Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220044A
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00:04 I want to spend my life
00:10 mending broken people. 00:15 I want to spend my life 00:21 removing pain. 00:26 Lord, let my words 00:31 heal a heart that hurts. 00:36 I want to spend my life 00:42 mending broken people... 00:47 I want to spend my life 00:53 mending broken people. 01:06 Hello friends! Welcome again to another edition 01:08 of 3ABN Today. 01:10 My name is Ryan Day, and we are 01:12 excited about today's program. 01:14 Every program here at 3ABN 01:16 is exciting in my opinion. 01:18 But for sure today is special because we've got AudioVerse 01:21 in the house. That's right: the ministry AudioVerse 01:24 which we're going to learn all about today. 01:26 It's a great tool of evangelism; a great tool that you can share 01:29 with people and just bring encouragement to yourself 01:32 and others. And we're going to talk all about 01:33 what is going on in the world of AudioVerse 01:35 in just a few moments. 01:37 We have Alistair Huong and Eli Kim with us. 01:41 How are you guys doing? Doing great! Wonderful to be here 01:43 with you. Amen! Praise the Lord. 01:44 You guys are coming to tell us all about AudioVerse 01:48 and I'm excited what's going to be discussed during this hour. 01:51 So don't go anywhere. In fact if you have any friends 01:54 or family around that's interested in this powerful tool 01:57 tell them to gather around right now. 01:59 We're not going to get started just yet because before 02:00 we get started we're going to have a beautiful song 02:02 that's going to be brought to us by my good friend Miss Pat Koh. 02:05 And she's going to be playing a song for us entitled 02:08 Overshadowed. 07:24 Amen! My Sr. Pat Koh: always a blessing. 07:28 I love her music. She plays so well 07:30 and thank you, my sister for blessing us with that song. 07:33 Welcome back, my friends. If you're just now joining us, 07:35 my name is Ryan Day. You're watching 3ABN Today. 07:38 And we have AudioVerse in the house with us. 07:41 I'm so excited because I guess you guys are the faces... 07:45 the faces behind the great exciting powerful app 07:49 that everyone has on their phones and listening to hundreds 07:52 of thousands of hours of sermons. 07:54 But we have with us today Mr. Alistair Huong 07:58 and Eli Kim from AudioVerse. 08:00 So I want to start with you, Alistair. Just tell us 08:02 a little bit about yourself: where you're from 08:04 and a little bit of background, what you do for AudioVerse. 08:07 Yeah, well thanks so much for the warm invitation here, Ryan. 08:09 It's great to be with you. 08:11 I am one of the early volunteers of AudioVerse. 08:13 For those who don't know, AudioVerse started back in 2005. 08:16 My brother-in-law actually was one of the founders 08:19 of the ministry and he roped me in. 08:21 I was good friends and Eli was a good friend of ours 08:23 as well during that time. 08:25 And we were a volunteer group of Hodge podge 08:27 mission-minded young people wanting to serve the Lord. 08:30 So AudioVerse was the thing we got involved with 08:34 early on. But as the ministry grew 08:36 everyone's lives took over: careers and families and kids. 08:40 I ended up being asked by the board to become 08:42 the chief executive - executive director - of the ministry. 08:45 Praise the Lord! And so now that's my role. 08:47 I guess you can say I help facilitate things 08:52 but the main thing is I get all the blame for everything 08:53 that goes wrong. That's my job. Of course! 08:55 Of course. That's natural I suppose. 08:58 Eli Kim. How are you, my brother? 09:00 Well thanks for having us here, Ryan. 09:02 Yeah, I was also there in the very beginning. 09:05 I remember... Actually I remember when they had 09:07 a competition for suggestions of a name for AudioVerse. 09:13 I remember submitting something. 09:14 I don't remember what I submitted, but I'm glad 09:17 AudioVerse won. 09:18 And someone won a prize I believe. 09:21 I was there from the beginning, also a volunteer as well. 09:24 I helped I guess design the first logo for AudioVerse 09:27 and now they asked me to be a board member. 09:30 I've been a board member for a while now 09:32 and that's my involvement. 09:35 I do want to just make sure we give credit where credit is due. 09:39 We're only two members of a team of many people 09:43 that contribute their talents to this ministry. 09:45 Amen. And we're very appreciative of their ministry 09:47 and sacrifice as well. Praise the Lord. 09:50 That's such a blessing. Here at 3ABN, we have new viewers 09:54 all the time, and if you are a new viewer 09:55 and you're watching 3ABN for the first time, 09:58 I want to welcome you. So we have new viewers all the time 10:01 that tune in to 3ABN, and there's someone probably 10:03 right now saying: "What n the world is Audioverse? " 10:07 So tell us a little bit about AudioVerse. 10:09 Its history... how it got started... 10:11 and let's just start there. 10:14 I think that's a great great point to start. 10:16 Yeah. I can give you a little bit of the history 10:18 and I'll let Eli share a little bit as well. 10:20 So AudioVerse as I mentioned started in the year 2005. 10:24 To give you a little bit of a context 10:26 that was before the iPhone was invented. 10:30 It was a revolutionary idea. 10:32 We were... I think Facebook started the year after 10:37 or somewhere in that realm. 10:39 Google was just in its infancy; the Internet was nothing like 10:42 today, so it really was quite a leap 10:45 for these college students or medical students at the time 10:48 to have this idea: "Hey, why don't we put 10:50 all of these sermons from our youth group? 10:53 This was in Loma Linda, California. OK. 10:55 The Advent Hope Sabbath School on campus there. 10:57 There were preachers coming every Sabbath. 11:00 And we were still burning CDs to give them out for free. 11:03 And we thought: "You know what? Everybody's got an iPod. " 11:06 Do you remember those? Yeah... that's right. 11:08 And so everyone could download the MP3s 11:10 and just put them on the iPod. 11:11 And we got in touch with various ministries as partners 11:15 and they started putting their content on our site. 11:17 And you know you can say "the rest is history. " Um-hmm. 11:20 But maybe Eli can share a little bit about what AudioVerse 11:23 is today. Yes. Well today we've grown to 11:27 such a large ministry where we're worldwide. 11:29 A lot of people don't realize that it's not just America... 