Audio Scripture Ministries is building a new studio in central Mozambique. (Photo by Audio Scripture Ministries)

Mozambique (ASM/MNN) — What can make a terminally ill and constantly pained child not only smile, but sing with joy?

Audio Scripture Ministries believes in and has seen the power of the Gospel to transform lives, perspectives, and hearts. In Mozambique, ASM is watching their ministry grow. Earlier this month they began construction on a new studio in central Mozambique.

As the year comes to an end, ASM shares the following story updating us on their work and what it’s doing to change lives:

ASM’s ministry in Mozambique is continuing to expand. The political instability and armed conflict that have brought some challenges to the project over the past year have finally subsided, allowing the ministry to move ahead with some new projects. One of the big new projects we are working on is the expansion of the ministry into the central part of the country. In the past years, we have done several audio Bible distributions and recordings from the central part of the country, but the challenges of traveling logistics, poor infrastructure, and limited connections in the area have made ministry there challenging.

(Photo by Audio Scripture Ministries)

In order to more effectively record and distribute audio Scriptures in the central part of Mozambique, ASM has recently broken ground on a new “satellite” training and recording studio/distribution center in the central part of the country. This new studio will be much smaller than our headquarters in the southern city of Xai-Xai, and it will be located 1,000 km to the north in Chimoio. It is our hope to be able to complete this new studio by April of 2015, but that will depend on funding and a host of other factors that we tend to face in a location such as Mozambique.

Earlier this year, ASM began an initiative to make audio Scripture materials available to the Chitewe people of central Mozambique. There are about 150,000 people that speak the Chitewe language, but they have no written Bible and virtually no Scripture materials available in any form. We began at square one with trying to collect Scripture songs and by beginning a translation project to at least make some Bible stories available in the Chitewe language. We have been able to assemble several hours of Scripture-based audio, and in the past months we have already started to see an impact.

One project we have the privilege of helping with is the first pediatric hospice/palliative care project in the entire country. This is a brand-new project that aims to provide a higher quality of life for children suffering from terminal diseases (mostly AIDS) through comfort care and the use of audio Scripture materials. The first patient in the program was given a Wildlife STORYTELLER loaded with Bible stories and songs just weeks ago, and there has already been an amazing change in his life. This little boy, who never smiled because of the constant pain from his advanced AIDS, is now smiling and singing. The reality is that we don’t know how long he has yet to live, but he now knows that God loves him. He has found that ultimate joy even in the midst of his pain.

(Photo by ASM)

Praise God for what He is doing through ASM. If you would like to partner with them and stay updated on how God is working through audio Scripture around the world, click here. (For giving to this project, look at Chimoio.)

It affected more than a million people, leaving over 150,000 homeless and some 247,000 acres of land ruined. To date, over 100 people have lost their lives, and cholera cases are nearing the 500 mark in the Cabo Delgado Province alone.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, it was the worst flooding to hit southern Mozambique in over a decade. They've issued an emergency appeal seeking approximately $2 million USD to help 5,700 families in the coming 6 months.

Xai Xai, where Audio Scriptures Ministries has a growing presence, sits along the banks of the Limpopo River. With unrelenting torrential downpours, it wasn't long before the river overflowed its banks and headed for nearby villages.

Thankfully, ASM's new recording studio, dedicated in September to putting God's Word into audio for various tribal languages, wasn't affected by the flooding. It's now being used to help meet physical and spiritual needs. ASM opened the studio to a relief organization whose own facility had been threatened by the deluge.

Along with food packages, ASM is giving audio Bibles to flood survivors in Xai-Xai. Pray that the Scriptures will nourish and encourage desperate souls during this time.

Some 1,400 audio Bibles, thought to be delayed by the flooding, actually arrived before waters began to rise. ASM also received a small grant to provide food items for 100 affected families. Teams were able to gather rice, beans, flour, oil, sugar, candles, and soap.

They bundled the items, along with an audio Bible for each family and delivered the care packages first to a group whose entire village was under water. The families didn't have enough warnin, and only saved what little they could carry–which didn't include any of the crops they had recently harvested.

