Hannah Clark is an engineering student at The University of Texas at San Antonio who has developed an Audio Gospel Project that can save Christian lives in extremely hostile countries.
Currently involved in Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, Hannah credits her faith and past experiences serving missionaries overseas that inspired her to take a simple class project and maximize it to be potentially used by individuals living in religiously sensitive countries.
The Bible, being the central focus of Clarks project, is one of the most banned books of all time and is said to be illegal in about 52 countries where individuals can be prosecuted under criminal law if found with one.
These statistics have encouraged many Christians to develop electronics that could help believers have accessibility to the gospel in countries where the book is not allowed or easily accessed.
One of the solutions to this was the development of Audio Bibles where Christians can have access to the book through MP3 players, but prosecutors have found ways to combat this and have made it even harder for believers to read or own any version of the Bible.
Hannah Clark seeks to counteract these prosecutions with her computerized keyboard project that could hide the gospel audio from those against it.
Clark says that what makes her gospel audio project different from others developed in the past is that individuals will have access to a keypad where a specific pin can be entered by the individual using it. The audio gospel board will not function if an incorrect pin is entered by someone else other than the owner.
She says, “I want to glorify God with all I do, and when I am presented with a project I am excited on how I am going to make Jesus known through it,” and in the process, Clark was able to use her resources and faith as a method of creating a computerized keyboard prototype that can be used in future audio project developments.
Her prototype is designed specifically to, “save Christians who are in countries who are not allowed to have Bibles.”
With her faith in Jesus as the root of her inspiration and work ethic, Clark was also able to overcome difficulties and obstacles along the way in the development of the project.
She says that her professor and peers were the hardest critics to overcome, but the negative opinions only caused her to push further into the project with its final development bringing up the conversation to secular audiences of the harsh realities of religious persecutions in other countries.
At the beginning of her project, Clark researched how gospel audios are effectively used in certain countries and was shocked to find that no relevant academic articles were based on Christian persecution.
With the final product of her gospel audio project, she hopes that others will begin to uncover and take notice of the high rates of hostility towards Christians in religiously sensitive countries. With her mind rooted in helping others, she believes that her modified computer board will be able to solve problems for missionaries, Christians and new believers alike.
“I want to glorify God with all I do, and when I am presented with a project I am excited on how I am going to make Jesus known through it,” says Clark.
As a student, Clark also states that her classification as an engineer is only part of her identity and she wants to make sure that others know that her abilities and resources are only given to her so that she can fulfill the calling God has placed on her life. Her thoughts on the project came with difficulty but also ended up proving her faith to be true in her life and those around her.
She says it was a miracle that she completed that project and credited God for her success in the overall reactions of others in the final development of it. She says, “God gave me these gifts, and I’m going to trust him that he’s going to use them, and if he doesn’t I’m going to trust where he takes me.”
The project was designed to help Christians continue their faith in areas where they cannot freely do so. Clark says that with the disguising of the audio gospel, others will finally be free to learn from the Bible and develop strong walks with God if they so desire.
Her vision for the project was to create a pathway for others and to help those who have access to the gospel to look at the unforeseen things of the world and motivate them to help those in other countries who are not as privileged in expressing their faith.
“My intent for the project is for it to reach the world and to be in every country where the Bible is not allowed. I know that the Bible is the word of life and I’ve questioned myself whether I’ve been a good steward of it,” she said.
“Through the overall process of this project, to me, it can be described in three different words: identity, glory and purpose,” Clark says. “Identity because when I look at the result of this project, it’s a byproduct of what God has done in me; describing more of the idea that what God does in you, he wants to do through you. But purpose and glory describe more of my part. My purpose is to glorify God and to let him be known in the dark places.”
Hannah Clark continues to share her project with others and has opened conversations to those unaware of Christian persecution in other countries and has encouraged others to help find solutions on how to prevent future hostility towards believers in non-believing countries.