11:31 although that is one of our largest audiences. 11:34 But is IS worldwide. Anyone who has a phone 11:37 or has Internet really can down- load and listen to the sermons. 11:40 And we have some statistics for that. 11:42 It's actually one of the things I anticipate from your report 11:46 every month where you tell us the numbers 11:49 and we see: "Wow! We reached this country and this country. " 11:51 So we are all over the world. 11:53 But we're not just a sermon collection. Sure. 11:57 We do more than just that now. 11:59 We've expanded to other features like audio Bible 12:04 we have on there as well where you can listen to 12:05 the different voiceovers, different versions of the Bible. 12:09 You can listen as well as stuff for children. 12:12 There's a lot of content for children as well. 12:14 Children's programming. We've expanded to even some things 12:19 like Scripture songs. Wow! Like people can learn new songs. 12:24 It's a great way to memorize Scripture. Sure! Sure! 12:26 We have the story of a young lady in Thailand 12:30 who... Her name is Shani 12:34 and she was wanting to get content. 12:37 She was a new Christian at the time 12:39 and she discovered AudioVerse. 12:41 She really didn't want... she didn't know much speakers 12:45 I should say, and she discovered all these speakers 12:48 on there. But one of her favorite things was... 12:51 in her testimony she shared with us... 12:53 was the Scripture songs. Scripture songs. 12:55 She loves that. And on top of that, she... 12:57 as she learned about these new speakers 12:59 that she'd never heard before 13:01 during the pandemic actually in Thailand they were locked down. 13:05 And she had the courage to actually, contact these speakers 13:10 to have them speak to her local church in Thailand. 13:13 Oh wow! It was a great testimony to hear. 13:16 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! So you mentioned 13:18 that it's worldwide. That kind of leads me to my next question 13:21 which was: "Who specifically is AudioVerse for? " 13:25 Is there a particular audience? Age group? 13:27 And you know are there sermons in different languages? 13:30 Who's the audience? 13:32 Yes, and you know the Bible tells us that 13:35 the gospel has to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, 13:37 and people. That's right, yeah. And we take that seriously. 13:39 That's really our mission. That's our burden: 13:41 that's what AudioVerse is about. 13:42 And that's one of the reasons why we operate online. 13:44 And we do that in a cost-effective way 13:47 and so we reach well over 200 countries around the world. 13:50 And we have currently over seven languages with more on the way. 13:53 Sure! Sure! And we have content for the whole family. 13:57 Eli mentioned from Shani who is a young adult 14:01 we have children's material. In fact, Starting with Jesus 14:04 is a children's program that we worked together with 14:08 during the pandemic. That's when they started. 14:10 And they started creating children's content 14:12 and we have that on AudioVerse. 14:13 And as I understand it they actually air 14:16 for 3ABN... the kid's programs are aired on 3ABN as well. 14:19 Amen! Amen! So it's one of those things that 14:22 we are able to reach even the younger children. Sure. 14:24 And then we have the Scripture songs. So for all ages 14:27 of different cultures. And I'll just share one quick story 14:30 about this. We have one of our speakers on AudioVerse... 14:33 his name is Dr. Eric Walsh. 14:35 He's a physician with a very busy practice 14:37 but he spends a lot of time in ministry and preaching - right - 14:40 and he has a lot of influence in Africa. 14:43 He's done a lot of work over there, but the pandemic 14:45 prevented him from traveling. Oh! BUT 14:48 he was able to get his sermons on AudioVerse over to the 14:52 congregations over there. Wow! And they didn't like using 14:54 YouTube because YouTube you get all the ads 14:57 and you get distractions from all the different things 15:00 they're recommending to you. "Hey look at this 15:01 latest movie" or whatnot. 15:02 He said: "No, we want to focus on God's Word. " 15:04 So they would have Bible study groups even though they couldn't 15:07 gather in person and Dr. Walsh couldn't come 15:10 in the WhatsApp chat group and texting 15:13 sending messages back and forth. 15:14 I didn't know that was going on until a few times, we were late - 15:18 delayed - getting some of the messages up. 15:20 We were getting messages and they were like: "Hey, 15:22 what is it late? What's goin' on? 15:23 We need this for our Bible study group! " 15:27 And so it's really for everyone around the world, 15:30 and it's the free message of the grace of Jesus 15:33 through the everlasting gospel. 15:35 We're thrilled that the Lord has placed in us the means to 15:39 spread the gospel in this way. 15:40 Amen! Praise the Lord! 15:42 I was tellin' you guys during the break that I have listened 15:45 to... I don't know, I can't even count... hundreds, 15:48 hundreds and hundreds of hours as I've traveled 15:50 in my evangelistic efforts. 15:52 AudioVerse. Pick a sermon... you know, sermon after sermon. 15:56 So it's such a blessing. But I have to ask this 15:58 because as an AudioVerse user I'm sure there's many many 16:01 people watching who are very familiar with AudioVerse. 16:03 But I'm sure there's probably some features 16:06 or some aspects to this ministry 16:09 that many people are unaware of as current users or you know 16:13 perpetual users. So what are some of those maybe features 16:16 that people may not know about? 16:17 I'll let Eli share some of that but just one thought 16:20 back on what you were just mentioning. 16:21 I think it might be helpful to get some context 16:23 to the scale of influence that AudioVerse has. 16:28 As you mentioned, you're listening on a road trip 16:30 and all that kind of thing. We actually have measured 16:32 that in an average month on AudioVerse over 140,000 hrs. 16:38 of content is being listened to. If you divide that out, 16:41 that equals over 5,800 days every month of the equivalent... 16:47 basically, you're playing sermons for 5,800 days non-stop. 16:51 That's the equivalent of how much people listen to 16:53 every month. Praise God! In one month! In one month. 16:56 Another way to think about it is we've all been to these large 16:59 conventions, maybe it's a 3ABN Camp Meeting 17:01 or an ASI convention where thousands of people gather. 