Day: June 3, 2019

Imagine if you spent years not having a Bible you could call your own? Imagine being expected to engage with a Bible that you struggle to read because either the text was too small, the pages too thin, the colour of paper not right or the language not clear?

Meet Jennifer. Jennifer has spent years not having a Bible that she can call her own. Her mother has spent years trying to find a Bible that was suitable for her.

So much work is being done across our schools and in our secular community to serve the needs of those with intellectual needs or visual impairment, however the Church has fallen far behind. It is not acceptable for everyone to be given the same Bible, regardless of their needs, and be expected to engage with it.

For us at Biblica, accessing the Word of God is our whole mission. So, it is incredibly exciting to be working on a project to present the Word of God in a format that really is accessible to those with additional needs.

This is the first Bible that we can say yes we have got it, and we are delighted!

Watch this video to hear Jennifer’s story and find out how lives are being transformed through Biblica’s NIrV Accessible Edition of the New Testament.

For more info on the Accessible Bible and how to buy a copy please go to https://www.biblicaeurope.com/our-work/the-accessible-bible

This Bible has given me an accessibility to God’s Word which simply wasn’t available to me before. It has fundamentally changed my attitude to interacting with Scripture.

These are the words of a young man called Andrew when we asked for his thoughts on the NIrV Accessible Edition. Andrew has spent years trying to find a Bible he can study and engage with, but due to his dyslexia reading God’s Word became one of the most frustrating aspects of his faith.

10% of the UK population are dyslexic, according to the British Dyslexia Association. As many who suffer with dyslexia will know, simply reading one page of a book can leave you feeling mentally exhausted. Andrew found his school years tough because he had to battle through reading on a daily basis.

When Andrew became a Christian in his early 20’s, reading the Bible was also a constant mental battle. In his own words he describes a normal layout Bible:

“…the size/design/layout are all awful for someone like me to use. I simply can’t read/write/retain quickly enough; so sometimes I have to read a sentence over and over 10 times before I can even remotely remember what I’ve read.”

It wasn’t until Andrew was at New Horizon, a large Christian festival in Northern Ireland, that he heard about the Accessible Bible. It was such an emotional experience for Andrew when he first got his hands on a copy.

Aspects like the colour of the paper, the font and the wording, enabled Andrew to be able to read the Bible without feeling tired from concentrating for the first time in his life! He managed to read the entire New Testament in just two months, and sometimes would find himself reading for up to two hours at any one time!

It was an emotional experience opening this book and realising that wow this book really is for me…FOR ME!

What a wonderful story! We thank Andrew for sharing this with us.

At Biblica we remain committed to ensuring that everyone has access to a Bible they can call their own, so that lives can be changed when reading this life– changing book!

Please pray for us as we develop this Bible into the Old Testament in the future so that people like Andrew can have the full Bible in an accessible format.

Cameron, originally from Scotland, lives in Northern Ireland and is the leader of a Torch Trust Fellowship Group in Belfast. Cameron lives with a physical disability called Spastic Diplegia and is partially sighted with sight only in one eye.

Cameron committed his life to Jesus when he was 19 years old and tells us of his amazing journey of faith ever since. In 2012 God placed a vision on Cameron’s soul to see revival in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In response, Cameron has created Revival Sparks Ministries. He is working to gather people in a very informal way to create a community of people who catch the vision and join him in the revival journey.

Due to his sight issues, reading God’s Word has been a struggle for Cameron. When Cameron first got his hands on a copy of the NIrV Accessible Edition he told us:

My first impression was, it’s a big book! But once I opened it the first thing that struck me was the page colour– it helps to lift the print a bit and enables the words to stand out off the page, which is good for me as I only have one working eye. It is written in an easier language so it touches my heart more quickly!

The Accessible Bible has strengthened Cameron’s faith and he is excited to share it with many others with sight impairments.

We thank Cameron for sharing his story with us. If you would like more information on Torch Trust you can visit their website.

We will leave you with Cameron’s own words about the Accessible Bible:

Thank you Biblica for producing this Bible and for spending time and money on bringing God’s Word in such an easy format to read and understand.