Dan Parr: The Man Behind the Easy-to-Understand Bible

https://www.parrdanmevoices.com/

Dan's Audible books

Dan Parr shares his incredible journey from a medical miracle before birth to becoming a voice artist and Bible narrator. 

Encouraged by a push from a local radio at 14 and a divine calling, Dan ventured into voice artistry alongside his wife. His narration of the Easy-to-Understand Bible, driven by faith and a desire to make scripture accessible, is a testimony to resilience and purpose. 

Despite initial medical predictions, Dan lived a healthy life, using his voice to honor the belief that prevailed over adversity. 

His story is a testament to the wonders of faith and the power of the Word in today’s world.

Cathy Cover Garland, author of Revelationship, was featured on episode 35.

"I’m thrilled to share that Revelationship and the Revelationship Devotional & Study Guide just won in Christian Nonfiction and Self-Help at The Regal Summit Awards!

Your support, kindness, and platform helped make this possible, and I’d love to celebrate with your listeners too.

If you'd like, I'm happy to send a free copy of the book to give away to one lucky listener." 

https://jan-johnson.com/

https://justtalkingaboutjesus.com/

https://janjohnsonauthor.substack.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@JustTalkinAboutJesus

Brock Hewitt: Stories in Sound Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/gentle-kindness

License code: 1KON3UUMYUANBJIQ

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https://www.youtube.com/@JustTalkinAboutJesus

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Transcript

Jan: When I was being carried by my mom, she had been suffering from terrible migraine headaches and found no relief other than just being in a dark room and on heavy, heavy drugs.

And during that time she became pregnant and she was very concerned about it because of all the drugs that she had to take. And she went to her doctor and just said, you know what's going to happen?

He says,

Juanita, I strongly encourage you to get an abortion. There is no way this baby is going to come out normal. He's going to have some sort of either physical or mental deficiencies and it's going to be very difficult on you and your family.

And, you know, they already had three other children and it's not like they were really wealthy and could afford this take care of a special needs child.

But, you know, she's obviously devastated by that news, goes home, shares it with my father, and they begin to pray and just seek the Lord and you know, lord, is this what you want?

Dan Parr: Hey everybody, welcome. Today's guest for Just Talking About Jesus's Dan Parr. Welcome, Dan, welcome.

Jan: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Dan Parr: This is really fun. I haven't interviewed anybody that was a voice artist before.

Well, that's not actually true. I did for my other podcast, I interviewed a gal that does.

She did the voice for Wicked Queen and Swan Princess.

Jan: Oh, wow.

Dan Parr: Cartoon characters.

So that was really fun. So we got deep into how you record and learn to be a voice artist and all of that. And I have a son that's a voice artist as well.

So he's done some characters, anime characters, and kind of has his own action figure of himself.

Jan: Wow, cool.

Dan Parr: So that's kind of fun. How'd you get started doing voice?

Jan: You know, I started in radio when I was 14 years old. I went down to the local radio station and told the owner that I'd like to work in radio.

He said, write me a letter as to why I should hire you. So I wrote my letter to him and he hired me as a 14-year-old freshman to catalog the station's record library for minimum wage.

But I was thrilled to be in radio and I'm in my 50s now and I've been involved in media and some sort ever since then.

But yeah, so from radio.

My wife's also a radio talent and we met and had a lot in common and eventually fell in love, got married,

and after a few years of marriage, we started looking at the technology that's out there through the Internet and what's available on computers and thought you know, we could probably do voiceovers from our own house.

And so we just started small and eventually it became our full-time profession.

Dan Parr: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's not hard to do a sound studio within, you know,

an extra bedroom. Yep, extra bedroom. Get a little acoustic panel up. And you're good,

good quality. And did you do all of your editing on yours as well?

Jan: Do I do editing? Absolutely. And you know, I just moved my microphone over. I don't even know if I was coming in. Okay, all right there.