17:04 Sure. The numbers essential bear out. 17:06 We have a convention of that scale every single day 17:09 happening on our site. Wow! 17:11 So the gospel is going out and we're thankful to 17:14 be a part of that. Praise God for that; praise God for that. 17:16 Nothing's holding the Lord back from getting the gospel out. 17:19 AudioVerse is playing a major role in that. 17:21 Some of the features that maybe some of our users 17:25 use it on a daily basis are not familiar with 17:27 are, with the new app that we've developed recently, 17:31 is these libraries where you can collect different sermons 17:35 that you want to listen to later. Um-hmm. 17:37 And with the new app you can actually... 17:41 You know sometimes you don't get to listen to the whole sermon. 17:43 Maybe you're busy and half-way through. Sure. 17:46 But now it remembers every place that you listened to it 17:49 in the past in that library. 17:51 You can go back to it and listen to it again later. 17:53 And so there's... That's so cool because 17:57 I find myself all the time watching a sermon on YouTube 18:00 or something and I'll have to remember: 18:02 "OK... I'm at 1923. " 18:04 But that's... It works great for listening to the Bible, 18:07 right? So you know you're trying to listen to the whole 18:09 Bible: it can remember where you left off 18:11 and you can listen to the whole Bible in less than a year. 18:13 That's awesome. And that's one of the things 18:16 about that is as long as you have an account - 18:18 set up a free account on our service - 18:21 we sync your progress across devices. 18:23 So if you're at home on a computer and you listen to... 18:25 half-way, you can pick up your phone and hop in the car 18:28 it will remember where you were and you just pick up 18:31 where you left off. That's if you sign up 18:33 and register your account. A lot of our users 18:36 just actually go to the website, listen to the sermon. 18:39 They don't sign in, but it's a benefit to sign in 18:42 so it saves all your libraries. It saves where you were 18:45 at before across devices. 18:47 So they can listen for free, but if they want access to these 18:50 special features you're speaking of you know to sign in. 18:52 I guess register on a particular account. 18:54 And it's a free account; there's no charge for our service. 18:57 Wow! That is so awesome. 18:58 Praise the Lord for that. 19:00 So let's talk about... Even though it seems like 19:04 we're somewhat coming out of this COVID pandemic... 19:08 I mean, my goodness... it's still... it's still a thing. 19:12 We'll say that. Yeah. It's not what it used to be 19:14 but it's still a thing. But I understand that 19:17 AudioVerse underwent some major I guess changes 19:21 or major experiences during that particular time. 19:24 So I guess my question is: how was AudioVerse affected 19:28 during the pandemic? 19:30 Well... I can answer that. Basically 19:33 a lot of churches were shut down - right - 19:35 but AudioVerse wasn't. 19:37 That's right. So we became a church for a lot of people. 19:39 Amen, brother. And our "listenership" I guess 19:43 increased tremendously during that time. 19:45 People were using it for church for spiritual growth. 19:49 And so it was a tremendous blessing. And we used that time 19:53 actually to... we decided we needed to really expand 19:57 or update our infrastructure of our apps 20:00 'cause it was I guess from the very beginning 20:03 we didn't change from how it was programmed 20:05 from the very beginning, and the Internet and the world 20:08 changed a lot. So during that time we took that opportunity 20:10 to re-do the entire infrastructure. 20:15 Wow! And if you're not a programmer or developer 20:17 you might say: "Was it that big of a deal? " 20:20 If you're a developer, you're probably like: "Wow! " 20:22 So I think Alistair gave me an analogy of that. 20:26 It was like we were in a single-prop engine airplane 20:31 and we decided to upgrade our airplane to a Boeing 777. Wow! 20:37 You know? While we're flying, right? Wow! 20:40 That's amazing. That was quite the focus. Yeah. 20:43 And really ultimately why do we have to do that? 20:46 Well for one, we have the time 20:48 because events were shut down. 20:49 We didn't have much travel going on - sure - 20:52 but the work had to continue. That's right. 20:54 And we also foresaw: "You know what? The gospel 20:57 still has to go to the world and we need to reach a lot more 20:59 people. " But our infrastructure was not ready for that. 21:02 We had to be able to scale up. 21:04 And so in order to adopt in - you know - thousands & millions 21:07 more users in the future we had to fix the underpinning - sure! 21:10 of the ministry. And so we rebuilt the whole thing - 21:12 wow - from top to bottom basically. 21:15 Full... We stripped it down to the studs to use another analogy 21:19 for our audience. And one of the pieces that we recently 21:23 just launched is we have a brand-new mobile app 21:26 and refreshed design with some of the new features 21:29 that we discussed before. 21:31 And it just rolled out not long ago for our users. 21:33 And we actually made a short video to just highlight 21:37 the new app, so maybe we can run it now. 21:40 Yeah, let's run the video right now. 21:59 Covenant relationship with my God, my Savior. 22:04 Sick or well; whether you are young or old; 22:07 whether your body is afflicted or you're the flower of health 22:12 trust the One who holds your life in His hands. 22:18 Let's pray. Father in heaven... 22:42 Wow! That's amazing. 22:43 So how long did it take? Having to build or kind of re-vamp 22:48 or create this new app? 22:49 How long does some process like that take? 22:51 Basically, it took two years... since the start of the pandemic 22:54 'cause we had to upgrade a great deal of the underpinnings. Sure. 22:57 And then the mobile app was kind of the last piece of it. 22:59 Before that we also launched a new website. 23:02 We actually have a few images of that 23:04 and we can show our audience now. 23:05 Our new website also has a similar look. OK. 23:09 We've got two images. The next one is on a laptop 23:11 computer showing our new media player. Oh wow! 23:14 And then of course we also have a few images here of our 23:16 mobile app to give you a better view than the video. 23:19 The new AudioVerse app is like having a preacher in your pocket 23:23 we like to say. That's right! 23:24 You've got all the different new features, 23:26 and thank you so much for showing those images. Yes! 23:29 For our audience, you can download it for free right now 23:31 from the Google Play and iOS app store. 