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

ALBUQUERQUE, NM, Dec. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- 2009 was a busy year at Faith Comes By Hearing, the world's foremost Audio Bible ministry.

This international Bible organization recorded new Audio Bibles, launched new outreaches into more nations and designed and deployed new Audio Bible technologies.

Faith Comes By Hearing established more than 85,000 Bible listening groups in villages, slums, schools, shanty towns, hospitals, orphanages, prison systems, house churches and mega-churches. Estimates suggest more than 8.5 million people heard the Word of God this year alone.

More than 130 Audio Bible recordings were started in 2009. Nearly 50 Bible recording teams, made up of national workers, dispersed to dark and dangerous lands, faced hardship after hardship, some even endured persecution to record God's Word in a format their fellow tribesman can use.

A new outreach, the Military BibleStick project, grew tremendously this year. More than 34,000 Military BibleSticks found their way into backpacks and cargo pockets deployed and stateside service members through military chaplains serving around the world. With the recent commitment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, Faith Comes By Hearing expects a surge of new requests to meet the growing need.

The ministry also field tested the Mini Proclaimer®, a palm-sized Audio Bible designed to disciple small groups of 30 people or less. The Mini Proclaimer® comes pre-loaded with the entire New Testament and has a memory card slot, allowing workers to proclaim God's Word in areas with multiple languages.

In May, the ministry released the Audio Bible Ambassador®, an online innovative Bible distribution project that inspires users to download Audio Bibles in other languages to reach others through the Internet.

Another online development, a streaming Audio Bible player, well-received around the world, now has more than 500,000 people listening to the Bible in their own language.

At home, almost 14,000 churches and parishes have participated in the Audio Bible campaign, called You've Got The Time. Faith Comes By Hearing provided more than 4 million Audio Bibles through this campaign.

In Houston, the ministry worked with hundreds of churches and parishes in a city-wide campaign called You've Got The Time Houston. Nearly half a million people listened to the Bible in their homes, cars, at work or privately.

Faith Comes By Hearing anticipates to help millions more hear God's Word in their own language in 2010.