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!
Andrew reading the Accessible Bible
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.
Kim is a typical fun loving, live–life–to–the–full, fifteen–year–old! Everyone who knows her talks about her kind heart and her big smile. She enjoys riding horses, swimming, playing badminton and loves books. Kim has big dreams for her future– to be a wildlife photographer and artist.
Kim spent the first seven and a half years of her life in Thailand, with some of that time spent in Rainbow House, run by Christian Care for the Disabled. She has an acquired brain injury, which has resulted in left–hand sided hemiplegia and epilepsy. But she hasn’t let this stop her! She is a girl who gives everything a go and never gives up! We count it a privilege to have met her and to tell her story.
As a lover of books, Kim enjoyed discovering the wonderful stories of Narnia written by CS Lewis. She fell in love with the character of Aslan, and after watching the DVD one evening made a commitment to Jesus and asked him to come into her life. Now with the support of her home church Ballyholme Presbyterian in Bangor, Northern Ireland and Scripture Union camps, her faith is nurtured, and she has wonderful people who pray for her.
Her mother, Heather has been reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to her every night, to help Kim understand and remember the story of creation, the fall, and God’s plan of Salvation. Heather spent years trying to find an age–appropriate Bible she could read herself, but ran out of options.
It wasn’t until a kind friend gifted Kim with an NIrV Accessible Edition that things started to change. Heather recalls the time when Kim first saw it:
‘As usual our curious Kim opened up the Bible in the back of the car to take a look. After a few quiet moments, I could hear her start to read it. Then she yelled, “Mummy, Mummy! I can read it; I can read my Bible!” ‘
Kim and her friend
Being able to read independently is so special to Kim, and an answer to prayer too. She is more interested in the Bible, knows the stories so well and that knowledge will enable her to focus on the text and boost her reading skills. Kim can now bring her Bible to youth group at church and read it just like her friends can. This is just so precious!
As a literacy support teacher, Heather was pleasantly surprised to find that the Bible was able to combine an adult flow to the sentences and bring down the level of reading required at the same time. She felt like the Bible passages seemed no different to what she reads herself in her own Bible.
At Biblica, we want Kim’s story to be replicated throughout the UK. We count it an enormous privilege to work alongside our partners in developing the Accessible Bible to make sure that God’s Word is open and accessible to everyone.
We plan to share more stories with you of the real difference an Accessible Bible can make to people in evangelism, personal discipleship and deepening of their faith.
To finish we want to share Kim’s mother’s words when we asked her about the impact the Accessible Bible has had on her daughter and her family:
“The Accessible Bible has become the means of unlocking the joy, peace and strength that comes from being able to search the scriptures, for those who can find reading difficult. It has become a means of unifying friends who in other areas of life enjoy the same things, in the ability to share in Bible studies together. This has been so important for Kim as a teenage girl, longing to be part of the group. Thank you Biblica for making this happen.”
As you may have heard, some of our team here at Biblica Europe had the pleasure of travelling to Serbia to film stories of those people who had recently received the new Biblica Serbian Bible. Prior to the publication of this Bible, Serbian Christians only had access to old Bible texts (more than 150 years old) or had to teach themselves other languages to be able to read the Bible for themselves.
One of our partners in Serbia, Ikonos Publishing House, were the first to receive and deliver the 10,000 copies to Christians across Serbia. Drasko Djenovic, CEO of Ikonos, meets many people through his work in Serbia.
He shared with us a story about a young boy called Boris. Boris never had a bible he could call his own for many years. Now with the new Serbian translation he can finally read and understand it for himself!
Boris has written his own testimony below to share with you all. Some of the text has been edited to ease readability– as you can imagine it is very difficult for any of us to write our testimony in another language.
My name is Boris, I am 13 years old and I live in south Serbia, not far away from the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. As a baby I was found next to a rubbish bin. Due to my health and my family situation I was then taken to an orphanage. Afterwards, I was taken in by a single fostering family as nobody else wanted to adopt me due to health issues and because I was Romani. Usually it is very difficult for single people to adopt, but because of my circumstances my social worker agreed.