Dan Parr: You're good. Yeah, yeah, that's a. And that. I think that's even bigger than trying to do your voice, you know, your recordings themselves.

Jan: Yeah. So it's funny that a lot of the work that we do is for companies that are US based, or UK based, but they outsource it to India. Well, India,

they don't really necessarily have great American accents, so they outsource it to us.

So what we do is we'll get the script, and we'll read it and we'll leave in all the errors, all the breaths, all the little vocal ticks and everything else.

And then they take it and they edit it all out. And the editing actually is the hard part of it. All right. So we just give them raw audio, they edit it, and then they send it back to the UK or to the US So kind of goes from one place to another back to them.

Dan Parr: That's golden. Yeah, I did record my couple of my books as well. And yeah, that's. The editing process is huge.

Jan: Yeah, it takes some time.

Dan Parr: It does take some time. So tell me, what's your testimony?

Jan: So I'll go back to pre birth. How's that?

Dan Parr: Yeah. Because God knew you before you were even in the womb.

Jan: Absolutely. And that has resonated with me so much.

When I was being carried by my mom, she had been suffering from terrible migraine headaches and found no relief other than just being in a dark room and on heavy, heavy drugs.

And during that time, she became pregnant, and she was very concerned about it because of all the drugs that she had to take. And she went to her doctor and just said, you know, what's going to happen?

He says,

juanita, I strongly encourage you to get an abortion.

There is no way this baby is going to come out normal. He's going to have some sort of either physical or mental deficiencies,

and it's going to be very difficult on you and your family. And, you know, they already had three other children, and it's not like they were really wealthy and could afford this, take care of a special needs child.

But, you know, she's obviously devastated by that news, goes home, shares it with my father, and they begin to pray and just seek the Lord and, you know, lord, is this what yout want?

And they came to the conclusion that if she was pregnant, there's a reason for it and God is sovereign and if this child is supposed to be special needs,

then that's just what it is. And they decided, well,

we're not going to abort, we're going to carry it to term, and if it's special needs, we'll just deal with it and trust the Lord to take care and provide.

So they made a decision to carry me to term. And when I was born, they checked me over and I had all my digits and all my fingers and toes and everything I was supposed to have.

And over the next, you know, several months, they watched as I developed and everything was perfectly normal. And here I am, you know, 50 plus years later and not had any serious health issues that would derail me or anything that would limit me.

So, you know, my testimony with God starts before I was even born.

Dan Parr: Yeah, yeah. That's, you know, even to protect you from any of the, you know, possible side effects that she had, or possibly even to heal you and cure you before you were born, whatever.

But, you know,

either way, it was a but, God.

Jan: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, ever since then, I felt an obligation, so to speak, to just try to live my life, to thank him for what he spared me from or has done for me and just, you know, glorify him and try to live a life that honors Him.

Dan Parr: Yeah, yeah. Day by day. I know. Yeah. Makes life more precious, doesn't it?

Jan: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, we've all been given so much. It's just natural that we would want to give back to Him.

Dan Parr: Exactly. So you're the publisher and narrator of the easy-to-understand Bible, so.

Jan: Yes.

Dan Parr: How do you even get started with that?

Jan: Well, you know, we were talking a little bit beforehand, and God just kind of leads you along by breadcrumbs. Right. Sometimes he will give you a little bit and then say, well, now this.

Now this. So it started out I wanted to put something up on Facebook for Easter. You know, just me reading some scripture and the text going behind it. And I thought, we'll see how that goes.

So I did it and I really enjoyed it. And I didn't want to take somebody else's work. You know, it's copyrighted. I thought if I eventually do anything with this, you know, that's going to be a problem.

So I'll just write a different version of what I find out there.

So I did that, and I really enjoyed the process and put it up on Facebook, got some good feedback. And then I thought,

well, I did a little bit out of Luke. Why don't I go ahead and do the entire book of Luke? And I thought, that is going to be huge. It's going to take forever.

