Great to be back in Macau and meet with dear friends and family. It is such a blessing to be where we spent more than 35 years of our lives. You may remember back in the 90’s, when we were trying to take Bibles across the border into China and often we were stopped. We had to bring the Bibles back home. It was then that we figured that a computer digital Bible, would be a much easier way to get the Bible into the hands of the people, as we could duplicate them on CD. Before the internet became fast and widespread, we had a CD duplication machine that we used extensively. Today, in our office here in Macau, we found CDs and labels left from those precious days. (see below)

We have been able to go across the border and meet with brothers/friends who have helped us to implement the Audio Bible Players project. Robin and Raj have been a great help in the development and distribution of S100 and SR600 audio players. The design of the S100 was made by Tim, a Chinese brother from Singapore, while the Nano chip and the circuitry were designed by an Australian brother, Steven. The Sr600 was designed in China, by Robin and some Chinese electronic engineers.

So, just the other day, we met with Raj and Robin, and among other things, we discussed future plans for spreading the Word, including production of Audio Bible Players. Covid restrictions and financial constrains brought production and distribution of audio Bible Players to an halt, and we are praying for the financing that will enable us to resume their production and distribution.

Meanwhile, on a cloud never far from us, the Wordproject website is in great demand. We received more requests for permission to use our materials:

I've been working on a project to produce offline Bible servers.
These are stand-alone devices which provide both text and audio Bibles through WiFi or a local network to a household or small group.  These devices do not need any need connection to the internet.
Additionally, there is a self-duplication tool to "clone" additional servers offline.
I'm wondering if I can get permission to redistribute text and audio Bibles from Wordproject.org?  Currently these devices include content from eBible.org, but Wordproject.org has some translations and audio that are not available on eBible.org.
Thank you so much, and I pray that God will continue to bless your ministry and enable you to keep sharing His word and the Gospel with everyone.  Until He comes! GW

another request, just a few days ago:

I am currently working on a personal project to create a website that serves as a resource for the Telugu-speaking community to read and reflect on the Bible. My intention is purely non-commercial, aimed at fostering spiritual growth and bringing the Word closer to those who need it. 
I am writing to kindly request access to the Telugu Bible database that you have developed. I assure you that this resource will only be used for good purposes, strictly adhering to the following guidelines:
It will not be used for any commercial or profit-driven activities.
The content will not be altered, misused, or distributed without proper acknowledgment.
Full credit and references will be given to WordProject for the source of the database.
If you require more details about the project or additional assurances regarding its purpose, I would be more than happy to provide them.
Thank you for considering my request. I pray for continued blessings upon your work and ministry. Looking forward to your response.  MA

App recent reviews:

Thank you for this App it's very good  though it had stopped working on my tablet,so I had to uninstall and reinstall again. thanks for helping me know more about my GOD through this App, GOD bless you. RN

It is a wonderful application to study the Bible. MR

I have for a long time desired a King James Bible in Swahili. Next should be in Kisii language. CN

Very good application to study and learn the word of God. MA

I love this app. Very easy to go thru the books. It has audio too and as you read it Ji automatically scrolls down. This is the best app compared to the other Bible apps. FG
**

On the Video front, we have uploaded a few recent clips with images from Macau and the South China Sea. Raj, in China, has started a channel of his own and shares the Word in Tamil. (he is from Tamil Nadu, in India). Together we brushed up on new methods to produce short clips.

**

Christmas: John 1:14 – ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.’

New Year: Psalms 84:11 – ‘For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.’

Wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Appreciate your prayers and your support.

Love and Prayers.

WP

Online Stats

Many people rave about Islam being the ‘best’ religion because among other things they pray five times a day. Religion and faith are two different things, as you can have religion without faith and Faith in Christ is necessary, in fact, essential for Salvation – for by grace are ye saved through faith – Ephesians 2:8. In any case, praying five times a day should be no problem for a Christian, because we are admonished to ‘pray without ceasing’ – in 1 Tessalonians 5:17 and Ephesiasn 6:18, etc.