23:33 Or if you don't even have a Smartphone 23:35 you can find us online. Right? at our website: 23:38 And all of these new features... the ultimate mission - 23:41 sure - is to make the gospel 23:43 more accessible to the people 23:45 of the world so that we can be 23:47 ready for Jesus to come. Um-hmm. 23:49 And I'm thankful that during the pandemic... 23:50 One other testimony really is that 23:53 while the world was locked down 23:55 we were concerned about the financial means 23:58 to be able to afford development of the app and the technology 24:02 but the Lord was gracious that the generosity of His people 24:06 and His listeners really came through to allow us to invest 24:09 heavily when other aspects of what we were doing 24:13 were slower. That's amazing. 24:15 So I have to ask... not that I'm expecting 24:17 you to give any type of specific numbers 24:19 but you had to have seen a major increase from right before 24:24 the pandemic. Then the pandemic comes... 24:26 I mean, did you guys see a massive increase in numbers 24:30 or traffic? It was a surge. Oh yeah. 24:31 At the peak we were well over 50% higher 24:34 you know from a month-to-month basis. 24:36 On a total basis, you know it's hard to exactly 24:38 figure out where to start counting. 24:40 But it was definitely a surge in traffic. 24:43 There's no question. That's amazing! That's amazing. 24:45 I love the fact that... Obvious- ly this whole pandemic thing 24:48 is the enemy just trying to attack and trying to... 24:51 You could just imagine the enemy trying to think: 24:53 "Oh, I'm going to shut the church down. " 24:55 "I'm going to shut the gospel down. I'm going to prevent 24:57 all these people from receiving the gospel. " 24:58 But yet the Lord was like: "Yeah, but you forgot about 25:00 AudioVerse. " "You forgot about 3ABN. " 25:02 "And you forgot about... " And so God is using your ministry 25:05 and has used your ministry to be able to reach people 25:08 during a time when the enemy perhaps has the plans to shut 25:11 that communication down. But praise God for what AudioVerse 25:14 is doing. Yeah, one other thing about the expansion 25:17 that you are just talking about is during the pandemic 25:19 we actually expanded to a few other languages 25:21 during that time. So the Japanese site we were working on 25:24 even beforehand. So we have a new Japanese site. 25:28 We also launched a Russian language site. 25:30 Of course Russia is in the news a lot today, 25:33 and I know 3ABN has done a lot of work in Russia as well. 25:36 Sure. And so we have a brand new launch there. 25:39 And we're working with a team in the Scandinavian countries 25:42 right now for 3 of the Nordic languages 25:45 to also come online - sure - hopefully later this year. 25:47 So we have not been sitting still... even though maybe 25:50 the world was in lockdown we were not sitting still. 25:52 That's right! Amen. So yeah, the gospel needs to go. 25:54 Reminds me of that quote how we're spreading out 25:57 to the whole world. Sure. Ellen White said in... 25:59 in Life Sketches... she was re- ferring to the publishing work 26:05 talking to her husband 26:06 and she was talking about how "from this small beginning 26:10 it was shown to me to be like streams of light 26:13 that went clear around the world. " 26:17 Amen. And we thought we're kind of an extension 26:19 of like the publishing work in a sense. Yes! 26:21 because back then they would actually, take the sermons... 26:23 They would listen to it and write it down, and then 26:25 they would publish it. Right. In a sense, we're taking 26:27 the actual sermons in audio form 26:29 and sending it in literal beams of light 26:32 in fiber optic cables around the whole world. 26:35 Yes! And it makes... you just kind of picture that. 26:37 So countries we can't actually go to we can at least stream to. 26:41 Amen! It's such a blessing! 26:43 And I love the fact that we have our slogan for the new 26:46 redesign is "Sound Doctrine. " 26:49 Oh, I love that! I like that. 26:51 Very nice. And it's great because 26:54 what we are NOT is we are not YouTube - 26:56 right - in a sense because YouTube has ads. 26:59 They have a lot of things you don't want to see. 27:01 There's a lot of suggested content after you watch 27:04 for secular things: like a new movie that came out. 27:06 You don't want to get distracted. 27:08 That reminds me of a story of Emily from New York City. 27:12 She's a 14-year-old girl who wrote to us 27:16 telling us how AudioVerse had affected her life. 27:19 She was trying so hard she said 27:21 to not be distracted by the things of this world 27:23 and she said that specifically a social media platform that 27:27 she used to listen to sermons she didn't watch because 27:29 it was too distracting. Oh yeah! She specifically said that 27:32 and she said: "So I turned to AudioVerse 27:34 and it was such a blessing. " On her morning commute to school 27:38 she would listen to it every day. Wow! 27:39 Uninterrupted? Uninterrupted. Praise God! 27:41 That's like sound doctrine. You don't have to worry about 27:44 what am I going to get... what am I going to listen to today? 27:48 We pride ourselves in making sure that 27:51 the content is... Sure. I mean that's actually one of our tag 27:55 lines right, isn't it? "Curating the best 27:59 in Adventist audio content. " 28:00 Curating the best Adventist audio content. 28:03 Praise the Lord! So don't have to worry. 28:04 A lot of times also people who are living 28:07 in a small town somewhere, don't have access to 28:10 some experts in the field of certain topics: 28:13 Daniel & Revelation or whatever 28:15 and they don't get to maybe hear those speakers - 28:17 um-hmm - in all parts of the world. 28:19 And they can rest assured that when they go to AudioVerse 28:24 that they can get access to those sermons. Sure. 28:27 They don't have to worry about: "Am I going to listen to this 28:29 hour sermon on YouTube? " Well, YouTube or whatever... 28:32 website... "I'm not sure if this is good content or not. " 28:36 Right. Just posted by whoever. 28:38 But we know that we've vetted it. Absolutely... wow! 28:42 Praise the Lord! So are there any other further developments 28:46 with AudioVerse that maybe our people listening 28:50 may not be aware of? Plans or anything you have 28:52 for the future in regards to expanding AudioVerse 28:55 or anything like that? Yeah. Actually, we are looking at 28:59 a few other languages that we mentioned. Right; right. 