In Ukraine, One Girl Found Hope in Tragic Circumstances

This article was adapted from one originally posted by the American Bible Society.

Iaroslava lived a typical Ukrainian childhood. She wandered through the woods behind her home to pick berries and mushrooms. She used scrap materials to make dolls, handkerchiefs and aprons. And, during the winter months, she watched wild dogs play in the snow.

But as Iaroslava grew older, her childhood began to fall apart.

For most of her life, Iaroslava lived with her mother and grandfather in Borzna, a large town in northern Ukraine; she never knew her father, who abandoned her when she was an infant. To provide for her family, Iaroslava’s mother was forced to work increasingly long hours. This left Iaroslava under the care of her grandfather, who had gradually developed an addiction to alcohol.

For years, the family hung together by a thread—until Iaroslava’s mother grew ill. Unable to pay her medical bills, she fled Ukraine in search of a steady job and sent Iaroslava to Borzna Secondary Boarding School. The experience drastically altered Iaroslava’s life.

“So I often imagine this as just a dream, where I will eventually wake up and be with her.”

“My mom told me [she was leaving] a day before she left, which was unfair because I had no time to change her mind,” Iaroslava says. “So I often imagine this as just a dream, where I will eventually wake up and be with her.”

When she first arrived at the boarding school, Iaroslava relied on the support of her classmates—all orphans and abandoned children—to find hope. As time passed, she also became curious about God.

“She always wanted to know more about God and asked a lot of questions to everyone around her,” says Olha Serhiinko, Iaroslava’s school leader. “But in most cases, she didn’t receive answers.”

One Sunday, when her curiosity had piqued, Iaroslava visited a local church with her classmates. She learned “lots of interesting things”—and immediately began to dream of holding her own Bible. But when she finally received a copy from her local church, she struggled to comprehend the old church language printed inside. So she began to dream of holding a Bible she could read and understand.

Eventually, Iaroslava’s dream came true. In partnership with the Ukrainian Bible Society and generous donors, churches from around Borzna hosted an event at Iaroslava’s school to distribute children’s Bibles. Anxious to uncover the hope found in God’s Word, she immediately flipped open her Bible and began reading.

“When she saw us handing out children’s Bibles, she couldn’t contain her emotions.”

When the program ended, Iaroslava asked Serhiinko and representatives of the Ukrainian Bible Society to sign her Bible, leaving their mark on the book she once dreamt of holding.

“When she saw us handing out children’s Bibles, she couldn’t contain her emotions,” Serhiinko continues. “She started hugging and kissing it and proclaimed, ‘This is the best gift I have ever had!’”

Now 11 years old and trying to make sense of her broken childhood, Iaroslava has made a life-changing discovery: even in the midst of abandonment, addiction and poverty, she has a father in heaven who will never leave her side.


Alone on the Streets of Uganda, One Boy Found Healing in God’s Word

This article was adapted from one originally posted by the American Bible Society.

Kiho*, a ten-year-old boy from eastern Uganda, sat speechless in a small classroom. Facilitators of a Bible-based trauma healing session—organized for young victims of disaster and abuse—smiled next to him. The facilitators could tell he had something to say. They just didn’t know how to reach him.

Eventually, Kiho burst into tears and began sharing his story.

More than a decade earlier, Kiho’s mother had conceived Kiho with another man while her husband served in the Ugandan military. When her husband returned from active duty, he vowed to stick with her—but only if she abandoned Kiho. She agreed.

With nowhere to go, Kiho moved in with his uncle. But life in his new home proved difficult. He wore the same clothes every day. He dropped out of school. And he rummaged through abandoned gardens, markets and homes in search of food.

After years of wandering through life with little guidance or care, Kiho arrived at the trauma healing course. Sessions like this one regularly take place in Uganda and throughout the Great Lakes Region of Africa, thanks to the support of generous donors.

For Kiho, fighting through his tears and sharing his story helped. But he needed to rely on God for healing. So, with children from the session gathered around him, a facilitator prayed for Kiho. The experience made a life-changing impact on his life.

“[Praying] set Kiho free,” one facilitator says. “He became so free he started participating in the class.”

By reading God’s Word, Kiho learned to identify his pain, share his hurt, release his suffering and even forgive his mother for abandoning him. In a lament, he asked God for wisdom—and the strength to face the future. At the conclusion of the course, facilitators helped Kiho get his young life on track by re-enrolling him in primary school. They even gifted him a set of school supplies.

Even though he endured a childhood of turmoil and distress, Kiho has experienced freedom in God’s Word.

*Name has been changed


Scripture Soothes a Hurting Teenager’s Heart in Cambodia

This article was adapted from one originally posted by the American Bible Society.

Excited to have her own Bible, a 15-year-old learns more about God...

Doeun Chin Lan has experienced a lot of loss.

"My mother died when I was little," explains the 15-year-old. "I don't even remember her face. All my older siblings left me to work in Thailand. My father is very elderly and poor.…I want to see my whole family together again."

When the message of God's love came to the small village where Doeun lives, her heart finally began to heal.

"I am very happy that God loves me," she says. "Whether I am in the countryside, in the forest or anywhere, God still loves me."

