christian Archives - Biblica Europe

Sarah finds hope in Cairo

Posted on October 15, 2024October 28, 2024 by Gary O'Rourke

“The teachings of the Gospel brought me back to life.”

Sarah married young, like many Egyptian Muslim women. But her extremist husband had a fiery temper and began to abuse her both emotionally and physically. When the couple had two sons, he soon began to abuse them as well.

Women in this cultural environment don’t have equal rights – there is little they can do about domestic abuse, as they are expected to be disciplined within the home. Sarah said:

“My husband’s belief was that a good Muslim wife doesn’t object or express her opinion; she serves and silently obeys orders. The world around me was dark and sad. Life at home was a nightmare, and tears never left my eyes.”

But at work, Sarah met a Christian called Lydia, who radiated a different kind of happiness. Sarah knew that Lydia had financial difficulties and other troubles, but her heart seemed to be continually filled with peace.

One day, with tears streaming down her face, Sarah poured out her feelings of unworthiness and despair, asking God why He had allowed so much suffering in her life. Looking for answers, she went to Lydia and asked, “Is it your faith that fills your heart with peace?”

Lydia began to explain the message of salvation to Sarah, who was deeply touched.

What’s really in the Bible?

At work, Lydia gave Sarah a Bible, and helped her to read it. As she started reading, she was initially confused and scared. She was so surprised to see the contradictions between the extremist Islamic beliefs she had been taught all her life and the compassionate words of Jesus. It gave her a deep desire to know more about the Christian faith.

Sarah went on reading the Bible, noting down the differences between the Bible and the Qu’ran. Day by day, she became convinced of the teachings she found in the New Testament. She found wisdom and comfort at last.

Jesus’ message transformed everything

Sarah says:

“The Bible became my daily companion; I read it every day. It was nourishment for my mind, solace for my heart, and peace for my life.

“After the first year of my experience with the Gospel, I had been transformed into a different person that I didn’t know existed within me. The teachings of the Gospel brought me back to life after I thought I had lost it forever.”

–

*Names have been changed to protect the women’s identities. Thank you to our partner in North Africa, Open Doors.

We found treasure in Ukraine

Posted on August 4, 2024October 28, 2024 by Biblica Europe

My name is Olena. I grew up in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region.

In February 2022, my husband and I were expecting our second child, a little boy. Our daughter was four and a half.

On February 24, we woke up to the sound of war. A few hours later, the city was under heavy shelling. All my friends were sent home from work.

A month of fear

We didn’t have a basement, so there was nowhere to hide from the rockets. For almost a month, we lived in complete fear, hiding with our daughter as best we could, sleeping in the corridors and in bomb shelters. Three houses on our street were completely destroyed.

At the end of March, my doctor told me they were no longer accepting patients and I’d have to look for a maternity hospital in another city. Volunteers took us out and brought us to Poltava, about 180 miles away, where our baby boy was born. It took almost all of our savings to relocate.

A child leads the way

About a month later, we were invited to the local church. For several months, we came solely for humanitarian aid. There were always people there ready to talk and support us, but we never took them up on it.

In May, my daughter and I were invited to a children’s club. We began attending these events from time to time, but all these stories remained mere fairy tales for me.

It was our daughter who became most interested in God. She always asked questions about Him and wanted to watch cartoons about God. I didn’t know much and couldn’t answer her questions, but when we were invited to a service last winter, my husband and I went together. Our child was given a New Testament – the Treasure Hunt Bible. It was written for children, but we were very interested in reading it ourselves! It had lots of questions in it that we could all think about together.

The most valuable treasure

Our daughter made us pray and read this Bible with her every day. I thank God that last autumn, my husband came to faith, and in the winter, so did I.

In this new town, we found the most valuable thing – faith in God! It all started with a children’s book, but now our lives have completely changed.

You sent this Bible to Olena’s family!

Do you remember our 2022 Christmas appeal? Many of you gave generously to send Treasure Hunt Bibles, newly-translated into Ukrainian, to children experiencing their first Christmas as refugees. Olena’s little girl was one of them. A £5 Christmas present has changed the lives of her whole family forever. Thank you so much from Olena and us!

To support this ministry and others like it, you can give a gift here today.