29:01 Starting with Jesus is still going strong with children's 29:03 content, and one of the things that we really are focused on 29:06 is making AudioVerse a tool for evangelism. 29:09 A tool for our listeners to use in their tool kit 29:13 to reach other people. 29:15 AudioVerse as a media ministry we are no substitute. 29:18 We understand this very clearly. We do not substitute 29:20 the actual live preacher: the personal evangelist, 29:24 the neighbor knocking on a neighbor's door to give 29:26 a Bible study. But we want to be there to assist 29:29 and to augment that experience. 29:31 And so we do have some ideas of how we're going to do that. 29:34 I think we really have to tell you this amazing story - oh, 29:37 absolutely - of Dr. Kim. So a friend of ours, Dr. Calvin Kim, 29:42 he is truly an evangelist. 29:46 He has a... he's a very busy dentist - 29:49 uh-huh, and has a very busy dental practice. 29:51 But there's no excuse. He really just... The time he DOES have 29:55 he has 20 or more Bible studies. 29:58 I'm sure it's probably more now. I don't know, you know. 30:01 Twenty Bible studies that he is having on a weekly basis. 30:05 Wow! And as Alistair said there's... 30:07 AudioVerse can be used as a tool - sure - 30:11 so a lot of times his Bible study contacts 30:13 they would have questions. 30:15 He would have a study on let's say the Sabbath 30:17 and they had questions. 30:19 "How do I keep the Sabbath? " "I work on Sabbath... 30:22 what do I do? " And so he shared about 30:24 how he shared a sermon of Steve Kasperbauer 30:27 who spoke at ASI a few years ago 30:30 about how he had a company that is a tourist company 30:33 that he has closed down on Sabbath and God blessed him. 30:36 And so he shared that with him. And because of that 30:39 the person was blessed. So he caters to their needs. 30:42 Sure. As they are asking questions about a certain things 30:45 he will share an AudioVerse sermon with them 30:48 either before or after if they have questions 30:50 during the week. 'Cause he can't spend countless hours. 30:53 Yeah, absolutely. But he has twenty of them and he can use 30:57 AudioVerse to help him along the way. 30:58 Absolutely! But that's not the whole story. 31:01 There's more... there's more to this story. 31:04 So Dr. Calvin Kim told us the story of how he 31:08 basically multiples his time - right? with his... you know... 31:12 several dozen Bible study contacts. 31:14 And then we got a story from a gentleman named Ricky. 31:18 And Ricky tells us: "I came across AudioVerse 31:21 because of my local dentist. " 31:23 Guess who it was? It was Dr. Calvin Kim. Wow! 31:26 And he says he's an automotive technician. He works on cars 31:30 and he is able to listen to sermons all day long. 31:33 And so he's just binge listening sermons on AudioVerse 31:36 and then he has his weekly Bible studies with Dr. Kim. 31:39 And just a few weeks ago he was baptized into the church! 31:44 Wow! Praise the Lord! But then the amazing thing is 31:47 he says "Praise the Lord for that. " And his wife 31:50 and his son came to the baptism, heard his testimony 31:53 and now they're having Bible studies 31:55 and they're listening to AudioVerse on their own. 31:58 So you see the multiplication effect - 32:01 absolutely - of one Bible worker who is a dentist... 32:05 super busy... multiplying his time and influence using 32:08 the tools of AudioVerse influencing this young man. 32:12 And now his wife and his son... they're all coming 32:16 to a knowledge of the truth and of Jesus. 32:18 And this is exactly why AudioVerse exists. Yes! 32:20 We are a tool in the hands of God's people 32:22 to help spread the gospel. Once you hear sermons 32:24 then you use AudioVerse more. When you hear something that's 32:27 such a blessing to you you want to share it with others. 32:29 Absolutely. You just can't help it. You just start sharing 32:32 with others and that's why it's such a blessing. 32:35 You don't have to be a Bible worker, right? 32:37 Calvin Kim... he's a doctor. 32:38 I mean Eric Walsh... he's a doctor as well. 32:40 But God can use you no matter how busy your life is. 32:45 Anybody can click SHARE. 32:48 Anybody can e-mail or click on that SHARE button. 32:50 It's very easy to share it on social media, 32:52 share it anywhere. And it can definitely augment 32:56 your Bible study contacts in many ways. 33:02 That's right. So like when you're... I don't know, 33:05 in the beginning when you were building this app 33:06 and even up to now to get this content 33:09 do you have to get permission from people to choose their 33:12 content? Or how does that process work 33:14 on how you gather the content to put on AudioVerse? 33:16 But you know, one of the things we've mentioned 33:19 and one of the repeated things that our listeners tell us 33:21 they value the most about the AudioVerse platform 33:23 is that they don't have to worry about the quality of the content 33:27 they're getting. They know it's going to be Bible. 33:29 They know it's going to be solid. 33:31 They know it's going to be Christ-centered & Spirit-filled. 33:33 And so we take that very seriously: how to resource 33:36 our content. And as of right now we release 33:39 well over 2,000 messages every year. 33:41 And every day we have new content coming out. 33:43 And so we don't have a shortage of content, but how do we 33:46 maintain that quality? Right. The way we go about this 33:49 with a very small team - we keep our expenses low - 33:53 is we work with existing partners. OK. 33:56 So we have partners like 3ABN: one of our close partners here 33:59 and as well as ASI. I know you guys work with them as well. 34:02 And GYC and various churches - sure - and other ministries: 34:05 the Amazing Facts and It Is Writtens of the world. 34:07 And through those networks organically our network of 34:11 people we know and trust it grows... because they 34:16 are trusted partners. And if they're going to work... 34:18 Like 3ABN. If you're working with somebody more than likely 34:21 we're going to see things eye-to-eye and we're going to 34:22 be on the same page. So that's how our network has 34:25 grown until now we have a vast network of thousands 34:28 of partners. Sure. And we have regular content 34:30 from those various sources. And then we have 34:33 very clear guidelines and values that we outline publicly on our 34:37 website by which we determine what content is permissible. 