Boris
A few years later my Mum met some Christians from Pirot and she became a Christian. Since then we have travelled regularly to Pirot, which is about 30km each way, to go to Christian meetings and services. A few years after that, through “Uncle” Grozdan, she has started to listen to TWR programs in the Serbian language. That has influenced us to change our view on Bible understanding. We listen to mainly TTB (Thru the Bible) but also other Christian programs as well.
Then Mum has started to receive literature from Ikonos. Even though I regularly attended church, I wasn’t so interested in Christianity. Then, in the autumn of 2016 I received a Children’s and Teen Bible from Drasko. As it was Winter, there was no way for us to travel from village to other locations– so the radio had become our only church. Unfortunately, there wasn’t always a good connection and we weren’t able to afford a better internet.
So, Drasko sent my Mum DVDs with some sermons. However it was in Croatian so I wasn’t able to understand everything, but with Mum’s help I understood some of it. Later, he sent us sermons from the Karaburma Church of Christ where he and Zarko Djordjevic preach. I have started to read the Teen Bible and finally I was starting to understand some things that I didn’t understand before.
In February 2018 I received the New Serbian Bible translation. For the first time I am able to read and understand “the real Bible”. I have started to read the Bible often, but I have to read it with my glasses and a magnifying glass as the words are too small for me.
In the Summer months, I am helping my Mum on a field as her health is not good anymore and she cannot carry anything heavy. Sometimes I am working for wages in fields to help my Mum as she had to retire early because of back problems.
When I wake up each morning at 4.30 am I pray, have a snack and do morning work (in winter I go into the woods and cut the wood up) and then at 5.45am I walk to the bus stop so that I can catch my bus at 6.15am, to be at school for 8am. This gives me time to read Scripture on the bus. When I return home, I take care of the animals that we have, then I have to study for school. I’m now in 8th grade – which is final grade and I have mainly A and B+ grades. Because of working so hard I don’t get to bed until 9PM. I like to listen to TTB on tablet and I have the New Testament in MP3 as well.
I had the opportunity to get free dormitory at school, because of my eyes, but I didn’t want to go because it is in Belgrade, some 300 kms from Babusnica and I didn’t want to leave my Mum on her own. I know that trip would be too expensive and that we wouldn’t be together very often.
My goal is to be baptised in a river but Drasko told me that I will need to wait until the Summer. Anyway, I hope that by then I will have even better understanding of Scripture and grow in faith and Bible knowledge. I know it is not easy to be the only believer in school but… I have grown up knowing Jesus because of my mother who really loves so I am not really worried about it anymore!
Exodus is a Christian Youth Organisation in Northern Ireland with a passion for Disciple Making. Every year they run a programme called ‘The Influencers Academy.’
In it’s first year, the group of 16–21 year old ‘Influencers’ were challenged to give away a Bible to people that they know who don’t yet know Jesus. Exodus contacted Biblica to get 200 low–cost Bibles and the stories of impact are incredible!
One of those influencers was very apprehensive about giving a Bible to someone, but she invited one of her friends for coffee and brought the Bible with her just in case. They were casually chatting, when her friend, out of the blue, asked her about a Bible verse she had just seen on a poster on her way in. The influencer took out the Bible she had brought for her friend and started to explain God’s Word and then gave her the Bible.
This influencer was so honoured by how God could’ve used anyone to do that with her friend but He chose her: “A few days ago I would never have thought I would have been able to do that, prayer changes things, God gave me the opportunity, and God helped me take that opportunity
Another student gave a Bible to the girl in the room next to her in student halls. For weeks they sat together, reading the Bible. The influencer took the time to answer her friend’s questions as they read through God’s Word. A few weeks later the Influencer took another bold step and invited the girl to her CU where she gave her life to Jesus! Isn’t it incredible how God’s Word prepares and softens the hearts of others?
