Tag: festival

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!

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.

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.

You can read more about the Reach4Life Bible here

“They represent their nation, they have to shoulder all its burdens; it’s lonely.”

Geneva, Switzerland, is home to a very unique community. The UN European headquarters brings in about 10,000 diplomatic staff representing 193 nations and 40 other agencies.

In 2008, a man called Dr. Benjamin Levi Moses felt a call from God to come alongside these ambassadors and leaders with professional and spiritual guidance, and a unique organisation called Global Leadership Geneva-Bern (GLGB) was born.

His wife, Jessy, has helped develop the ministry and told us a bit about it:

“As ambassadors these people represent their nation, but they are lonely. They have to shoulder all the burden of their nation at the United Nations and various councils, and their families are moving from country to country, every two to four years. It’s a lifestyle with a lot of pressures and tensions.

“Benjamin is qualified in public administration as well as being a theologian. We connect with ambassadors, give them professional solutions, coaching and take Kingdom principles to them.

“90% of the diplomats we work with are either from no faith background or from a different faith background but they really appreciate our support and perspective. Very few of them have said no to a prayer.

“We are heavily involved in peace initiatives too, and God has given us opportunities at a very high level. So we use all these professional platforms to show non-Christians that there are solutions from a Biblical perspective. There are also plenty of diplomats who are Christians, but do not engage their faith at work, so we train them how to translate their Biblical values into the policies they’re working on – policies that impact the whole world.”

The Ambassadors’ Gospel

“They say, whoa! This is beautiful and amazing, what a nice tool!”

GLGB wanted to have a high-quality book to give to the ambassadors they know, and one of Jessy’s colleagues put her in touch with Biblica.

“My idea was just to have a small Gospel of John printed, but Biblica produced this special version for us called The Life of Jesus Christ – Good News for Ambassadors. People really like it. There’s no one who has ever looked at it and didn’t say, Whoa! This is beautiful and amazing, what a nice tool!”

This ‘Ambassadors’ Gospel’ is a special multi-lingual edition of John’s Gospel with text in French, English, Spanish and Arabic, alongside images and quotes from famous global leaders.

We printed over 2,000 copies for GLGB, and it’s become very popular among ambassadors, diplomats and also young people in Lausanne who can read all four languages. Jessy says:

“It’s such a beautiful tool; Benjamin carries it everywhere where he goes to give it away.

“I remember we had a delegation from Saudi Arabia in September who came to learn from us. We talked about some Swiss business principles, and also Biblical principles. We gave them a few gifts including the Ambassadors’ Gospel. One person forgot to take it home but all the others did. For us, the very fact that they took it, knowing that it is the life story of Jesus Christ, that is a big thing.

“As for the Christian ambassadors who take it, they say they really appreciate the layout, the way it’s presented, and the encouraging quotes that are in this Bible. They tell us that they love it as a beautiful and relevant gift they can give away to their peers as well.

“We believe that the Word is so powerful, and that this book been prepared with so much prayer and passion, that it will definitely reach anyone who needs to hear from God. Thank you Biblica!”

You can find out more about GLGB’s unique ministry at glgb.org