A song from a six-year old

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Biblica Europe

Matthew* is only six years old and has already been through brain cancer surgery.

Despite all this, this little Egyptian boy still wanted to pick up his guitar and sing a song for us – a song of praise to his Father God!

Matthew came to know a God who is always with us through thick and thin, thanks to receiving a children’s Bible in his own mother tongue, colloquial Egyptian.

A child’s mother tongue

This collection of Bible stories was one of the first Christian resources published for children in the Egyptian dialect – the first language that most Egyptian kids learn to speak. It’s much easier for young people to understand than material in formal classical Arabic.

Now God speaks to children through the Bible using just the same language as their mums, dads and friends. They understand he’s not a God who is far-off and hard to reach, but one who is close like their family.

God is close

Matthew had struggled with all the medical treatment he had to have. But now he knows that God loves him, is close, and will never leave him, no matter what he goes through. His joyful song in the midst of such a hard time shows this is a reality for him, giving him life and strength every day.

Matthew’s Bible was translated and provided thanks to the generosity of people like you donating to Biblica. You can do something amazing like this by donating today:

To support this ministry and others like it, you can give a gift here today.

*Not his real name

Mistakes and miracles – how God’s Word reaches Iranians

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Biblica Europe

A couple of years ago, Biblica completed the first translation of the whole Bible into modern Farsi, the official language of Iran. In one recent year, 300,000 Bibles were received by Iranians hungry to read them… despite the fact that it’s against the law to distribute the Bible in Farsi.

Our brave distribution partners tell us one incredible story after another about how Jesus is speaking to Iranians and miraculously providing Bibles to people seeking them.

The taxi driver and the box

In one Iranian city lives a man who works as a taxi driver.

One day, he picked up a passenger who had a box sitting next to him on the back seat. As this passenger left the car, he forgot to take his box. The driver thought he would contact him to pick it up the next day. He took the parcel home with him for safekeeping.

The thing is, this taxi driver was also a house church leader. That night, the secret church meeting would be at his house. For many years, these ten believers had gathered regularly, sharing one Bible between them – the one belonging to the taxi driver. The ten of them had been praying for months: “Lord, we would each like to have our own Bible.”

This particular night, when it was time to pray they said, “Let’s pray for Bibles again!”

As they prayed, the group leader suddenly wanted to know what was inside the box that had been left in his taxi. He got up very quietly and walked into the kitchen where he’d put it. He opened the box, and, astonished, brought it out to the praying group.

What was inside the box? Ten Bibles! The group was so, so happy.

The Lord delivers!

The man who left that box of Bibles in the taxi was one of our partners’ delivery guys. His role in getting Bibles to Iranians who need them is to collect the Bibles from a secret, safe warehouse and then carefully deliver them to house church leaders. Sometimes the delivery guys are just guided by the Holy Spirit about where to take the Bibles.

We don’t think this brother meant to leave those 10 Bibles in the taxi – he didn’t know the driver was a house church leader. But God knew very well. Our partner said:

“It gives me goosebumps to think about the Holy Spirit working together with people, fallible humans, and even using their mistakes.”

Your impact is huge

Our partner in the Middle East has a message for everyone who gives to Biblica:

“I want to personally thank you for making the financial investment in Biblica to make the Farsi Bible translation possible. God is using your gifts and multiplying them, sometimes more than tenfold.

“Now the translation is done, we need funding to print more copies. We can’t start printing Bibles until the money’s in. Anyone reading this can make it possible for more people in the Middle East to read the Bible, which for many will be their first time.”

To support this ministry and others like it, you can give a gift here today.

A ‘lite’ Bible app reaches 70 more countries

Posted on April 23, 2024 by Biblica Europe

Although technology has made it easier than ever to share God’s Word around the globe, most smartphones are less powerful in the developing world than they are in developed nations, and most users have a lot less data to use. This means the average person has remained cut off from digital Bible apps like YouVersion.

Until now, that is.

This year, YouVersion partnered with Biblica to design, pilot, and launch Bible App Lite — a lightweight Bible app specifically designed for people in developing communities.

“Lightweight” means that the app is exponentially smaller in terms of megabytes while still offering key Bible engagement features in an offline context, including the full text of the NIV.

