Read 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.

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