34:40 And then our team works the process and we post 34:45 the messages that are appropriate in that way. 34:48 Amen. Praise the Lord! 34:49 So just real quickly just off the top of your head 34:51 somebody may be watching right now and says: 34:53 "Well I'm interested in this AudioVerse but are my favorite 34:57 speakers on there? " So what are some of the speakers 34:59 that are notable for being on AudioVerse? 35:03 Well everybody knows who Doug Batchelor is, right? 35:06 Pastor Finley is a regular. 35:09 And John Bradshaw from It Is Written of course. 35:13 And we've worked with 3ABN many times. 35:15 OK. We have ASI content 35:18 so lots of speakers... there's a mix there. OK. 35:20 Of course Elder Wilson from the General Conference. 35:23 I'm pretty sure if there's someone that you're looking for 35:27 more than likely... I'd encourage you search for 35:30 other speakers that you don't even know about. Right. 35:33 That's how Shani discovered new speakers 35:36 she didn't even know is by just searching 35:38 and going through the... One of our most common sections 35:41 of our app before was the trending. 35:45 What's trending and what's new? 35:47 So people always go directly to there and see what's trending. 35:50 That's kind of in a way it's vetted by the whole world 35:54 because as they're sharing it more, listening to it more, 35:58 the algorithm puts it up higher on that list. 36:01 So they go: "Oh, what is this? I never heard of this speaker. " 36:03 Personally I've done that myself. 36:05 I've never heard this speaker but he's #1 on the list 36:07 right now. Let me listen to it. " 36:09 I'm like: "Wow! This is a real blessing. " 36:11 Right. "This guy really knows his stuff. " 36:13 Ultimately we're just trying to spread the Word 36:16 to the world and we've got to increase faith. 36:20 Says: "faith cometh by hearing" that's right - "hearing by the 36:23 Word of God. " Hearing by the Word of God. That's so powerful! 36:25 I want to tell a quick story 36:26 related to this exact question of discovering new speakers 36:29 and all of that. During the pandemic again 36:31 we got a testimony from a lady named Laura 36:35 where she came across a series by Dr. Norman McNulty - OK - 36:40 on last-day events. It's called Last Day Events 36:42 Made Simple or something. Last Day Events Explained 36:46 I think is what he called it. Right. And if you haven't 36:49 listened to it, to our listening audience you can find it 36:50 on AudioVerse right now. Yeah! And you know during the 36:52 COVID pandemic there was a lot of talk and a lot of questions 36:55 about final events. And so he systematically 36:58 very clearly explained our understanding of prophecy 37:02 and the last days leading up to Christ's second coming. 37:04 And Laura was so blessed by it. Never heard of Norman before. 37:08 Started listening to this series. 37:10 She introduced it to her friends, and before long 37:13 they were using it as a basis of their ladies study group. 37:16 And because they weren't really gathering together 37:18 they could do it digitally because it was all through 37:19 AudioVerse. Right. And then her husband started listening 37:22 and their men's SS class started studying that topic as well. 37:27 So they used the series as a launching-off point 37:29 and then they would do their own reading and so forth. 37:31 And as a result, not only did they come into knowledge 37:35 of this new speaker it was a whole series of studies 37:38 that led them into a better understanding of prophecy. 37:41 And another friend of mine who was also friends with Laura 37:45 her parents also started... recommended this series 37:49 on last day events and they were convicted 37:51 that it's time to move out of the city 37:53 as some of the counsel that they read... and they did it. 37:56 And so actual real-life change happened 38:00 as a result of people listening to speakers 38:02 that: "Hey! Never heard of him before! " 38:04 And then they studied together, dug deeper, 38:07 and as a result, made actual tangible changes 38:10 in accordance to what God has told us to do. Sure. 38:12 Wow! That's amazing! That also brings us to the fact 38:15 that another feature we're working on is trying to 38:18 have content for the user. 38:22 For you basically. OK, yeah. So right now they'd say: 38:26 "That's, you know... " I'm sure if you use social media 38:28 it seems like your feed is based on what you're... 38:31 what you're interested in. Yeah. But ours is from a more 38:34 spiritual perspective and where you are at in your life. 38:37 Right. If you're a 14-year-old girl, maybe you have different 38:39 problems or sermons that you want to listen to... 38:42 You're talking about like if somebody is interested in 38:44 a specific topic - um-hmm - or specific subject 38:47 or specific speakers or whatever 38:49 the app? We have some specific questions that you can answer 38:53 and then it will cater it for you. 38:56 And so if you're interested in more... I don't know... 38:59 prophecy stuff for some reason the algorithm might realize that 39:03 or understand that about you and feed you more 39:05 of those kind of... So you'll discover new speakers 39:07 that you never knew of before 39:10 or even sermons that you never heard before. 39:12 That's amazing! We have 20,000 sermons and counting. 39:16 And counting, right? 39:18 And most people tend to go to like I said 39:20 the trending now or the new 39:23 and there's so many like diamonds in the rough. 39:25 You know? Just like really good sermons 39:27 that are perfect for you that are hidden in there. 39:30 And that used to be one of our complaints 39:32 in the very beginning was - sure - 39:34 "I don't know where to begin. Like where do I start? " 39:36 I remember YouTube even was like that in the very beginning. 39:42 Now it's more catered to you. 39:44 In the same way we want to do that for sermons 39:47 so that it's just like how that one lady was... 39:52 Oh, I guess you can share that story about how when 39:55 the 24/7 prayer group. 40:02 The perfect sermon; you share that story. 40:03 Perfect, yes. It's related to this idea of how messages 40:07 meeting a specific need at a specific time. 40:09 So we got a testimony from the 24/7 United Prayer Team. 40:14 Um-hmm. It was an around- the-clock prayer meeting group 40:18 that was I believe orchestrated by the Revival and Reformation 40:21 Committee of the General Conference. Um-hmm. 40:22 And so they had 22 prayer groups going around the clock. 40:27 And the way that it was structured: they would have 40:29 thirty minutes of united prayer 40:31 and then the last 15 minutes they would have a section 40:34 called Going Deeper in which they would basically 40:37 play a message: a devotional talk or Bible study. 