Contact: Jon Wilke, Faith Comes By Hearing, 505-881-3321

ALBUQUERQUE, Jan. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Audio Bibles are being given out and downloaded by the thousands in Albuquerque and its surrounding communities. In fact, area churches have distributed more than 8,500 Audio Bibles in MP3 format to their congregations, challenging them to listen through the whole New Testament in 40 days. More than 1,700 people have also downloaded their free New Testament from the ministry's website, FaithComesByHearing.com.

"You've Got The Time Albuquerque is off to a great start," said Jerry Jackson, Faith Comes By Hearing's founder and president. "The launch has been very successful with many churches beginning their Audio New Testament listening right after Christmas," said Jackson. "Every week, more and more churches are getting scheduled to do their Bible saturation program," Jackson said.

Launched in mid-December by Faith Comes By Hearing, You've Got The Time Albuquerque is an Audio Bible listening campaign designed to reach the unchurched, strengthen local congregations and equip people with practical and life-changing Audio Bibles.

Throughout 2008, church leaders from nearly every denomination here will distribute free Audio New Testaments and KidzBibles to every man, woman and child in their congregation. Then they will challenge their congregations to listen to the entire New Testament by spending only 28 minutes a day over a period of 40 days. Participating churches will then receive offerings for Faith Comes By Hearing's international recordings and programs, which help poor and illiterate people in other countries hear the Word of God in their own language.

Local church leaders view this campaign as a way to grow their church's faith as well as contribute to worldwide outreach.

"You've got to get the Word in and then get the Word out," said Pastor Larry Moss of Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church. "You can't give out what you haven't received," he said.

As part of this listening campaign, leaders at Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church have given out more than 300 Audio Bibles, and recently Moss requested 75 more. Moss said his congregation received their MP3-formatted Audio New Testaments Jan. 6.

"We had a blast," he said, concerning the initial distribution. "The very first thing I heard from people was how much it meant to have different character voices and not just a single narrator," Moss said. "Every person who listened said they loved the dramatization and the background sound, too."

Moss said that the congregation and leaders at Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church enjoy listening to the Audio Scriptures so much that they have committed to fund the recording of the Kyrgyzstan language in Central Asia.

"We are really going to push Bible listening hard for the next 40 days. The act of hearing the Word of God is such a powerful thing," Moss said.

Faith Comes By Hearing is also offering free Audio New Testament downloads at their website, FaithComesByHearing.com. Listeners can choose from one of 10 English versions or from 260 other languages.

"We hope that people who have never personally read or been exposed to the entire New Testament will take this opportunity to decide for themselves the value of the Bible," Jackson said.

"I don't know of any movement in history in which an entire geographical area has been offered a free New Testament in so many languages," Jackson said. "Albuquerque may be making history."

Ten more area churches will hand out Audio Bibles at their services on Sunday, Jan. 20.

To download your free Audio New Testament or to view the list of participating churches, visit FaithComesByHearing.com.