Tiny tech sows global gospel seeds

A pioneering evangelical organisation is using tiny technology to plant gospel seeds in hard-to-reach nations.

More than 100 delegates have attended its first conference, gathering in the hope of reaching millions of people across the world.

Mission group OneHundredFold’s primary way of doing this is through providing evangelistic, discipleship and pastor-training materials on an app called Mustard Seed. This is installed onto a mobile phone via a MicroSD card which is inserted into the device’s memory slot.

OneHundredFold’s Director of Communications, Ben Griffin, said: “That this app is delivered via a MicroSD card means that we are not reliant on people having access to the internet. [This] makes our ministry ideal for those in closed or developing countries where access to Christian content is either forbidden, non-existent, or too expensive to use.”

Griffin described promoting the debut conference as “advertising the un-advertisable”, given the sensitivity of the work. Nevertheless, registrations passed 100: “I gave thanks”, Griffin said.

Six full-time supported workers – each with a background in technology – make up OneHundredFold’s team, in addition to a network of volunteers.

The aim of its first-of-its-kind conference was to deepen the knowledge of OneHundredFold for those with existing awareness of the organisation. Ensuring the event was offline meant the team could share more in-depth details of their work – particularly that which takes place among the persecuted church – something they are unable to do in, for example, some church visits.

“We also had an opportunity to showcase our less risky projects such as an app that presents the entire Bible in Ethiopian sign-language, a translation tool for multi-cultural churches,” Griffin said.

“Redeeming technology for the gospel,” is how Griffin described the organisation’s work. In addition to the Mustard Seed aspect of the ministry, OneHundredFold develops and sustains websites for its missionary partners; it is working on providing a way to keep water wells maintained and running for a mission in West Africa; and it helps missions keep their ministries safe from cyber-attacks. “These are but a sample of our ministry,” Griffin said.

In the next decade, OneHundredFold aims to see the gospel shared with 500,000 people; it wants to see 3 million people gain access to Scripture; and it aspires to see 100,000 receive pastoral training.