The Influencer’s Academy has now spread to 7 regions across Ireland, and as the project has developed, so has the partnership between Exodus and Biblica Europe. This year Exodus produced customised copies of ‘Acts: The adventure of Radical Obedience,’ using the NIV text.
Acts: The Adventure of Radical Obedience
“We would like to express our sincere thanks for the use of the NIV version of Acts, as it has enabled us to equip over 150 young people with the devotional booklet ‘Acts: The Adventure of Radical Obedience.” – Jose Cummings, Exodus UK & Ireland Director
To start your own story, you can invest in low–cost Bibles here, or find out more about producing a customised project by clicking here.
Find out more about running an Influencer Academy with Exodus here.
Over the past few years, we have had the joy of providing Bibles to Seafarers Christian Friend Society for their mission across ports in Northern Ireland. We recently caught up with Sam Cowan, Chaplain of the organisation in Belfast to hear about this important ministry:
Seafarers Christian Friend Society (SCFS) has worked for many years ministering to millions of men and women who live in the twilight world of big shipping. People who work on these ships can roam the oceans for up to twelve months at a time – it’s a lonely time for many. SCFS have teams based in 40 ports around the world, boarding ships to offer friendship, a chat and have opportunities to speak of the Good News of Jesus Christ. These workers come from more than 100 different nations and speak dozens of languages.
Sam Cowan leads the SCFS team in Belfast and has used English NIV and foreign language Bibles from Biblica for his pastoral visits to crew members on board cruise ships.
Sam explains, “Many of the seafarers I meet come from different religious backgrounds, some Muslim, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindi and some claim to have no belief in God. I am always amazed how seafarers ask for English Bibles as they want to improve their English.”
He continues, “I sometimes hear back from seafarers how they have found faith in Jesus through reading the Bibles they receive. One of the privileges I have is to give Bibles to the Christian Fellowships on board the cruise ships as they have crew members coming without a Bible and they want to learn more about Jesus.”
Over the last few years many cruise ships have docked in Belfast which has provided Sam amazing opportunities to take Bibles on board for the crew members. He tells us below of three stories which are particularly powerful and just prove how the Word of God can change people’s lives:
“Firstly I think of a Filipino seafarer who ended up in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast with TB. I was asked to visit him twice a week for three months. During those visits I took him a Tagalog Bible and he began reading it. On each visit I read a portion of the Scriptures to him and prayed with him. When he went home he has continued reading the Bible to his family.”
“The second story is about a lady from Nepal who kept asking me questions about the Bible and the Christian life. This lady came to faith on board the ship and now five members of her family, her daughter, niece, sister and husband have all trusted the Saviour and each one has a Bible from Biblica. This same lady has just asked for five more copies to take back home with her in a couple of weeks time. Her niece is planning to start a three month course in a Bible College in Kathmandu.”
Woman getting her extra Bibles for the on board Fellowship group
“The final story is of one man from Mauritius who asked if he could have a French Bible and while looking at the other Bibles he also asked if he could have an Arabic Bible. He explained that French is his main language, but as a young boy he was taught the Quran in Arabic and now he was holding an Arabic Bible so he could compare them both.”
Guy from Mauritius holding an Arabic Bible
What incredible stories of people receiving God’s Word in their heart languages. We pray for these people as they read these Bibles and pray their families would also be impacted by the Word of God.
A massive thank you to Sam for sharing these powerful stories. Please remember Sam and his team in your prayers as they seek to spread the Gospel to ship workers who dock in Belfast.
‘A day in the life of a translator’ with our friend and colleague Jim Courter.
Jim working away at the Serbian and Portuguese translations of the Bible1. What is your name and where do you come from?
