Global Recordings Network (GRN) was founded by Joy Ridderhof in Los Angeles, California in 1939 as "Gospel Recordings." The mission of GRN is "In partnership with the church, to effectively communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ by means of culturally appropriate audio and audio-visual materials in every language." This is accomplished by recording the stories of the Bible in the native language or dialect, by a mother tongue speaker and providing them in an audio format to the community. Often the languages do not have a written form. GRN has recorded over 6,000 languages or dialects. GRN has offices in more than 20 countries.
The language professor Alexander Arguelles notes that it is possible to use these recordings and the accompanying text in English, to start learning any of the languages. For many there is no other way to learn the language.