Waha is a free, audio-based Discovery Bible Study app for anyone who wants to open the Bible with friends, family, or seekers: gather a group of three to twelve people, press play, and discuss.^1 The app facilitates the whole meeting, playing Scripture and discussion questions aloud; when a question is asked, you pause the audio and talk it through together, so anyone can host, with no teaching experience or preparation needed.^1
Lessons follow the Discovery Bible Study format, where the group hears Scripture and answers open-ended questions together rather than listening to a lecture.^2 Curated lesson sets cover Creation to Christ and other discipleship themes, among hundreds of lessons with Scripture and group questions.^1 The curriculum is available in 63 languages, lessons can be downloaded for offline use, and Bible stories can be shared as text or audio.^1 Micro Lessons are short interactive studies for when a group is not available.^3 A nine-week Disciple Making Course trains believers to cast vision and start multiplying groups, and its first videos are now available in American Sign Language.^4 For restricted-access settings, data is encrypted at rest and in transit, and a Security Mode hides the app's content behind a piano placeholder.^6 Waha is free, carries no ads, is funded by donors, and runs as a web app at web.waha.app.^1
Waha is built by a Washington nonprofit team of cross-cultural disciple makers.^7 Co-founder and CEO Jeff Peterson was serving in the Middle East and North Africa when practitioners there asked for an app like this across the region; he and a teammate committed to build it, and development began during the COVID lockdowns.^8 As Peterson tells it: "God's heart is for every tribe, tongue, and language. This needs to be a multilingual app."^8 In the team's own words, "Waha was created by front-line disciple makers, for front-line disciple makers."^9 Its statement of faith is agreed upon by the Antioch International Movement of Churches and affirms the Lausanne Covenant.^10
"Waha is the best thing happening right now in the world of faith and tech" - Ali Llewellyn, #hack4missions Director^1
Notable:
- Waha works with Bible translation partners including the American Bible Society, Biblica, Wycliffe, and SIL, and its foundational curriculum can launch from a partial translation using about 7% of the Bible's verses.^9
- Its security practices have been audited by a cyber security consultant certified in CISSP, CISM, CEH, and ISO 27001LI.^6