With all due respect, prayer is not to be done on the streets, for every eye to see. So, rolling off a mat in a plaza somewhere, to pray, is not biblical. Jesus has this reccomendation: ‘And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men…’ Matthew 6:5.

If you wish to study about this, all the above verses and many more are easy to find in Wordproject website and apps. Do yoursef a favor and go to the selected Bible verses link below: https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/verses/english/index.htm

Another great topic is Supply. Just yesterday we received this email:

WordProject Team – Noticed that wordproject.org does not currently run programmatic advertising. With over 1.1 million monthly visitors and high-quality content in the faith space, you could drive a very substantial amount of revenue from a few well-placed ads that are respectful of your UX and religious focus.Is this something you’ve explored in the past? All the best,

This is something we have been asked several times in WP’s twenty-two years of existence. The answer is that with our few, but very faithful supporters, we have no need to. Besides, we have always strived to make the Word of God totally free – like the rain :), leaning on the Lord and His provision. ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.‘ – Matthew 6:33. Again, we have been encouraged through the reading of Bible verses on the topic of supply, which we find here:

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/verses/english/09_supply.htm

This has been a great comfort and assurance in times of material need.

If you were online in 1997, you could very well come across Wordproject mother site, which was called CristianAsia. We should remember our ancestry and never forget our roots. Here is the link

https://www.wordprolog.org/mission/history/index.htm

Videos – Shorts

We would need more time to opttimize the descriptions and other settimgs in our videos, that could make the difference in increasing their exposure. Here are some images we caught this month:

Full stats:

Online Stats

Great to be here again evaluating the overall progress of Wordproject in its several fronts .

‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature‘ (Mark 16:15) – this is a commandment from our Savior and the light that guides our mission. By all means possible to us, we are trying to broadcast the Word. This month we worked on expanding our website to include 29 new African languages (Kikuyu, Kimaasai, Kimakonde, Kimakua, Kisi, Lamba, etc. etc.). They are already available on the new APP, but it will take a few months before we can format them all for the website. Thank you for your prayers.

Closer to home, recent weather events have brought pain and dispair to several regions. Big wars in Europe and Middle East has many people wondering how far is too far. Never before was nuclear so freely talked about. Many are living their lives as if there is no tomorrow. Perhaps they find the Bible an impediment to their lifestyle. However, others are more likely trying to keep the faith and walk the straight and narrow. We are here to accomodate the need of those who search for the Truth and Peace that comes from the Prince of Peace, Lord of Lords – Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

In Youtube media, usually dominated by sensationalism, entertainment and political ideology, our channel increased the number of subscribers to near 3500. Watching time for the month was 287 hours, while the total watched time reached 3000 hours. All pure scripture text and audio.

Our quest is to get original images of nature and place a Bible verse or passage on them to cathalize beauty and deapth in one brief inspirational spiritual feeding moment. We have been searching in our region for good images, and only sporadically we go a little further. Here are a few samples of this month’s captures:

But the main impact of our ministry still comes from the webpage, which has by far the greatest number of users every month. This month, again, over 4 million people used the website, assessing millions of Bible chapters of text and audio.

The full stats are here:

Online Stats

We do this while we can and provided the media is there available to let us do it. Who knows for how long?

We thank you for your prayers and support that makes this possible.

Love and prayers.

WP

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

To say we are living troubled times is an understatement. It is hard to read or watch anything today without the feeling that we are being lied to or deceived. These are times to pray, pray without ceasing. The Prayer that easily comes to mind is the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

If you wish to hear a very interesting rendition, try this Swahili Our Father prayer sung by Angel City Chorale

But, most of all, the important thing is to pray the prayers, whenever we need to, wherever we are, in the quiteness of our own heart.

This prayer has been prayed millions of times through the ages and has comforted, encouraged and delivered many people. It has been translated and sung in many different languages. For more information go to this WP Resources page:

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/resources/our_father/in_many_languages.htm

IOS APP:
Hison, in Korea, has been amazing in his effort to place the app online. After a long struggle with Apple Team for the approval of the audio.

Just yesterday he finally got it up and running. Please go there and use it and eventually place your like and comment there. This App has potential to become the most useful and helpful app in our ‘arsenal’.