More downloads than TikTok

After a pilot in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria, Bible App Lite is now used in over 70 countries around the world. More than 16 million people have installed Bible App Lite in the last 12 months. More importantly, there’s over 1 million people using it every single day. And in multiple African app stores (Kenya, Uganda, and DRC), this digital Bible has even ranked as the No. 1 overall app —more popular than TikTok and Facebook!

“God is using this app — not just to get the Bible into people’s hands, but also into their hearts,” says YouVersion Founder and CEO Bobby Gruenewald. “Our desire is to reach every person, in every part of the world, with God’s Word in their heart language.”

Bobby adds, “Our team loves Biblica. We couldn’t do what we do without you.”

The stats

The new Bible App Lite:

16 million total users
1 million daily users
The number 1 app in multiple African app stores

We keep innovating to share the Bible everywhere

Technology like this is a gamechanger in getting the Bible to previously inaccessible places. In many countries it’ s much easier to download an app than get your hands on a paper Bible. Last year, we launched 53 more single language Bible apps for basic smartphones.

Read more about the impact of your support
over the last year in our inspiring annual report.

20 years, 40 countries, 3 million teenagers

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Biblica Europe

It’s a new year, and we want to send a big thanks to everybody who supported our Christmas appeal to open the Bible to Generation Z. Many teens will be able to explore God’s Word this year thanks to you!

In fact, 2024 is a big year for our groundbreaking youth Bible, Reach4Life. It’s 20 years since we produced the first copy – initially aimed at South African young people growing up with the challenge of HIV.

Today, Reach4Life covers dozens of hot topics and challenges faced by teenagers around the world. It’s used in schools, youth groups and even prisons in 40 countries. We estimate that 3 million teenagers have got into the Bible with Reach4Life so far… and God’s just getting started.

In its 20^th year, we aim to make this wonderful youth Bible available in Nepal, Cambodia, Libya and Sudan – the translation work is well underway. Plus, we plan to offer youth work training where it’s most needed around the world, and reach new groups of teens through TV, radio and the Reach4Life app.

We can’t wait to see what God does next. Thank you for your support.

To donate, click on the logo below:

We will use your gift wisely where it will have the greatest impact on opening God’s Word to everyone, everywhere.

Open the Bible to Generation Z this Christmas

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Biblica Europe

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world…”

Church or group? Download options:

FULL POWERPOINT (INCLUDING VIDEO)
SLIDES AS IMAGES
VIDEO ONLY

At 15, Sebastian was shocked by the Bible speaking into his life. Please watch his amazing story:

Sebastian had the Bible opened to him on a youth retreat that introduced our special Bible for teenagers (Reach4Life).

This special Bible helps them explore all the pressing questions they don’t dare to ask about sex, porn, friendships, emotional pain, alcohol, their self-image – and how a teen can live in the way of Jesus.

Some of the verses we love at Christmas speak powerfully about how Jesus came to bring light and guidance in the darkness of hard times and confusion about life. That’s what Sebastian found for himself.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12

Yes, Generation Z is interested.

All around the world, the teenagers of Generation Z are grappling with difficult questions and the impact the pandemic had on their childhoods.

On top of this, a huge percentage of the world’s teens face other challenges like poverty, forced marriage, oppression, and even incarceration.

We know that the Bible addresses all these challenges.

62% of teenagers worldwide say they are open to engage more with the Bible.* But they need a helping hand to get into God’s Word.

The Reach4Life Bible and training is available in 40 languages so far. Church leaders around the world say it has a profound effect on the young people in their churches and communities.

“The leaders are shy to talk about these hot topics… This training is going to be a breakthrough.”
– Biblica’s Luther Awad, speaking at youth worker training in Egypt.

So let’s send Reach4Life to more places where youth work is scarce. Who knows what God will do when we open the Bible to Generation Z…

£40 could buy 10 teenagers their own youth Bible. Thank you for helping with a Christmas gift!

* ‘The Open Generation’ survey, 2022, surveyed 25,000 teenagers in 26 countries worldwide. Commissioned by Biblica and conducted by Barna.

Fleeing to Egypt; looking for hope

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Biblica Europe

In April this year, rival factions of Sudan’s military government clashed violently in the capital Khartoum and the Darfur region. Despite attempts at cease-fire, the conflict continues.

