In the Brazilian rainforest, the small village of Makita sits along the muddy banks of an Amazon River tributary. When the conditions are ideal, the trip takes two days by boat.
Jeff Scott, an American church leader, and his short- term mission team arrive at Makita and are welcomed by the villagers and swarms of mosquitoes and flies.
Scott and his team notice a small church building that was built by a previous team. Inside, bats rest overhead and tarantulas patrol dark corners. In this village and the thousands like it, which dot the Amazon's riverbanks, people live with limited access to clean water, the outside world and the Word of God.
In fact, Brazil has 258 tribes, and almost as many different languages - 235. More than 90 of these are cut off from the outside world, living deep in the rainforest and firmly protected by the Brazilian government. Out of these 258 tribes, only 20 have strong, indigenous church leadership.
Despite their remoteness or restrictions, these villagers are eager for the Word of God.
"I have never encountered people so hungry and begging for help in their walk with Christ as in this place," said Scott.
While working among this tribe, Scott and his team realised the power of teaching God's Word orally, discovering that many in the village, including the local church pastor, could not read. The lack of education and the inability to read broke Scott's heart.
Scott and his team then presented this pastor with the Proclaimer, a self-powered digital playback device that has an Audio New Testament pre-loaded on an embedded microchip. The Proclaimer was designed by Faith Comes By Hearing, one of the world's leading audio Bible ministry, for the most rugged and remote areas.