Here are the links:

IOS

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wordproject-app/id6670559227

Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wordproject.app&hl=en

The app contains basically all languages on our site, and even many that are not (yet) there. Nevertheless, the ‘old’ apps are still receiving encouraging comments, in spite of being limited to fewer languages.

Here, two of the most prominent comments this month:

Thank you very much for this application which pushes me to enjoy listening to the word of God. It's really impressive. May God bless this entire team in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. JMK

Excellent. I speak several lanhuages. I chose the French version and it is well paced, clear, pleasant. Choice of text size and scrolling. If one wants the reader to go on, need to just wait and it will go to next chapter. For those whose eyes have trouble or just want to hear God's Word it is a real gift. Pass it along to others , especially to those who live where the Bible is not allowed, or to others who nevef heard it. I thank the developers for such hard work..May the Lord be blessed. JL

PDF Bibles

As you know, we received a request to make the Bible available for download in the PDF format. For many people this means they can have the Bible in their computer or mobile device with or without internet. We have been working on that and, finally, we have placed a download link for almost all our languages in the following page:

https://www.wordproject.org/download/pdf_bibles/index.htm

This process was not easy as many languages contain characters that are difficult to reconcile with the format and several languages read from right to left. We are still working on some issues for the remaining 5 or 6 languages left to compile.

The short video outreach has been progressing and we have been adding some impressive clips from places nearby us: mountains, rocks, lakes, rivers and of course, sand and sea, have served as background to some powerful Bible verses whereof the users have shown their appreciation with their likes and comments.

Reached 3192 subscribers and 256 watching hours in the past 28 days. The praise the Lord for every single one of these short but definitely sweet clips.

On the main webpage there is always a lot going on. Servers are busy outpouring the Word of Life to those who are tired of lies and want the Truth:

Thank you so much for your support and prayers.

Here the overall stats:

Online Stats

WP

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Eclesiastes

If you have used WP new app for Android maybe you agree that is a very useful tool to read, hear, study and share the Bible. But if you do not use Android and you rather use IOS, then you are really missing something. Well, not for much longer. The IOS version of that app is in its last stages of development. Our Korean brother and friend, Hison, has dedicated a lot of time and effort to build upon the Android version. He is coming up with the IOS version. We thank Hison, and we thank God for this. We will soon be making the full app available on the website for eveyone to use and enjoy. Thank you also for your prayers for this.

Concerning our old Apps, in August we received comments like these:

Highly satisfied with this wonderful App. Easy and simple to use, the narrator is calm. No advertising. EG

Good app on my surface. It's fantastic. GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU. AAAAMEEEEEENNNNN./ DH

I love it a lot. I use it when I'm doing my household chores. It's a great blessing Amen DM

I have to give only 5 stars because that's the limit! But I would give a thousand if I could! ML

The organisation of the books is one. The clarity of the reader's voice. The voice is easy to listen to. The automatic continuation to the next chapter. The fact that it can be downloaded for offline is a plus KA

It's beautiful. It's excellent, I love it. Keep going and give the excellence that the word of God deserves. LM

We thank God for the fruits of our labours.

Shorts

This video outreach is growing slow, but it is growing. We had 14 thousand views on youtube and we are reaching 3000 subscribers. The beautiful images of nature are a real match to the deep, meaningful and inspiring messages from the Bible. All images are WP original video recordings. We make the clips in different languages, in an effort to reach people in different parts of the world. We are encouraged to continue.

See these recent clips:

Perhaps you did not know but on the website we have materials that can be used for witnessing or sharing the Gospel with others. Under the tab “resources” you find different studies based on biblical answers to common questions. For example, “Where does God come from?”