Every day, 5,000 Sudanese people arrive at the Egyptian border seeking refuge. Men, women, and children have fled for their lives on crowded buses, travelling for five days with only a few possessions. Some arrive without shoes.

A small team of Biblica partners have been helping Sudanese refugees as they wait in Aswan to travel to their next destination. In temperatures of over 40°C, they offer new arrivals water, food, and medical assistance. They give out free books and resources to those who want to read while they wait.

The topics covered in some of our trauma resources grab the attention of many people who have been through so much, and they begin to read immediately about how to process what they’ve been through with a God who understands.

One lady said through tears:

“This little bag is all that we could carry out of our home. We had to run because the militia were coming and taking over the mosques, churches, and homes. Everybody was fleeing for their lives.”

Our team member Fouad reports:

“People are making temporary shelters in the streets here. They have no access to food, water, or sanitation facilities… In Aswan, we are observing more and more people who are traumatised. They experienced fighting in the streets and lost family members. They suffer from high levels of anxiety and stress.

“Sudanese women were coming and asking for our resources. We had some of Biblica’s trauma resources – When Your Whole World Changes in Arabic and A New Hope in Sudanese, which quotes from the Sermon on the Mount. We need more trauma resources like Asha in Sudanese and Arabic, to help them find comfort in the midst of uncertainties; to provide hope and healing. There’s also a real need for trauma resources for children here, like The Survivors.

“Please pray for peace and reconciliation in Sudan. Pray for the people of Sudan who have seen so much destruction in their country. And pray that we will be an instrument of Jesus’s peace, offering love and hope.

You can help to bring the resources that Fouad requested to refugees in need of hope.

See www.biblicaeurope.com/disaster

Thank you!

I have forgotten every sadness in my life when I found Jesus

Posted on July 17, 2023 by Biblica Europe

Thousands of women in South Asia are finding help and healing after coming out of abusive situations, thanks to a Bible-based course we’ve developed.

The programme is called Asha; it’s been designed with our expert partners specifically to bring freedom to women who have been through this sort of trauma.

Over the last year, we’ve been excited to see Asha start to positively impact lives in the South Asia region. In 2022, Biblica held facilitator training sessions in India and the Philippines, so that our partner ministries and churches there would be equipped to lead women through the course.

We’re encouraged that more than 7,500 copies of the Asha book were distributed in the Kannada and Bengali languages alone. That’s many thousands of women who could discover the compassion and healing power of Jesus, and start on the road to a new, hopeful future.

One Asha participant said: “I have forgotten every sadness in my life when I found Jesus.”

Thank you for your support that allows us to equip local churches and ministries with high quality, life-giving resources like Asha, where they are most needed.

That’s a tiny glimpse of what God did through Biblica last year… In total, over 219 million people around the world accessed God’s Word through Biblica’s ministry in 2022!

You can read all about it in our 2022 annual report, which is now available online.

Now Indonesian young people have their own Bible app

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Biblica Europe

Reach4Life is Biblica’s ground-breaking youth discipleship Bible. We developed it specifically for young people (12-25) living in challenging situations around the world – where they are dealing with poverty, discrimination, disease, lack of rights or even imprisonment alongside all the usual trials of being a teenager.

We’ve also turned Reach4Life into a mobile app – for those who prefer it that way, and for those who live in places where it is difficult to distribute paper copies. Young people can download an app to their phone wherever they are!

Just a few months ago, we launched the app in a new, seventh language – Indonesian.

There are estimated to be around 277 million Indonesian speakers, mainly living in Indonesia, but also in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The Indonesian app features the New Testament Bible, the full Reach4Life content and extra videos, all packaged in our beautiful design, with easy navigation between the lessons and a programme guide.

In just the first few months, 11,000 people have downloaded Reach4Life in Indonesian to their phones. We’re excited to think about all the young people this represents, studying the Bible together or on their own, growing in their faith or discovering Jesus for the first time.

“I do not think I would have become who I am today if the Word of God had not touched me and changed me through reading the Bible with other youth. May God’s Word keep shining the light and bringing hope to many kids like it did for me.” – Reach4Life reader

In total, Reach4Life has been used and loved by over 2 million teenagers and young people around the world… with many more to come.

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