40:40 And AudioVerse became their go-to source 40:43 for content... largely because they didn't have to filter. 40:46 They didn't have to guess: "Is this appropriate or not? " 40:49 So they would pull this content out and they would play it 40:52 during those 15 minutes. Remember: 22 different 40:54 prayer groups every single day. 40:57 And the testimony was that frequently the message 41:03 that they listened to was like the direct answer 41:05 to prayer to what they were just praying about for 30 min. 41:08 Wow! And it was like: "This is exactly the voice of God 41:11 telling us the answer to what we were looking for. " 41:14 And the weariness that they were feeling, 41:17 the depression lifted. There was hope and encouragement 41:20 and people were re-invigorated. 41:22 And this is just one example of... The Holy Spirit can 41:25 do the... the Holy Spirit is the best algorithm. 41:28 He will leave a message exactly who needs to hear what. 41:34 But we also recognize that we can do our part. 41:36 We want to be able to tailor the content 41:39 and the recommendations and the "intelligence" if you will 41:42 of our platform - yes - so that the right message 41:44 answering the right questions gets to the right person 41:48 at the right time. That's ulti- mately what we want to get to 41:51 because we want to reach the world. And if we're going to be 41:54 you know spreading the message to the people who are seeking 41:59 who aren't already you know on Audioverse, 42:02 we're going to need to develop those tools to reach them 42:04 where they are. And ultimately that is our goal. 42:07 Right? To develop this tool to reach people more effectively. 42:11 That's your next Audio... You know this because your 42:14 next AudioVerse shirt. Just put that right on there: 42:16 "The Holy Spirit is the best algorithm. " Repeat that; 42:19 share it on Facebook. 42:21 I can see that on a bumper sticker or something! 42:23 The Holy Spirit is the best algorithm. I love that! 42:25 That's right. That is so great. So a quick question 42:28 that just popped into my mind as you were speaking: 42:30 Yeah. So I like all kinds of different content. 42:33 Obviously, I like the new content, fresh content, 42:35 which I know you guys are constantly putting new stuff 42:37 on there all the time, but I guess the question becomes 42:40 for those that are unfamiliar with AudioVerse: 42:43 you know, there's a lot of great sermons from back in the day. 42:47 So do you guys have like "older" content 42:50 that people can view? Or do you remove them? 42:53 Or do you just keep adding to this database? 42:56 Yeah, they're still there. They're still there! 42:59 We were discussing Daniel and Revelation, and I looked up 43:02 Daniel 8 and Daniel 9 and Alistair's sermon from 2008 43:08 I believe came up. OK! Or maybe even older than that. 43:11 That's not THAT old. You're talking about OLD timey, 43:14 right? I'm thinking about like those great 43:16 like... I don't know... some people like Joe Crews 43:19 or some of the old Doug Batchelor sermons. 43:20 Kenneth Cox and some of these guys from back in the day. 43:24 I don't know if you guys still have some of that old content 43:26 on there? Yeah! Great content; great speakers. 43:29 Oh, I'm glad you brought this up because we're actually 43:32 in the process of working with Amazing Facts 43:34 to get a bunch of old Joe Crews stuff. Yes! Yes! 43:37 We've also worked with Voice of Prophecy. 43:39 We have all the classic H.M.S. Richards stuff. 43:41 Oh man... that's great! 43:43 We have multiple series by a minister called Glenn Coon - 43:48 OK - talking about prayer. 43:49 That has been an amazing blessing. 43:52 Just miracle answers to prayer and things of that nature. 43:55 We are not discriminatory toward older sermons. 43:59 Absolutely. God's truth is eternal. It is unchanging. 44:02 And I grew up listening to old preachers, right? Amen! 44:06 C.D. Brooks and those - Yes! Yep! 44:07 those powerful, powerful evangelists 44:10 that really changed our lives. Praise God! 44:12 So as far as AudioVerse goes 44:13 we don't... we rarely take content off. Like we believe 44:16 the messages need to go and it doesn't really matter 44:21 sometimes what date the message was given. 44:23 If it still meets the needs, if it is still preaching 44:26 the three angels' messages and it is what the Holy Spirit 44:28 can reach a person where they need to be reached, 44:32 we believe we need to make that available. 44:34 If they were relevant back then, they're relevant today. 44:36 Absolutely. God's truth is always relevant. 44:38 And that brings me to my next question which is: 44:40 In the world of technology - technology fast changing - 44:43 I mean it changes so fast it's like... I remember 44:46 back in the day when the iPhone first came out. 44:49 And it seemed like there was a little while 44:50 before the next one came out. But now it's like they're 44:52 spitting out these things every single year. 44:54 But I'm thinking in terms of AudioVerse, the technology 44:57 online app. How do you stay relevant 45:01 in the sense of you know now looking towards the future 45:04 and say: "OK, we've got a great thing going here. 45:06 It's working. We've got great traffic. " 45:09 But how does AudioVerse remain relevant in the sense that 45:14 for the future plans how does AudioVerse... 45:17 how is AudioVerse looking to make an even bigger impact 45:21 for God in the ministry in the future? 45:22 I'm so glad you asked that. 45:24 This is an area that we really have to move forward by faith 45:28 because it is just like you say. What we have realized 45:30 in the almost 20 years that we've been around 45:33 is that technology moves extremely quickly. Yes, it does! 45:37 And because we are a web-based, technology-based ministry - 45:41 um-hmm - we are playing in the big leagues 45:44 in terms of the big dollars. Oh for sure! 45:46 We need developer expertise 45:48 and we're talking about data scientists and data analysts. 45:52 We're talking about algorithms and artificial intelligence 45:54 and there's a lot of technology "under the hood" so to say 45:58 that is expensive. 46:01 And all the big companies are fighting for the same 46:03 talent pool. And so I praise the Lord that to this point 46:07 He has sustained us. He has brought us the right 46:09 people at the right time, 46:11 and He has supplied us the necessary means by our 46:13 you know sacrificial donors and listeners and supporters. 