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/resources/where_does_God_comes_from/index.htm

(video Transcription:)

Your question, where does God come from assumes that you are thinking, obviously displays, that you are thinking of the wrong god. Because the God of the Bible is not affected by time, space or matter. If He is affected by time, space or matter, He is not God. Time, space and matter, what we call a continuum, would have to come into existence at the same instance. Because if you had matter and no space, where would you put i? If there was matter and space but no time, when would you put it? You cannot have time, space or matter independently, they have to come into existence simultaneously. The Bible answers that in 10 words: In the beginning, (there's time), God created the heavens (there's space), and the earth (there's matter). So you have time, space, matter, the trinity of trinities: Time - has past, present, future. Space - has breadth, length , height. Matter has solid, liquid, gas. We have a trinity of trinities created instantaneously, and the God who created them has to be outside of them. If He is limited by time, He is not God. The God who created this computer is not in the computer. He is not running around changing the numbers on the screen. The God who created this universe is outside the universe. He is above it, beyond it, in it, He is not affected by it.
So [if you have] the concept that a spiritual force cannot have an effect on a material body, then you have to explain to me why there are emotions, and love, and hatred, and envy, and jealousy and rationality - I mean, if your brain is a collection of chemicals formed by chance over billions of years, how on earth can you trust your own reasoning process and the thoughts that you think? Your question, where does God come from, is assuming a limited God. And that is your problem. The God that I worship is not limited by time, space or matter. If I could fit the infinite God into my 3-pound brain, He would not be worthy worshiping, that is for certain. So, that is the God I worship.

Stats

Online Stats

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love and prayers.

WP

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

A lot was written and published this month about the Olympics’ opening ceremony.
Christian and non-Christian were offended and protested the parody concerning sacred Christian symbolism. 
The event was a shame, showing how low moral values have descended in western society and the dark forces behind it.
Should we be surprised?
In fact no, the ‘games’ have always been pagan, since ancient Greece.
Christians should denounce and perhaps boycot the event, but, that is far fetched.
Today, in spite of the constant barrage of spiritual attacks, most Christians attend church but seldom read the Word. Much less keep their minds and hearts through memorization. That is the sad reality. ‘I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.’ (John 15:6)

Wordproject is an effort towards a more spirit filled Christian life. Bringing the Word to thousands of people every month, to countries and environments where Bibles are not available or difficult to get. Unfortunatly, where Bibles are available and easy to get, many choose not to read them. ‘One can only bring a horse to the water, one cannot force it to drink’ – as they say.

The friend who asked us last month to make a PDF version of Bibles for the prison inmates, wrote to us again with another question:

I have a follow up question. As I get ready to post, I see the Edovo vendor offers an option to (1) post only to our jail facility account, or (2) post to all jail and prisons accounts with a Securus tablet that includes the Edovo app service. I only asked on behalf of our facilities (option 1). I did not ask about a wider controlled dissemination option, as I didn’t know that was an option. I would think that would be in alignment with you mission and possibly preferred. Securus tablets are reported to be in about 2,600 correctional facilities... So let me ask.   Would your organization prefer we publish to (1) our facilities or (2) all facilities with this tablet and app? The access method would remain the same – an offline local copy is stored in the Edovo app cloud, and the app is accessed through a Securus tablet. The content is still free to the incarcerated person. The limits on ability to disseminate further still apply – persons can open a read only copy through the app only while incarcerated, unable to print or download or export further. Let me know what method your organization prefers. V/R,

Our answer is that the more inmates who can have access to the Bibles the better. Option (2) sounds fine. Meanwhile, I hope people out there realize, that giving the Bible to free people, early enough, maybe to their children, in schools, for example, may help society and themselves even more: Hopefully avoiding the kind of bad choices that bring people to be put in prison. ‘An once of prevention is better than a pound of cure’, so they say, or ‘train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’ – as in Proverbs 22:6.

We thank God for the many people who have that vision and are working with us to bring the Gospel to the world. Here is another email we received recently:

I'm working on a project to create a compact WiFi server containing Bible translations and other resources: The design and content of the device are open-source and freely redistributable.  A feature of the device is the ability to "clone" itself to other microSD cards.  This allows anyone anywhere to reproduce these devices offline.  After one device is built, it contains a simple tool to duplicate or "clone" other bootable microSD cards and build more devices. Currently the content includes over 1,300 Bible translations (910 languages) in HTML, ePub, and plain text formats.  The content also includes a multilingual search and interlinear Hebrew and Greek tools. One of the next goals is to include audio Bibles in 20-30 of the major languages.  I was wondering if I could obtain permission to use audio Bible MP3 files from wordproject.org. Thank you for all you are doing to take God's Word to the ends of the earth.  I pray He continues to bless your ministry. In Christ, BW

On other fronts: We have upgraded the WP App (Android Version) to have the Verse of the day linking to our website, when you share them. 
Also, short videos are a blessing to many, thus we made more this month, combining the wonders of creation with the Word of the Creator:

We thank you for your support and your prayers. Below are the overall stats:

Online Stats

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Love and prayers.