But I started that process and had to find a version of the Bible that was in public domain.

And I came across this really good version called the World English Bible Public Domain, worked on by a team of interdenominational scholars.

But as for as good as it is, it's still just really clunky in parts and has some interesting word choices. I thought that were not necessarily the way people speak to each other in normal, everyday conversation and language.

And so I began the process of rewriting what was in the web.

And that that took some time. And I recorded it and like we say, edited, which took a lot of time.

But as I was working with it,

I really had just the sense that God was with me as I was doing this. It was very natural for me to have conversation with him, like, Lord, what should I say here?

What am I supposed to do here? And inevitably, he'd lead me to a resource or another version that I could look at to get ideas or a commentary so I could understand the text better.

And so I just kind of was really immersed within His Word and would see how, you know, it's phrased by different, other authors and translations. And then I come up with my own spin to it with God's help and still maintaining true to the text of what the author wanted to communicate.

And so I did that for the book of Luke. And I thought, okay, well, that's good. I'm done now.

And then it seemed to me that God was saying,

you know, Acts is a natural following to the book of Luke, the book of Acts.

So I thought,

okay, so I'll do the Book of Acts, get done with it.

And it's like, you know, there's three other Gospels out there, and they were written for a reason. They all tell the same story, but slightly different, and they're all important.

Okay, I'll do the Gospels.

So I do the Gospels.

It's like, romans is a great book.

Oh, it just kind of continued from there. I got done with the entire New Testament,

and I thought, well, okay, I'll do Psalms and Proverbs as Well, because I really like Proverbs, and Psalms is just such a beautiful book.

So I did that. And then I've always loved Genesis. It's probably one of my favorite books of the Bible.

And especially the story of Joseph. And I thought, boy, that'd be great to be able to tell people that story.

So I did Joseph. And then, of course, you know, you do one, you gotta do the first five, right? The Pentateuch.

And then it just thought, okay, obviously you're leading me to do the entire Bible.

Dan Parr: I'm this deep into it four.

Jan: Four years later.

Dan Parr: That's remarkable. If you did it in four years.

Jan: Though,

it seems like it took a long time. But,

yeah, I was able to devote a lot of time to it because I just wanted to get it out there as quickly as possible and get it into people's hands as I could.

So as I was recording a book, I would release a book. So somebody just wanted to hear, you know, the book of Luke. They can do that if they just want to hear the book of Acts can do that.

And then eventually I put together the entire New Testament. And then, you know, the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, and then, you know,

new. The minor prophets, the major prophets, and then, you know, put the whole thing together. Old Testament, New Testament. So finally, you have the entire Bible.

Dan Parr: Wow,

that's. That's an incredible, incredible job.

Why you didn't think when you started, I'm sure you looked at all types of versions, but there's like hundreds, obviously, of versions. But what makes yours really different from any of the other ones?

Jan: You know, I think it's just. Well, one.

There's not a lot of versions that have been done by one person. So that's kind of a unique feature, right? A lot of them have teams of scholars. And I was worried about that at first.

And God just seemed to be saying to me,

I'm with you in this. Why are you worried? You know,

So I was able to take that encouragement from him and think about it a little bit. It's like you have all these resources at your fingertips. You have multiple different versions out there.

You have commentaries. Faithful men and women of God for the past, you know, couple thousand years have put down their thoughts and explanations of what the Bible says. And there's a lot of great material out there that you can draw from.

So I was able to kind of ingest a lot of that, and as I was writing my version, incorporate that and still put it into a modern conversational way. So it's not like it's something that's going to be heavy to pick up.

My goal was that anyone who is not familiar with Jesus, not familiar with God, not familiar with the Bible, would be able to pick this up in 2025, look at it and say, oh, that makes sense.

Right. And just be readable and relatable.

So I think one of the things that I have going for me is just the great work that many other people have done before me, honestly, and the fact that it's put in a version that's just easily understood and easy to read and comprehend.