These flood survivors had been promised goods by a government relief agency, but had yet to receive any assistance. When ASM teams arrived with help in hand, the people exclaimed, "God has heard our prayers!"

Pray that flood waters will withdraw quickly and rebuilding efforts can begin. Ask God to comfort those who lost loved ones in the tragedy.

If you can help ASM bring hope and healing to Mozambique, click here.

150,000 people have been displaced. Many survivors are trapped on rooftops.

One trapped woman gave birth on the roof of a clinic, and another baby was born on a house rooftop.

The floods came from the Limpopo River in the lower southern regions of Mozambique, a coastal African country.

Aid groups have set up relief camps for flood survivors. Patricia Nakell, spokeswoman for the United Nations, says the flood waters are still rising especially in the coastal town of Xia Xia.

Tom Dudenhofer with Audio Scripture Ministries (ASM) says, “We have people in Xia Xia right now that have actually gone down to the lower parts of the city of Xia Xia to look around. Sunday they went down to tour…. In the morning, the water hadn’t really started to pool, but by later that day it was rising very quickly.”

Transportation has been affected, says Dudenhofer. “The bridges and the causeways that normally are used to go out of Xai Xai have been already placed under water. One of the big concerns is not just the flooding, but the fact that the roads there are so susceptible to damage. So even if the flood waters were to go down really quickly, they’re still pretty sure that there’s been some serious damage to the roads.”

ASM has ministry in Xai Xai. “Our ministry facilities fortunately are placed high and dry,” Dudenhofer states. “So as far as our immediate equipment and our ministry center goes, they appear to be safe…. The issue related to our ministry is the shipment of digital players that are arriving in Maputo to the south of Xia Xia. And it looks like now that the guys are going to be cut off.”

Chad Vandenbosch with ASM is currently in Xia Xia. He shares, "We walked out onto the bridge over the Limpopo, and it was quite an amazing sight. The river that is normally just a couple hundred feet across, stretched as far as the eye could see. We could see just roofs of houses above water and small row boats still attempting to rescue people from the low lying villages."

“The serious flooding is not real common,” Dudenhofer says, “but it has happened enough and it was recent enough that the people were frightened and began to evacuate quickly when the first rumors of flooding began to come.”

Dudenhofer thinks they’re most likely going to have to wait for the flooding to go down. “They don’t really have big shipping boats for flooding situations because it’s a great flood plain so the water may not be real deep, but it wouldn’t handle a big boat.”

ASM’s ministry in Xia Xia has been growing over the past six years. They dedicated their recording studio in Xia Xia last September for putting God’s Word into audio for various tribal languages.

Dudenhofer says they have found a hunger for God’s Word in Mozambique. “Many of the people don’t read. Many of the pastors who minister in the rural areas, if they do read, it may be difficult for them and people have just been lined up sort of for a copy of God’s Word in audio. So we’re working as hard and as quickly as we can to both record many of the translations that are available, and then to make them available in the digital scripture players.”

The community may be struggling, but the local church is reaching out. “They are often reminded that they need more and that’s when their hearts turn to the Lord. Many of the Christians will be ministering to these other folks during this time,” Dudenhofer states.

Pray for the waters to recede quickly and for the people whose lives have been affected by the tragedy. Pray for ASM’s ministry and for the Gospel to bring hope.

Check out ASM’s Web site to support their ministry here.

Tens of thousands of Christians were
forced from their homes after riots in August following the murder of a Hindu
swami and four of his followers. Hindu
extremists blamed Christians and mounted mob attacks on churches, as well as
homes and villages populated by Christians.

Though arrests have been made in
the murders, thousands of believers are too frightened to return home. Many evangelical mission agencies are calling
the pogrom an effort to exterminate Christians completely. 

As a result, thousands have fled
to camps operated by the government, police officials and private groups.

However, because of extremist threats, Tom Dudenhofer with Audio
Scripture Ministries says not everyone is getting what they
need to survive the deteriorating conditions.
"It's cold there now, and the families are suffering. The kids, especially, need blankets and
clothing. However, attempts to take supplies to these people have been rejected
by the state authorities who say that they don't want to give this material to
the Christians because they'll only use it to force conversions on other
people." 

