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In 1953 Joy Ridderhof visited Australia en route to PNG. Stuart Mill caught the vision and so GRN Australia was born. Sixty years later records have been replaced by Saber mp3 players and mobile phones. Reel-to reel tape recorders have been replaced by solid state recorders with hard disk drives. However, the core task of telling the story of Jesus in every language remains unchanged.
On the 25th of May 2013 GRN Australia celebrated 60 years of ministry - and we give thanks to God for that. We opened our doors and invited people to come, see what God has done through us in the past, what we are doing now, and to look at the possibilities for the future.
Looking back we can see God's faithfulness in providing: people, buildings, equipment, creative ideas and money. We have heard stories of people coming to faith in Jesus while listening to our recordings. It's amazing to watch a cardboard record player proclaim the gospel in some remote African language and to consider that I can download the good news in any one of 6,000 languages onto my mobile phone.
We know that there are over 12,000 spoken languages and dialects. We have recordings made in over 6,000 of these languages. There is still a lot of work for us to do.
GRN Australia has pioneered the work of GRN in several countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. We also support the work in Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa and several other countries. It's a great privilege to continue to seek Christians and churches who will continue to support the work of GRN in these nations.
Looking to the future we can see the need for better quality videos to communicate the good news of Jesus - please be in prayer with us, that God will raise up someone willing and able to lead the way with video within GRN.
Over the years many people have visited churches within Australia and New Zealand to tell the story of GRN. We have a story worth telling, and how can people pray and get involved in a ministry they know nothing about. We are very thankful to our Lord for raising up new people to tell our story - please pray that God would raise up more people to pray and support the work of GRN.
Once we had volunteers who pressed records, made record players and assembled hand-wind tape players. Today our volunteers assemble Saber players, write software and translate our website. We also have volunteers working in finances, maintenance, administration and studios amongst other things.
When Joy began GRN so many years ago, she thought there were 300 languages spoken in the world. We now know that there are over 12,000 spoken languages and dialects. We have recordings made in over 6,000 of these languages. There is still a lot of work for us to do.
The internet, mobile phones and data storage devices have changed the distribution landscape. Even in developing countries many people have mobile phones. We have the means to communicate the gospel to more people than ever before.
So we look back and are encouraged by God's obvious guidance and provision over the years. We look forward and see the possibilities. There are many more languages to record, the possibility of communicating the message more effectively and the ability to reach so many more people through new technology
Please Pray With us
- Pray that we would make the most of the opportunities, be sensitive to God's leading and faithful to our calling of telling the story of Jesus in every language.
- Pray that God will raise up someone willing and able to lead the way with video within GRN.
- Please pray that God would raise up more people to pray and support the work of GRN.
- Thank God for the great attendance at the 60th anniversary and pray that He will use it to encourage existing supporters and inspire new supporters.