by Campbell Smythe | Apr 26, 2015 | BibleBox
The BibleBox is being used by MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in kits they place with isolated communities across Arnhem Land north Australia.
DVDs, CDs, Bibles and the electronic wifi BibleBox are gathered into one plastic toolbox and sent to isolated communities such as Numbulwar, Gurrumurru and Bremmer. These Bible kits provide opportunities for local people to purchase gospel material or download free digital resources and and access a wifi Bible from the BibleBox, on a wifi enabled device such as a phone, tablet or laptop.
TP Link WR842ND wifi router sharing wifi Bible and resources
MAF Technology Services has also setup a wifi router (above) at the local Yirrkala Aboriginal Church. This router means that people can connect via WIFI to view and download Gospel resources. This latest edition has the ability for people to view the words in Yolngu Matha for some of the songs that are sung on Sundays. Setup on a TP Link WR842ND the router is available 24/7 running off mains electricity at a fixed location, providing access to these resources at a known location for locals.
Yirrkala Church – north Australia
Remember these isolated communities dont have Christian bookshops, they dont have internet access – so by providing access to resources like these that we can take for granted in Australia is a fantastic support by MAF.
Donations to support the provision of these Bible resources for MAF are collected here – https://donate.maf.org.au/
by Campbell Smythe | May 17, 2014 | BibleBox
Good friend of the BIbleBox, Gama Astivia, has set up his own BibleBox and demonstrated it at a recent Digital Bible conference in Mexico. Now he is preparing more BibleBoxes in Spanish for use by other church workers in Mexico.
BibleBox in Spanish
Along with introducing the BibleBox to around 40 pastors and church workers, Gama has translated the BibleBox presentation and the web interface for the USB into Spanish! This is a great example of how a community can contribute to share the cross and reach more with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Here is a link to a PDF presentation of the BibleBox in Spanish.
In the Gallery below are some images of the BibleBox presentation in Mexico which were sent to me by Gama.
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 23, 2014 | BibleBox
The chart below comes from a 2013 survey of 12,424 mobile consumers across 17 countries to gain a deeper understanding of the global trends impacting mobile user behavior in the finance, telecommunications, retail, consumer products, and utilities industries.
Information like this is useful to help us shape our current and future mobile ministry activities.
- Data from Nielsen shows that smartphone penetration varies drastically across different countries in APAC, from 87% in Hong Kong and Singapore down to 15% in the Philippines.
- In ‘Developed Asia’ smartphone penetration is generally higher than in Europe or the US.
- Furthermore, in Southeast Asia alone, smartphone owners spent an average of more than three hours per day on their smartphones in June 2013.
- They spent the most time using chat apps, social networking and entertainment activities like games and multimedia.
Other social media statistics shows 20% of internet users in Indonesia using Twitter and the Philippines as a growing Facebook using nation with 30,214,140 users.
With Indonesia and the Philippines both significant in social media it must only be a matter of time before smartphones become affordable to the masses. Surely telecommunications companies want to make money from people spending time on social media on their phones?
Does this influence you in regard to mobile ministry? For me it’s developing a confirmation that in Asia Pacific a mobile ministry supported by wifi is a good direction.
If you are in Indonesia or the Philippines – does the chart reflect what you see around you?
Sources – http://www.sap.com/ , http://www.ibtimes.com/, and https://econsultancy.com/
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 11, 2014 | BibleBox
After having a conversation with Allan Carrington I usually have a mountain of resources and ideas to continue to work through. I reall love his vision and passion for learning development and the ways that different technologies can support that.
We’ve just been talking about the BibleBox and how it could be used to deliver e-Learning packages. Learning packages could range from a university class, to a school, to an isolated college in Indonesia or Burma. packages could be educational, biblical, Health or Community Development related – or all of these in one single Moodle install.
One of the ideas Allan has given me is to get a Moodle site running from the BibleBox. Moodle is an eLearning platform (opensource) which is used by thousands of students around the world. We also talked about Articulate Storyline and Studio 13 packages. I know these will work as they are webbrowser based objects.
The tricky one will be Moodle. It looks like it’s possible to install LAMP on OpenWRT – but Cyclone Ita is on its way so we’ll all be chilling out this weekend in Cairns- perfect opportunity to nerd it up.
by Campbell Smythe | Mar 13, 2014 | BibleBox
Hey! These days it’s absolutely necessary to connect with people using a variety of social media communities and The BibleBox now has a Facebook page and Twitter account! Follow the BibleBox project, share with your friends, build community, raise awareness of what’s possible and get more people accessing resources for the Cross over wifi. (more…)