Though some try to return home, extremists are forcing them to make a choice: reconvert to Hinduism, die, or
leave. Dudenhofer is encouraged that it
appears many believers are refusing to recant.

The anti-Christian brutality
spread from Orissa into Karnataka state. However, ASM has seen a unique
evangelistic opportunity.   

Dudenhofer says their partners in
Bangalore say, "There's nothing else that these people have to turn to.
There is no hope; there is no promise of any material blessings or anything
coming out of this situation. Our
directors in Bangalore tell us that all of a sudden, a huge increase in
requests for Scriptures in audio has been coming out of this area."

Keep praying for those who are in
ministry in these dangerous areas. Pray
that their faith will not waver. And pray that God will sustain and provides for their needs.

ASM's missionary Chad Vandenbosch arrived at their project site with
the goal of doing some expansion work to the existing studio.   However, that got sidetracked because the
equipment was sluggish.   Once
everything inside checked out, the team headed for the roof.

ASM's Tom Dudenhofer says,
"Somebody had dismantled, lowered and carried away at least ten solar
panels off the roof of the Bible college. " 
It was the last thing they'd expected, because the panels sit atop a
three story building.

"It's a huge setback for the
ministry," explains Dudenhofer, adding, "The entire power system, if you want to call it that, was built around the
solar panels recharging the batteries, which in turn, was used for powering all
of the studio equipment." 

For now, the team is in a holding
pattern. They're facing the challenge of
coming up with the funds to replace the panels in order to continue this
critical support to evangelism. There
are many people who believe that groups with North American ties would be able
to quickly replace stolen equipment. That mindset does little to deter
theft. In this case, the nationals own
the project, so they will be the taking on the responsibility for the solar
panel replacement.

Plans are still moving forward on a second recording area that will
allow them to work on two Scripture recordings at a time. Once that is
completed,  they hope to work on New Testament
recordings in both the Sena and Tsonga languages.  

Dudenhofer says, "We'd
like people to pray for the believers in this particular area. This is a new
type of evangelism for them.  It
supplements their church planting, and their Bible college and  some of the other ministries are there. But
putting God's Word in audio for the many, many people that don't read is sort
of a new thought."

ASM has set a goal of placing 1000 Scripture players in Mozambique in
the coming year, and many churches and Sunday School classes have already signed
up to help them reach this goal. If you
can help with this project, click here.

Christians in Orissa state are
especially concerned about the implementation in light of the attacks that came
at the end of 2007 and lasted through January 2008. Many believers fled their homes and hid in
the jungles, and many churches were destroyed. 

Audio Scripture Ministries' Tom
Dudenhofer says riots in January separated church bodies, but "when they
didn't have any contact with their evangelists or pastors, they were able to
listen to God's Word with some of the Scripture players that have been made
available to them."

The laws are geared at curbing
religious conversions made by "fraud" or "allurement." According to the new rules of implementation, people
convicted under the anti-conversion law face up to three years in jail.   

Dudenhofer says their work is
within the law, but pray. "The anti-conversion law also is open to
interpretation. Our specific Scripture Player distributions in India are always
accompanied by a small fee that is charged to the people to demonstrate that we
were not 'bribing' people to become Christians." 

What's more, a new project has
been birthed because of the crisis.
"The people they talked to asked if it would be possible to get the
Old Testament. When believers request
the Old Testament, it's a demonstration of their desire to really grow deeper
in their walk with God."  Recording
on the Old Testament begins on May 15th. 

Please pray for God's grace and
protection for missionaries and churches in Orissa, that the believers would
stand firm in their faith and work. Click here if you can help.

ASM's Tom Dudenhofer says they're in desperate need of
media-technologies people with a vision for missions. "We really need to bring on some more
technically-oriented people who love the Lord and love to help people, who would be
willing to travel and are interested in passing on what they know about computers
and digital audio to believers around the world who really need these tools to
put God's Word in audio for non-readers." 