Dan Parr: So you have it both in a physical print form and the audio?

Jan: Yeah. So the funny thing is. So I'm a voice talent like we talked about, and that's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to just do an audiobook.

Well, you get on Audible and in order to have the audiobook, you also have to have the physical or an eBook at least. Right.

So I have to put the eBook out there so I can make the audiobook.

So, yeah, it's available mostly as there's. I have all the New Testament available as print books as well,

and then also as eBooks and audiobooks for everything.

Dan Parr: And then. Did you self-publish it?

Jan: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

There's so many tools out there now that just make things easier to do and it gives me a lot more control and I was able to put things exactly the way I want them put in, the way I feel the spirit led me to put them in.

So, yeah, I was able to do it by myself.

Dan Parr: Yeah. That's why I put do the same. That's why I self-publish mine.

Jan: Yep.

Dan Parr: Let's say you get it out so much sooner, you know, and available to.

Jan: Yeah, right. Yeah. It's just. Just an easier process to do now. So I figured, why not? Why not just do it this way?

Dan Parr: Right, right. And you're so vested in it anyway, you know?

Jan: Yeah, absolutely.

Dan Parr: Yeah. So when you. Do you use the same voice all the way through, or are you changing your voice for your characters in the Bible?

Jan: No. So I don't necessarily mean to do it, but it just kind of happens when I read. Right. So if it's a female voice, my voice is going to rise up a little bit.

If it's a mean guy, you know, it's going to come across a little bit different.

So it just kind of happens naturally as I read. There's different intonations and different kind of little accents that I do as I read it.

Dan Parr: Yeah, yeah. I would imagine that going through all of that brought you to a deeper level or a different level of your understanding and your relationship with God.

Jan: Yeah, absolutely. You know, we talked about this was just like me and my dad working on a project together. And it was really just a special, special time of being in communion with him and in His Word.

I believe the Bible when it says it's living and active and transformative, you know,

really is just amazing to have that time with God and hear him speak to you through His Word. I think he's always speaking and we're. He's willing to talk to us if we're willing to listen and invest that time.

And for me,

I don't think anybody can really come away from spending time in the Word and not be transformed by it. You know, it might not be instantaneous, but it's like a little seed that gets deposited in you.

And the more time you spend watering that seed, tending to that seed, you know, the more it grows. And that's one of the things that I'm trying to encourage people.

Spend time with God. Spend time with God in His Word every day, you know,

and 10 minutes a day, you can be through the entire Bible in a year.

It's just a matter of having the commitment to do it and trusting that he's going to be there with you. And when you just open yourself up to him,

he'll just start to reveal things to you and speak to you. And it's really just such a incredible,

intimate feeling to have that.

So, yeah, that was definitely something that I sensed as I was going through this over the past several years.

Dan Parr: Yeah. You and God like that.

Jan: Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Absolutely.

Dan Parr: Best buds.

Jan: He's my best friend. I speak to him more than I do anybody else.

Dan Parr: Yeah. I mean, it's just like when you. You're right. When you're in the. The more you're in the Word, the more you understand.

And what. I just finished writing a Bible study. It's the first time I'd done a Bible study. My others had been fiction and.

But, gosh, you know, you get so deep in there, it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, okay. How's that really apply? And what you're doing, it just. It's just.

I don't know, it's just like the ultimate experience, I guess. I don't.

Jan: Yeah.

Dan Parr: You know, to really do that. And, you know, probably when you'd wrote your final word, you're thinking, oh,

now am I going to miss some of that relationship, or am I?

Jan: Well, so I have. I have Several Bible reading plans out there that, you know, take you through the Word in a year. So if somebody wants to start in January, they can do it.

And I have one, you know, if they want to start any month of the year, they can start it in that month and still go through track through the entire year.

So I'm going through one of my own plans right now. So I'm in the Word constantly. And, you know, I. I have it designed to. Where you can do the entire Bible in a year.

