the Tuareg people said audio Bibles have also been invaluable in his work. “We remember that in the years 1999 to 2016, all the Tuaregs refused to accept the Word of Jesus, and they persecuted the Christians,” he said. “But we give glory to Jesus Christ that now the people of the village accept us and especially the Word of Jesus Christ.” A year ago, the worker distributed memory cards loaded with copies of the New Testament and Christian songs in the Tuareg language.

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