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BibleBooster

BibleBooster is an initiative by Bible Societies for Bible Societies. It provides a website and a mobile app which focus on optimising the experience of online Bible reading and supporting Bible engagement. It can serve the needs of those with little or no experience in Bible reading, as well as people with deep knowledge of Scripture.

“The digital landscape is changing very quickly, and so are user expectations. It can be a struggle for a single Bible Society to keep pace with it all. There are so many questions to consider, on number of levels… It can be overwhelming for one Bible Society to handle this all alone. The good news is: you don’t need to anymore! BibleBooster offers you products and services to help you to develop and implement your digital strategy.”

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The Word at Our Fingertips

  • by Joshy K

The Bible has the distinction of being translated and read in the largest number of languages across the world. Technology has come to the aid to present the Word to all people groups speaking diverse languages. The divine plan of God behind such developments can be understood when we examine the recent historical account. The technological advancements are making major contributions to the fulfillment of the last command and associated Bible translation activities. The relevance of technology in mission activities in the 21st century is highly significant. In order to share the gospel as well as for church activities, most churches and mission organizations are extensively using digital technology. In today’s digital world, social media serves as a powerful communication channel to reach out across the world with great speed. To present the Word to a larger group, digital media takes precedence in the present time. The emergence of the Apple store on 10 July 2008 and the Android market (Google Play store) on 22 October 2008 marked a paradigm shift in receiving the Word at our fingertips. Read More »The Word at Our Fingertips

Thinking Anthropologically about Media: Is Jesus Angry or Impassive?

Emotions are not simply emotions. Emotions are powerful, and there can be subtle but significant differences in how people around the world understand, express, and handle them. When we express our emotions, they can trigger further emotions in those around us, who may express empathy or react against us. Sometimes different social groups are expected to deal with emotions differently. There can be different expectations between children and adults or men and women. People with different religious backgrounds may also have specific ways of dealing with emotions.

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Deditos

EMDC webinar on what Deditos offers your project, Wednesday, 19 of October

Children fascinated and filled with hope as they come into contact with God’s Word.

Everything was geared for adults

Children need to know God from the time they are small, but it can be hard to share Bible stories with them in a way that is captivating AND true to Scripture.

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Creating printed or digital books with Bloom

  • by Peter B

We know that it takes a lot of reading material in a non-dominant language community to make reading worthwhile and give the practice needed to develop true literacy. We help language communities to create these reading materials using Bloom. The Bloom Library holds over 10,500 books that these language communities can download to translate into their own languages. Bloom is software that facilitates translating the book into their own language, recording an audio reading of the book and then publishing the books in various print and digital forms. Bloom Reader is a smartphone app that allows language communities to download the talking books that Bloom creates and it highlights the text as the reader listens to facilitate learning to read.

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Strange places to see scripture – would anywhere be wrong?

  • by Peter B

Since 1883, Abram Lyle & Sons Ltd have been using a picture of a dead lion accompanied by a quote from Judges 14:14 to sell syrup.

This might seem strange to some people but isn’t the only place you might come across unexpected Bible verses. Almost 30 years ago the city of Tagbilaran in the Philippines passed a local law requiring that a Scripture be painted on the back of all tricycles. Even when not officially required, Bible verses appear in a number of unexpected places.

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Designing for users with accessibility needs

  • by Peter B

“most churches don’t intentionally exclude people with disabilities. But because the world is, by default, a poor fit for people with disabilities, the church is also a poor fit, unless we intentionally include people of all abilities.” – Ryan Faulk joniandfriends.org/the-largest-unreached-people-group-youve-never-heard-of

We encourage church and mission leaders to think not only of mission among those with a disability, but to recognize, affirm and facilitate the missional calling of believers with disabilities themselves as part of the Body of Christ. The Cape Town Commitment II-B-4

Sadly we can end up excluding many people, unless we are intentional about doing more to include them. Read More »Designing for users with accessibility needs

Planting “Gospel Seeds” Through Business Cards

Over the last year or two, during my infrequent visits to southern California, I began to notice a change in the ethnic mix of the men that gather early each morning in the parking lot of the Home Depot near our mission agency’s home office hoping to get work for the day. Typically the men had all been Mexicans, but I noticed newcomers that I suspected were Haitians. 

Five years ago I tracked down the available Scripture resources in Haitian Creole and loaded them onto some “BibleBox” WiFi hotspot units for some Mexican believers reaching out among thousands of Haitians that ended up “stuck” in Tijuana, Mexico on their trek north. Now, for those with smartphones, directing Creole speakers to the Haitian Creole page* within the www.ScriptureEarth.org website seems to me to be the best option. They can have free access to 6 full-length Scripture movies**, the text of multiple translations of the New Testament, audio recordings of the NT in 3 different Creole translations, and a variety of audio recordings produced by the Global Recordings Network.

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Translating the Bible Into Action

Translating the Bible into Action (2nd Edition)

  • by Peter B

Translating the Bible into Action has become a key resource for anyone interested in helping people discover the relevance of the Bible in their lives, especially in terms of newer translations in minority languages. This new edition includes new chapters and updates that take into account new opportunities and changes in technology in the last 10-15 years. Written in an accessible way for use with churches, most chapters can be introduced and explored in an hour or two. The book provides recommendations and links to further articles, many of which are available on https://scripture-engagement.org/ and https://www.ijfm.org/

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Using QR Codes to share Bibles and resources

  • by Peter B

Not all promotion of websites and apps is online. One of the great resources distributed at the recent EMDC gathering was a simple key chain from CityBibles. Being a QR code you can even just scan the picture of it above to access their online app which provides scripture resources in over 80 languages. In addition to the Bible their are videos and a kids app. If the language you are looking for isn’t on the site the page quickly points you to YouVersion, Faith Comes By Hearing and Global Recordings Network.

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Does your church link to an online Bible?

Does your church help people to find Bibles?

  • by Peter B

Church websites are often quite good at telling people about service times, linking to sermons, and even giving information on how to hire rooms in the building. Sadly, in my experience not many are very good at helping people access the Bible. Perhaps they assume that anyone who can find the church website can also search online and find a Bible.

But perhaps this is a missed opportunity to highlight that the Bible is essential to the church, and that the church leaders actually do want people to read it for themselves.

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Psalms that Sing

A group of Old Testament consultants are developing a series of aids to help translators prepare oral/performance and written translations of psalms that incorporate characteristics of local poetry and which will result in several products – both an exegetically-accurate written translation as well as a number of oral performances of the psalm or portions thereof.

For each psalm, there are four stages to the process, which moves from oral to written to performance. The hope is to capture the creativity of the translators through first preparing an oral translation and performance-excerpts, and then for this translation to be honed (to bring it closer to the Hebrew in terms of accuracy) after a careful study of the exegesis of the text.

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Catching up on what you missed, or what you meant to read/watch/listen to again

  • by Peter B

In 2020 the global pandemic forced us to cancel our live “EMDC” media distribution consultation, and develop a whole suite of online options providing information, training and community, to workers involved in Bible translation and other forms of service amongst ‘minority language communities’ – speakers of the languages that have been at the end of the queue when it comes to receiving scripture and other resources.

Read More »Catching up on what you missed, or what you meant to read/watch/listen to again