WP

Many people would like to know God but are confused because they do not seem to find God anywhere, even in church. Now, ‘in the begining was the Word…’, thus, to know God, one has to know the Word. A prisioner, for example, cannot attend church, for obvious reasons, nevertheless, should a person who is in prison wish to know God, through Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, that person may still do so through the Word. Now, I do not know how hard it is for the Bible to get into a prison, I guess it depends on the country. We received an email a few days ago, from a prison, and here is a partial transcription of it:

"I am an employee at the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. DAJD operates adult correctional and juvenile detention facilities .... I am reaching out to request if your organization can provide publicly available resources (open source) to our residents. We have recently acquired tablets that have a number of apps with holy texts. However, offerings in languages other than English is less complete. While we hope to serve all persons, our top spoken languages include Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean, and Chinese. I saw that your organization provides religious text in additional languages. Would your organization be able to provide or confirm authorization to use a digital, downloadable pdf version of text? It needs to be a pdf or similar to allow local download and upload into the tablets. DAJD Securus tablets can accommodate pdf or video file formats, but they CANNOT connect to the internet and so URL, apps, or QR codes do not work. We are also not allowed to download any apps that connect to the internet." DB 

That is an interesting approach, and fyi we are actually planning a PDF format Bible for every language. Meanwhile, we do have a downloadable version of our site that can be used offline, here:

https://www.wordproject.org/download/bibles/index.htm Our audio can also be downloaded, book by book, to be served or used offline. The idea is to make everything we have, available offline, here

https://www.wordproject.org/download/bibles/index.htm

But the question remains: how do other prisons, in other countries, let prisioners reconcile themselves with God? If they wish, of course. There is no easy answer, and thank God for the people in many parts of the world who dedicate their lives to witness to prisioners. I suppose, if a person gets to know God early enough, perhaps that person will never end up in prison – except there are believers also in prison – for example, Christians, who have been arrested for their faith, or people who have been unfairly accused of crimes they did not commit. There is a lot a nuances to this so, the mission of bringing God’s Word to people in general, is a mission we all should be involved in, if we really want a better world for us and others to come.

We are glad that our WP efforts go nuch beyond what we can personally do, as we suply the tools for others to do much more than we can. Here is a request we received this month:

"We want to use KJV English Audio files for our KJV android and iOS mobile applications. I found that asking permission to use those files is not required in the website. However we want to confirm that. If you requires contract please let us know. We will download files and save them on our server for streaming and downloading." Best Regards,

Our answer is already online and people can use our Bibles freely – We are honored and blessed by the fact that we are able to supply materials that others can use in their ministries. We thank the Lord for that and we thank the Lord for you, who make this efforts possible with your support and prayers.

Here are some other comments on the our App this month:

Extremely useful. In addition to Bible study, you learn other languages. I just have to thank you. May the Lord repay you for your service to the Kingdom. CF

Great for a nyone who wants to learn from the word of God. I put on the audio and start learning and meditating. JR

This is an excellent app for listening to the Bible while you drive. I've downloaded the entire Bible, and it will play continuously regardless of the weather or terrain. It also remembers where you left off, and the readers have a natural cadence to their voice. Thank you for making this. EL

Everything you need, without ads, without social networks and even in offline mode! Thank you so much RB

I really like this application, you are very easy to use and very edifying YF

Great. Very good application.please add malayalam language also. Thanks. VM

Excellent application to know the word of God. MP

There is great interest all over the world for the Word of God (see stats below). Life has no meaning without It. By God’a grace, we keep moving forward. Thank you.

Love and prayers.

WP

Online Stats