Jim Courter from, among other places in the USA, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
2. Can you tell us how you ended up becoming a Bible translator? Tell us a bit about that journey.
While attending New Mexico State University, in 1974 I heard about a Wycliffe Banquet downtown. A representative from Wycliffe was recruiting Bible translators and the presentation convinced me that my life should head in that direction. I asked the speaker what I should be studying at the university and he suggested Anthropology with focus on linguistics. I changed my major from Geology to Anthropology after 5 semesters at the school. I had been taking Russian and Spanish until then, but added German as well. I started learning New Testament Greek on my own. In the summer of 1975 I went to the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) school in Oklahoma. After a few years of being involved in other things, particularly smuggling Christian literature into Communist Countries while living in Austria, I got an M.A. degree in Bible translation at the SIL center in Dallas in 1983. I was a member of Wycliffe in Austria until 1987, and in 1988 I was recruited to work for Living Bibles International. There was a merger with IBS in 1991 which is why I am now with Biblica.
Jim in 1999
3. What does your typical working day look like?
My main work is checking new translations and revisions verse by verse by comparing with the original–language biblical texts. Quite often I have to consult any one of a number of translators’ aides available, such as Translator’s Workplace, dictionaries, biblical terms lists, parallel passage checks, commentaries, etc., in order to assure accuracy and consistency throughout the text. There is a large percentage of verses where the exact interpretation is in question, so much thought has to go into those kinds of passages.
Jim and the Romanian translators
4. Which translation projects are you working on for Biblica Europe?
Serbian OT translation along with a revision of the NT, the Portuguese full Bible revision, NIV Study Bible translations into Romanian and Russian.
5. Is it true that a translator’s job is never done?This is very true. The more I learn about the original languages, the structure of the way the biblical text was put together, historical and geographical information, etc., there is always room for improvement. There is an ongoing need for careful harmonisation of key terms, parallel passages and key phrases that were meant to be noticed by careful readers of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. These kinds of harmonisations are part of the meaning of the biblical text, so cannot be overlooked. Sometimes this work is not straightforward because word–for–word correspondence is not always possible. Languages work very differently in the way they divide up reality. Accurately transmitting the meaning of a passage in the most clear way in the translation is an elusive goal that a translator does not ever completely feel has been fully accomplished.
6. Why is it important for Biblica to focus on Bible Translation?
There are in many cases already translations available in the languages where we are working, but they are not adequate. Often the language is outdated, the translation was done from some other languages besides Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek or the language is stilted rather than natural. The tools we have now, such as Paratext and others mentioned above guarantee much better quality because of the easily–accessible wide range of exegetical helps, computerised means of checking, formatting, analysing, harmonising, etc.
7. Is there anything that we can do as Christians to profile the work of Bible translation better?
I will quote Scott Munger here: Bible translators are;
• Farmers, making “food” for the world
• Journalists, giving access to vital information
• Revolutionaries, overthrowing falsehoods
• Church planters, laying a foundation for the Church
• Entertainers, telling the greatest story ever told
• Soldiers, protecting the defenseless and invading Satan’s terrirtory
• Economists, helping people manage life’s real resources
• Transporters, moving people from one kingdom to another
Martin Luther confessed: “I have also undertaken to translate the Bible into German. That was necessary for me; otherwise I might have died someday imagining that I was a learned man. Those who think themselves scholars should try to do this work.”
8. What is your favourite Bible verse and why?
Proverbs 4:18: The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” This verse presents our path in life out of the darkness of night to where the sunshine begins faintly lighting up the eastern horizon and finally rises and we see the full light of day. This is the story of all of us, and now that we as believers have the light, we should walk in that light with our eyes opened through study of the Word of God and living in fellowship with him who is the Light of the world.
A big thank you to Jim for letting us interview him. May God bless him and the wider translation team as they aim to translate and update the Bible so that the Word of God can be accessed across Europe in many languages.
Biblica and the Naval Military and Air Force Bible Society have been partnering with us for many years, producing NIV Bibles and New Testaments for their mission to supply Bibles to the uniformed services.
