Albania (MNN) – Albania—its nickname is ‘Land of the Eagles’. Keys For Kids Ministries—they’re known for ‘Igniting a passion for Christ in kids and their families’. There is seemingly no connection between the two…however, with the understanding that God’s story is opening hearts, a chance meeting at a conference a few years back changed all that.
A Storyteller audio player (Photo Courtesy Keys for Kids)
Keys For Kids’ Executive Director Greg Yoder starts the story with a little context. “We have people from all over the world that are asking us to use our children’s devotionals, to translate them into their own heart language so that they have a resource to reach kids—because as you get away from the United States, kids’ resources are hard to come by.”
He recalls a conversation at the National Religious Broadcaster’s national convention about four years ago. “We were approached by an organization called MegaVoice, saying, ‘How many stories do you have?’ We said, ‘That’s all we have.’ (They said) ‘How many translations do you have?’ (We said) ‘Well, we’ve got one.’ (They said) ‘Could you do more?’ We thought, ‘Hmm. Maybe. Let’s find out.’ And then the Lord started blessing.”
Growing a story
A ministry connected and offered to help translate. “We now have not just English, but (also) Spanish. We just completed Macedonian and we also have Albanian completed.” What’s being translated? The content they’re loading onto the Storytellers. Yoder explains, “There are audio Bibles all over the place, and lots of organizations have them. But what they don’t have are stories to talk to children about these biblical concepts that would hear about on these audio Bibles.”
Keys for Kids Ministries is producing 300-plus stories, which are basically radio programs that translators record. That audio, plus an audio Bible, is then loaded onto solar-powered MP3 devices (that is also equipped with a flashlight, headphones, and USB charging cable). Yoder says, in the early phase of the project, all the content was in English. Those Storytellers fund the language program.
(Photo Courtesy Keys for Kids)
Fast forward to the Albanian release, where Yoder says demand is already outstripping their supply. “We’ll be finishing the production elements of that to be able to dub them onto these Storytellers. We just received a request for between 500 and a thousand of our Storytellers in Albania…and…we don’t have that many.”
The potential reach for this project gets overwhelming, by the numbers. In fact, it’s the possibilities of what God’s Word could do in Albania that makes him a little giddy. “Think of that! One thousand Storytellers are reaching 150 kids…each, because we do these in group sessions. Do the math. That’s a lot of kids.” He goes on to explain that $40USD actually purchases a unit and gets it shipped to the distributing partner—in this case, in Albania.
Do something…
The project means you can’t help but think of Isaiah 40:31:
But those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
It’s about waiting on God, expectantly, believing He will do something amazing. This is a big project and Yoder is inviting you to take a leap of faith with them.
There are three ways you can help.
“We’re asking people for prayer for wisdom; for mission teams that are maybe going to Albania, to take some of these units; we’re asking for funds. We have funding raised for these units, but not enough.”
Storytellers (Header photo courtesy of Keys for Kids Ministries)
