Audio Scripture plays a big role in reaching people with the gospel in the Solomon Islands. Cultures there are primarily oral, which means that the spoken Word is often more effective in reaching people than the written Word. Cynthia Rollins, a Scripture Use worker, is helping to facilitate recordings of the 20 Scripture translations that have been completed in the country.

Scripture recordings are very well received; they’re distributed on a variety of devices and even played daily on the public radio station. Cynthia shares an encounter she had when providing audio Scripture at a local event:

“We had a Bible Day display in Honiara, the capital city, and we were playing the Scripture aloud and offering to send the audio Scripture files to people’s phones via Bluetooth technology. One woman listened to a Bible story in her own language and it meant so much to her, she wanted to download it, but her phone wasn’t capable. So she went out and bought a new phone, just so she could have the translated Scripture.”

Cynthia’s team faces unique technology challenges in their work recording translated Scripture. Quality equipment is hard to obtain in the Solomons, and when available it is quite expensive. Once items are in place, they’re difficult to maintain due to the intense heat and humidity. These factors leave electronics in short supply, and Scripture use workers — trained volunteers from local churches — must share equipment or do their work by hand.

During a recent visit to Wycliffe USA’s headquarters, Cynthia was able to pick up two laptops for the team that had been donated by Wycliffe partners. Cynthia says, “There’s so much value in your electronics donation. It makes the work so much easier for our volunteers. They are overjoyed to receive them. Solomon Islanders are so appreciative of everything that they have — especially the Word in their language.”

You can be part of providing for the technology needs of projects like this one by donating through Wycliffe’s Gift in Kind program. When you donate your unneeded laptops, tablets or smart phones to Wycliffe, we can turn them into financial support for Bible translation, and in some cases we can send the items directly to translation projects in need of additional electronics to do their work.

To get started, please visit wycliffe.org/gifts-in-kind or call 407‑852‑3894.