Higby Herald May 2014

May, 2014

Dear Friends,

After attending the Presenting God’s Word Conference, Priscilla and I are fired up about using non-print media to share the Good News. Over one hundred mission organizations were there to learn how to take advantage of audio, video, mobile phones, and social networks for the promotion of God’s Word. We saw how to make scripts for the Jesus Film, how to dub videos on the Lives of the Prophets, and even how to make a mobile app. One of our favorite stories was about how one Christian radio broadcasting organization in Australia made the decision overnight to pull the plugs on all their broadcasting towers and to re-equip their staff to produce Christian video clips instead. Changing times necessitated a bold move. Now they are getting many responses to the short videos they have created, here is one example. They can even measure how many lives have been touched as they watch them go viral on YouTube.

With the many options for presenting God's Word through audio, we were also convicted about the Fulfulde Scriptures that we helped translate. It is tempting to think the job is done when the books are delivered. However, to date, only about 20% of those copies have been distributed, largely due to the problem of illiteracy. We wrote to our partnering Norwegian mission and discovered that they have audio recordings of most of the New Testament. We want to help distribute those audio Scriptures creatively using new devices we learned about at the conference. For example, here is a solar charged LED lamp/audio player that can contain the whole New Testament as well as provide light in the house all evening long--ideal for for the Fulani people. Please pray that the remaining Fulfulde Scriptures get recorded and distributed. We will continue to share what we have learned with our colleagues and you can read about more exciting developments from Doug's blog.

We are privileged to be able to attend Henry’s graduation from Calvin College on May 24. His plan is to work in nursing care for a while before returning to graduate school for training as a Physician’s Assistant. At the same time we can visit with Kevin, currently working in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Afterwards, Roger will be graduating from the Black Forest Academy here in Germany. He will be working here for the summer to put money away for college.

We hope that we've been able to share just a little of the enthusiasm we have for what God is doing in missions through technology. Thank you for being the most precious asset to our ministry as you enable us to continue through your prayer and support.

Partners in the Gospel,           (Phil 1:5)

Doug & Priscilla Higby

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for new means of distributing Scriptures through the many new options that technology provides today.
• Pray that the Fulfulde Scriptures would be made available in audio form to facilitate access to those who can't read.
• Pray for Henry, Kevin, and Roger who are all in states of transition. Pray that God would direct and sustain them as their future plans develop.
• Pray for Doug as he leaves May 5 for a week-long Language Technology workshop, helping train field representatives to support Bible Translation teams working in Eurasia.