Spreading the gospel through distributing Bibles has been around for ages … so nothing has changed. Yet, everything has changed in technology, transportation, translations of Scripture and resources for discipleship.
David & Lydia Hall
This summer, we are fortunate to have David & Lydia Hall here in Hawaii. (view their testimony) Their key focus is producing and distributing “The New Zealand Heritage New Testament.” They serve in an advisor and/or legal board member capacity: YWAM Auckland, Pacific 2 Nations, the Gideons International NZ, the Prayer Station ministry.
Challenges – Christianity is on the decline in the so-called “developed world”. Knowledge and respect for God’s Word, and Christian values, especially among the young, are rare.
Pray that more will catch the vision and help plant God’s Word in this season where Christian values are being displaced… Pray that more young people will hear, like Isiah, God’s call to serve Him and the least reached peoples of the world. Pray for the more than a dozen students in the current Discipleship Training School here, from: Brazil, Australia, Korea, India, New Zealand, Fiji… that God will mold them into effective representatives of Him. Pray for the 50 to 60 thousand Gideon New Testaments that are given out each year across New Zealand, especially in schools, hotels, hospitals, prisons, etc.
New technology aims to speed up Bible translation in remote regions
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, is helping protect and advance the work of church-owned Bible translation by providing its translators with crucial technology.
Why is the pace of Bible translation increasing?
The pace of Bible translation is increasing. And it’s not just the number of Bible translations being completed that is increasing rapidly, but the number of new ones that are starting. A record number of 367 language projects started last year – that’s a rate of one a day.