Well, I'm doing two days at once, so I'm doing it in six months just because I want to read and make sure everything's in there like I want.

And it's just still such a rich time is,

you know, every morning I spend time just going with God through his Word. So somebody doesn't have to rewrite the Bible in order to have that kind of fellowship with Him.

You know, just taking that time, you know, like I say, 10 minutes a day,

and you'll be able to get that.

Dan Parr: Well, and the audio is really nice, too. You know, like, if I miss my day for some reason, but I. Because I got to be someplace, I'll just put it on in the car so I can catch up and do that, too.

And it's a different thing when you hear it as well,

you know, besides just reading it.

Jan: Yeah, that's one of the nice things about being able to record it. Right. And even when I listen to somebody else,

the way they phrase things can give you a little bit different interpretation of what's being said. And that's really enjoyable to. To hear. It's like, oh, well, I've always heard it this way, but, you know, with them emphasizing this word or this point, it kind of strikes me a little bit different.

Dan Parr: Yeah.

Jan: So that's one of the great things about listening to the Word. And I always like it when, you know, our pastor reads the Word from the pulpit. It's just interesting to hear the way he phrases things.

And so, yeah, I enjoy listening as well.

Dan Parr: Was there a certain reference that you used or anything that just trying to dig into that you would recommend for people that might be wanting to dig in deeper?

Jan: Yeah. Matthew Henry, I think, has a lot of great commentary.

Dan Parr: Old and steady.

Jan: Yeah. Yeah.

He's very wise man, obviously led by the Spirit and just a lot of deep theology able to gain from him. So really, Matthew Henry a lot.

And, you know, just looking at different translations, it's interesting to see they all say the same thing, basically,

but. Right. We all say it A little bit differently.

So it's interesting to read the different translations. So even now, as I read things. Right. I'll say, well, how does the ESV say that? How does the RSV say that?

What's the NLT say here?

It's just interesting to see that.

Dan Parr: Yeah, yeah. Just to do the comparison. It is, yeah. Takes you deeper, doesn't it?

Jan: Absolutely.

Dan Parr: Yeah.

When you were doing this too,

and your wife is also.

Does voice and whatever, but did she help you along with some of the ideas or things that you were doing or comment or.

Jan: She's more than willing to listen, but she knew that this was really a project that I really wanted to work on with just me and my dad.

So she was very, very generous and just allowing me the time to have to do on this because obviously,

you know, it takes a lot of time to take on a project like this.

And she was just very supportive. She's just saying.

Able to just say, you know, go do what you need to do. I know this is where your passion's at and this is what you want to do. You just go do it.

Dan Parr: Yeah.

Jan: And so she was very supportive in that way.

Dan Parr: Oh, that's great. That's great. Where's your Bible app? You have an actual Bible app or it's on a Bible app or what did you.

Jan: No, it's just. It's just. Yeah, there's. There's no app. I'm not that tech savvy yet to be able to figure that out.

I'd love to be able to figure that out but haven't come across a way to do that yet. So really, I'm just got the eBooks and the audiobooks out there.

Dan Parr: Okay. You know but have you looked into something like. Yeah, the you version one?

Jan: You know, I've not. I probably should,

honestly. I've just been so busy with trying to get the word out there that this is available now, but I. I probably need to at some point look.

Dan Parr: Into that as well, because especially since you have little snippets of things too. Yeah, that's one of the things that they do. And I. I love that app. It's just got so much different plans, and even just a little plan for, you know, a week's worth or something like that.

So that's for when you're ready to. The next.

The next thing. Yeah.

So what's God telling you to do now?

Jan: You know, right now I'm working on a devotional series for Gen Z. Dad's Words to Gen Z. Walking through the Bible In a year. So it's a Bible reading plan in a year.

And then working on 365 devotionals to go with whatever the reading is for the day. Just kind of talking about my experience,

what I've seen God do, how I've seen God work,

and just using that as an encouragement to Gen Z. I think they've got a, a lot on their plates. They're facing a lot of challenges and a lot of changes in the world and in society and in technology even.