46:17 But this is an area that we are very cognizant of 46:20 as a board, as an organization: 46:23 that this is not something we can just rest on our laurels. 46:26 Yeah, because we live in a day and age... 46:28 I hear people all the time say: "Oh, yeah. This one particular 46:31 site I used to visit or this one particular app 46:33 I use is just so outdated now. 46:35 It's old school and they haven't really changed anything. 46:38 It's the same thing from ten years ago. " 46:40 And so I can see how that can potentially be 46:42 an issue. And so what you guys are doing 46:44 I mean, it's difficult. Just hearing you explain 46:47 what you just explained with all of the people coming 46:49 together to make this happen it's so complex! 46:51 That's right. Like even one of our developers... 46:54 Developers are not cheap, of course, but we have 46:56 a great team that sometimes 47:00 we have to even go across the world. 47:02 Like we had a team in Ukraine, I believe, 47:05 but during this crisis in Ukraine 47:08 we lost touch with them. 47:11 So God provided another programmer for us 47:14 just at the last second. 47:16 So God always provides... which is... 47:19 You know, good developers are hard to find. 47:22 You can find developers but GOOD developers are hard. 47:24 Dedicated to God's work... that's even harder. 47:27 But God provides that for us. 47:28 'Cause we are free, right? So we don't charge for anything. 47:31 It's all supported by the donors. 47:33 OK, so then that brings me to my... I guess probably 47:36 one of our final topics here. Maybe we can tell another 47:39 story because we have a little bit of time left. 47:41 But you know, there may be someone watching right now 47:43 that says: "Wow! I didn't know about AudioVerse. " 47:45 Or maybe there's someone who said: "I LOVE AudioVerse" 47:47 and they feel convicted I want to support it. 47:50 How can listeners support AudioVerse? 47:55 That's right. Well, first of all 47:58 as we've been talking about use it. 48:01 Become a user. Listen to the content 48:03 and share it. Yes! That is the best thing you can do. 48:06 We're paid in testimonies. There you go! 48:09 We don't care about anything else. We just 48:11 love the testimonies and that's why we do this for free. 48:13 Amen! And also we want to hear particularly 48:16 how God is changing lives. 48:18 Ultimately that is what we're about. 48:19 And so if you can use this tool to help your own spiritual walk 48:24 with Christ and use it to help others 48:26 that's the most important thing. That's the best thing you can do 48:28 and share the Word. But of course, as we mentioned 48:31 we are a donor-supported ministry. 48:33 And so we are dependent on the generous, sacrificial support 48:37 of our listeners. And because we operate online 48:41 we're very careful with our expenses. Um-hmm. 48:42 And we have never "run in the red" as they say. Sure. 48:47 And so the Lord has blessed us in that regard. 48:49 But we are also very cognizant - sure - that a lot of the future 48:52 development is not going to come cheap. Right. 48:55 And in order for us to maintain the level of quality 48:59 we're going to need continued support. 49:01 'Cause I'll mention this one point: 49:03 when we started I mentioned iPhones didn't exist. 49:07 But in the short period of time since then 49:09 everybody's got an iPhone. And the most important 49:11 functions of our lives frequent- ly happen on our devices. Yes. 49:14 And so everybody has a very elevated expectation 49:18 of quality on their apps. Yeah. 49:20 But that's not cheap. Yes. But more important than that 49:24 the content - the gospel message that we're presenting - 49:28 is of inestimable value. 49:30 And so the quality of the experience has to be 49:33 representative of the truth that we're bearing to people. 49:36 And that's why we take it very seriously. 49:38 We don't want to cut corners. We want to glorify the Lord 49:40 in all that we do including the quality of the code 49:43 that we write. And so the finan- cial support of our listeners 49:46 is crucial to make that happen. 49:48 Amen. And I want to let you know that 49:50 Alistair's very mindful of finances 49:55 as you may know. If you do or not... 49:58 Some of our viewers may not know this 50:00 but he's a financial advisor. Am I right? 50:02 Is that the official title? A side thing, yeah. 50:05 A side thing, but he does talks on finance. 50:09 So when we're at the board meetings we don't 50:13 waste money at all. That's right! Not at all. 50:15 I think he had a blog about Saving the Crumbs 50:19 meaning how can you be as frugal as possible 50:21 and save and not waste. Sure. 50:25 So the supporters can be assured that if they give 50:27 their money is going to be taken care of. Yeah, that's right. 50:29 Everything. I think we have a minute or so here. 50:33 We may not have time for another story at this point 50:35 but my friends, I just want to say... 50:37 I just want to just myself 'cause we're going to come back 50:38 in just a moment after a short break 50:40 and we're going to hear some final thoughts 50:42 from these two guys. And I just feel impressed 50:45 just to share with you just a reminder. 50:48 A simple reminder of the fact that we are commissioned 50:50 by Jesus Christ right here in the gospel. 50:52 And I just want to read Matthew chapter 28 50:54 verses 18-20. It says: "And Jesus came and spoke to them 50:57 saying: 'All authority has been given to Me 51:00 in heaven and on earth. 51:02 Go, therefore, ' Jesus says, 'and make disciples 51:05 of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father 51:09 and of the Father and of the Holy Spirit 51:10 teaching them to observe all things... ' 51:12 There it is: 'teaching them to observe all things 51:15 that I have commanded you. And lo I am with you always 51:17 even to the end of the age. ' " 51:19 We are commissioned to take this gospel to the world, 51:22 and that's what AudioVerse is all about. 51:24 They're playing their role. God is using them 51:26 in a mighty mighty mighty way 51:28 to share the gospel with people that would never have heard it 51:31 otherwise, if they had not found this precious app 51:34 or this website or a means to listen to a sermon 51:37 that introduces them to Jesus Christ. 51:39 And so at this time I want to take a short break 51:41 and what you're going to see on your screen right next 51:43 is how you can support AudioVerse or come in contact 51:46 with AudioVerse. |
Revised 2023-01-11