Thousands of copies of military and seafarers NIV Bibles have been printed and sent to NMAFBS for distribution. It has been a pleasure for Biblica to work with an organisation that seeks to make the Word of God accessible for those who serve our Country.
Some images below capture the importance of NMAFBS’s work. We look forward to keeping you updated in how these Bibles have been used.
Taken in Iraq.Johnson Beharry VC receiving a replacement NIV Bible (He lost his original in battle)2 Philippino sailors with the bi-Lingual (English/Tagalog) NIV New Testaments
Biblica are delighted to be able to partner with churches and ministries across Europe. Recently we partnered with Hillsong Church in Stockholm, helping them to custom their own Swedish Bible called ‘I have decided’ for their outreach work.
In the last two years the church have given away 4,000 bibles to people who are new to their faith or don’t have a bible. David Rindefors who is part of the church leadership team tells us his story:
“I have been part of the team in Hillsong Stockholm since 2012. To be part of giving a Bible to someone who has just decided to follow and build a relationship with Jesus is something that never ceases to be incredibly special. I can think of multiple occasions when the Bible has been given out as a gift and it has enabled people to progress in their faith, opened up new revelation and brought light and life in hopeless situations.”
Here are just a few stories that David has shared with us:
A girl, not raised in a Christian family, came to church with her friend one Sunday. She raised her hand during the invitation to salvation. She was given a Bible and she decided to start reading.
One girl in David’s fellowship group shared about her journey to the church. She had her Bible, the one she received the first time she went to church and made her decision, about a year ago. Written at the beginning of her Bible is the date she made her decision, which will always serve as a reminder to her.
A girl in David’s prayer group has struggled to read the Bible since she became a Christian four years ago, but it wasn’t until she started reading the ‘I have decided’ bible that it really fell into place. She has now read the entire New Testament and has grown enormously in her faith.
Biblica partnered with New Generation in Sweden to produce a new edition of a Swedish New Testament which has been given out across schools in Sweden.
The New Testament contains 64 colour pages to help the reader understand what the Bible is all about and explains, among other things, what Christians believe and who Jesus is.
Christian school groups in Sweden distributed the Bibles at celebrations or to a friend over a coffee. The work continues across Sweden and it is amazing to hear some of the good news stories:
Ebba Rose, Tenhult
On the 17th of December 2015 Ebba wrote a note and put it in a Bible and left it in the common room at her school. She wanted to inspire people to take it up and read it and also hoped that someone would take it home. On the note she wrote a suggestion for the reader to find anything they wanted (a song, a film etc) that would fit what they were reading. Ebba comments, “I wanted to try and involve the Word in everyday life.” On the 3rd February someone had taken the Bible home!
One school in Sweden
Over the Christmas period one school wrapped these bibles up and stuck personal notes in them to each student. Over 18 people came to Christ in just one school!
Anton Fust, Linköping
Anton and his New Generation group of 14 people ordered 30 Bibles. They took the Bibles and handed them out personally to people as Christmas presents in 2015. Anton himself gave Bibles to three people, he wrapped them and wrote little cards. These presents have since become great starting points for conversations about faith.
Hillevi Herrmann, Uppsala
Hillevi bought Bibles and has started handing them out to people. Some of them she has given to people in her school but she has also given them to some people she met in town. She gave one to a bus driver which led to a long conversation about faith! It turns out he had a Christian neighbour that had led him to the Lord but as he said “he didn’t live actively with Jesus now”. Hillevi giving him a Bible out of the blue felt important to him and he said that he needs to come back to Jesus. He contacted Hillevi after this incident and thanked her again for giving him the Bible.
Dionne joined Biblica in January 2023. As a detail-orientated accounting and finance professional she has been meeting the accounting needs of companies, not-for-profit organisations and individuals for over 12 years. Dionne lives in Bournemouth with her husband and three children, Heavenly-Joy, Daniel-Jesse and Josiah-James. Together they attend City Gate Church. Dionne serves as a governor for two local Church of England schools.