And you know, I just want to love on them, give them encouragement and allow them to know that, you know,

we care for them. Our, my generation, our generation cares for them and you know, we want to see the best for them. And the way that happens is through God.

And so if I can take their hand, walk with them through a year through the Bible and just give them encouragement and my perspective on things and allow God to speak to them through the Word, I'm happy to do that.

So that's, that's what I'm working on right now.

Dan Parr: Yeah. What's your motivation for that generation?

Jan: My son's Gen Z. Yeah, my son's gen Z. He's 22.

Yep. He's 22 years old. And you know, I just think that they've got a lot on their plates. You know, they've seen a lot already. You know, growing up through Covid was a big thing.

Right. That was kind of unprecedented in my lifetime anyway.

And they had to deal with that and now they're dealing with things like AI and social media pressures.

So I just wanted to be a resource to help them navigate all of that.

Dan Parr: Yeah,

yeah. And having your son, then that helps you understand that generation. It does. You know, I mean, you know how more how they think if you were just grabbing something from.

I think I'll just pick this one, you know, whatever.

Jan: Right.

Dan Parr: The same thing as you're having your resource at hand.

Jan: Yep.

Dan Parr: And even to read through it and say, yeah, yeah, that works. I ended up writing three romances with one of my daughters and,

and she did. She. I sent a chapter, and she go, oh no, you need to change this. You need to put this there, whatever. But it's. That's the beauty of your kids is being able to make it relevant.

The. Right, yeah.

Jan: An instant built in editor.

Dan Parr: Right, Exactly. Yeah. She's a developmental editor for sure.

So that was fun.

So, Dan, would you mind reading a little bit to us so we can have a sample of what your new Bible is like and your voice and whatever would that Be okay?

Jan: Absolutely. I'd be glad to. And if you don't mind, I'd like to read a passage out of the King James Version and then my version so they can see how it sounds different from what the King James is.

Dan Parr: That'd be awesome. Yeah.

Jan: Okay,

so I've got mark 12, 41, 44 pulled up here. Jesus is with his disciples in Jerusalem.

And so I'll read the King James version, first verse 41.

And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury. And many that were rich cast in much.

And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in it two mites which make a farthing.

And he called unto him his disciples and saith unto them, verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury.

For they all did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

So that's the King James version. And then the easy-to-Understand Red Version 1 I did says it like this.

Verse 41.

Jesus sat down across from the treasury, and he saw how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many who were rich put in much.

A poor widow came, and she put in two small brass coins worth less than a penny. He called his disciples over and said,

most certainly. I tell you, this poor widow gave more than all the others who are giving.

They all gave out of their abundance, but she gave out of her poverty, all that she had to live on.

So just a sample of the difference between the two.

Dan Parr: Yeah, that is great. Yeah, thank you. A big difference. A big difference and so much to understand.

Jan: Yeah, it says the same thing, but just in more modern terms. Right. More relatable, easier to understand. My pleasure.

Dan Parr: All right, well, tell us where people can find you and I can put them in the show notes and.

Jan: Yeah, I'm available on LinkedIn. Of course you can find me there. Dan Parr and I need to get better at social media. We talked about this a little bit.

Not really explored all that. But I am on LinkedIn and they can find all my work on Audible and Amazon. If they just search Dan Parr, they'll. It'll pop up with everything that's available.

Dan Parr: Yeah, that's P A R R. Correct?

Jan: Yes.

Dan Parr: And you have a website?

Jan: Yep. Pardon me, voices.com. it'll link you to the books that are on Audible and Amazon as well.

Dan Parr: That's awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has really been enriching. I am really going to be happy to share this with my listeners and viewers. And.

Jan: Thank you. Yeah. Pleasure to. Anytime we get to talk about Jesus, it's always a great conversation. So thank you. Yeah.