Here's how it would work: "There are national teams in Peru, around the country, who are
attempting to use media to put God's Word in audio and even video. They just need somebody to hold their hand or
to give them a little direction." In other
words, a volunteer would help guide the nationals in how to use the equipment,
how to process the audio they record, and how to troubleshoot some of the
equipment.

Dudenhofer says volunteers need to be able to commit a short
block of time to tutoring the nationals with the setup, but knowing the
language won't be as much a necessity. Translators are easily found with this kind of ministry.

Already, ASM has requests from Peru, the Philippines, and
Mozambique, with more coming in. "They
already have a strategy; they already know what they want to do. We're going in
there to help them do what God has laid on their heart to do."

Asked what would happen to the ministries if no volunteers
come forward in a timely fashion, Dudenhofer said simply, "Everything kind of
grinds to a halt. We do the best we can;
we're not a big organization. We're trusting
God. We know He has control of the timing, and we know that there are people
that He's prepared to help with the needs that we have."

Click here if you can respond.

At the Kempton Memorial Hospital,
Scripture is being played and distributed along with God's healing and
wholeness. 

This hospital is completely staffed and
funded by Association of Baptists for World Evangelism missionaries and
supporters. Its purpose is to provide both medical and spiritual help to all
who pass through its doors.

Most of the patients are Togolese, but
many come from neighboring Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Benin. Expatriates, both
American and European, frequent the facility.

Missionary physicians, physician
assistants, nurses compose the staff as well as Togolese nursing and support
staff.

The hospital's vision statement reads: "We are impacting the people of Togo by fervent medical evangelism." Fittingly, the hospital director would
like to record some tribal languages specifically found in Northern Togo in a
predominately Muslim area. 

Pray for him as he gathers equipment
and receives training. He's slated to
begin in January 2008 and then return to Togo.

At the moment, Sergio is overwhelmed by what needs to be done in Xai Xai. "He sent an e-mail back to our tech coordinators saying, 'If it's okay with you, I've asked this young man to help me out. He's very reliable. I'll pay for it out of my own pocket, but I just had to get some help, and I hope that's okay.'" 

Sergio continues recording the Makua New Testament. He has arranged for two readers to come from Mampula to finish reading while the Bible college students are on an extended break.  Pray for safe journeys and uninterrupted time for reading and recording.

In addition to recording the Makua New Testament, Sergio is distributing Sunday school resources done in audio. Even the teachers themselves do not need to read in order to teach about Jesus. 

Dudenhofer says it's a fledgling ministry that needs a lot of prayer and resources. "Here's a young man who has a heart for God. He's willing to stick his own neck out to get the job done, even if he has to use his own money, because he's committed to getting God's Word into audio for people just like him in the villages around the area who don't read."

Praise God for Sergio, who is committed to reaching his own country and people with God's Word in audio. Pray, too, for Sergio to be able to balance the ministry with the needs of his wife and baby.

ASM's Tom Dudenhofer says their "future" vision comes
from a "today" commitment. "There are believers in many countries who can
continue to record God's Word in their heart language. They can minister in
other areas in Scripture media." That describes their national partnership
focus where ASM can encourage believers to take ownership of their own outreach.

ASM also works with Bible translators, missionaries,
and others who recognize the need for Scriptures in audio format. They
assist projects such as leadership training, evangelism, Bible literacy and
others. That has encouraged church
planting and church growth, which also brings new challenges.

"The second area of need," says Dudenhofer, "is the
development of a technical staff to train the nationals." They're partnering with people who are
willing to give up two months or more to visit the different ministry sites and
help the nationals learn the equipment and learn how to troubleshoot. "The idea is to reproduce our ministry
everywhere we can, and anywhere we can find people who are willing and able to
do the job." 

The team encourages the distribution of the audio Scriptures by teaming with those on the field and providing the right equipment. This includes training on playback equipment and strategy for that particular area. It also means the team supplies various tools including the hand-crank, solar powered players designed especially for missions use. 

Dudenhofer says now is the time to act and pray.
"We realize that, down the road, many governments probably will not allow
outside funds to come into a country to provide support for some of these
ministries. So we need to get into the
countries that are still open and at least give some of the ideas and some of
the tools to the national believers to get them up and running."