Doeun says she enjoys hearing stories about God at church. "But sometimes I don't understand," she admits. "When I heard they were going to give out Bibles, I was very happy."

"My Bible is small and easy to carry around and the writing is easy to understand. I believe this Bible will help me know God better. My father can't read so I want to read to him so that he can also put his faith in God."

For many Cambodians, especially poor farmers living in rural areas, obtaining a Bible requires much sacrifice. It takes months to save money for a Bible. But thanks to generous donors, Doeun and others have Bibles of their very own!

Please pray for others like Doeun who still need to know about God and engage in His Word in Cambodia. Ask that Scriptures will be made available in different media so that the entire population, especially the youth, will understand and experience the love of God.


What Happens When a Village Gets the Bible in its Heart Language?

This article was originally posted by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Though Christianity had been part of their culture for 100 years, there was no Bible in the Beembe language. It took 20 years of dedicated translation work for them to get a Beembe Bible – but when they did, they showed us how to party…

Imagine fumbling through a dense, tricky text in a second language. You can read it, but it’s hard. You understand in part, but you can't quite capture the meaning. This was the case for the Beembe people of Congo Brazzaville, who only had access to Bibles their second language: French.

Lost in translation

‘For me, the problem with the Bible in French was that I had trouble understanding certain concepts and words. So I didn’t read the Bible very often,’ 54-year-old farmer, Pierrette, explains.

Pierrette’s experience isn’t rare. For many people reading the Bible in a second language, the challenge of understanding is significant. But not only that, they’re not experiencing the message of the Bible in the words they can relate to; the words they use in their thoughts, their hearts.

A word in season

More than 1,000 people gathered for the ceremony to launch the first ever Beembe New Testament in early 2014. Elders banged drums and shook rattles. Young dance troupes performed energetic routines. People cheered.

Though Christianity has been part of the Beembe culture for 100 years, this was the first time the community had Scripture in their language. And the joy was palpable.

‘Now we have our own Beembe New Testament, I am very happy,’ Pierrette says.’ It will help us strengthen the faith of our children, who will discover a deeper relationship with God.’

Decades of dedication

Jacques Mberi is the man behind the Beembe Bible. He has spent decades poring over Hebrew and Greek, considering the best ways to convey the meaning of each verse  – especially when there’s not always a direct translation.

He smiled through tears as he said, ‘I am like Simeon, who waited years and years until he could see the Lord Jesus, and then once he did, he could die. I have worked hard to see this translation finished. It is my child, my pride and joy.’

Completing the task

Now the Beembe people have asked to have the Old Testament translated into their language and Jacques is already on the case.

But until then, we’re celebrating that this people group are now experiencing the New Testament in the language they most love and truly understand.

Find out more about funding similar projects around the world

62-year-old Mbambouloulu Evelyne clutched her Beembe New Testament and said, ‘I am delighted with this New Testament. It touches my soul. It allows me to feel closer to God, and I give thanks to God for this precious gift.’


A Day in the Life of a Bible Translator

This article was originally posted by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Oldi Morava is translating the Old Testament into Albanian. We asked him about his average day.

A typical day

On a translation day, I’ll try to work from home and not open any emails. With translation, you need to be in the mood. If you are bombarded by requests for something else you’re not really in an environment where you can be very productive.

I start by reading through the passage that I’m going to translate in the original language. Then I begin writing the translation, one verse at a time.

If it’s not a simple translation — for example, there isn’t a direct equivalent for the Hebrew word in Albanian or the original Hebrew is unclear —  then I do more research. I spend a lot of time reading commentaries and look at the Hebrew context, as well as how other translators have handled the same verse in other languages.

It can be very repetitive, especially when you’re translating building instructions

After hours and hours of collecting all this information, I come to a conclusion. And then I move on to the next verse! Depending on the difficulty of the text, I translate between 12-20 verses a day. It can be very repetitive, especially when you’re translating building instructions.

Poetry is always fun to translate. Not only are you trying to understand Hebrew poetry – which is very compressed – you’re also trying to generate something in your language that can sound like poetry. Being faithful to the text and generating something poetic can be quite difficult but you get more satisfaction out of it.

An atypical day

I meet with my translation team for one week five times a year. We all live in different countries so we meet somewhere we can all travel to. We’re all working on different books.

We’ll go over our work, reading it aloud verse by verse and making suggestions. We tend to have very fiery interaction but we’re good at coming to an agreement in the end. I learn so much from hearing how my colleagues view the Bible.  

The other part of my job…

I’m also part of Bible Society’s International team, where I look after our partnership with Bible Societies in the West Balkans — Albania and Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia — and also with Congo Brazzaville. This involves working with budgets, selecting projects and seeing how those projects are doing.

I love visiting these Bible Societies. They’re often very small — perhaps five or ten people in one office. You encounter their passion and see what they are trying to do in their country, with very few resources and yet great ideas. Trying to help them is a very satisfying part of my job.

Oldi’s career path

1994-1999 High school

Majored in Business and Finance, with hopes of becoming a banker. Volunteered with Bible Society in Albania.

1999-2002 University

Studied BA in Applied Theology at Redcliffe College, England.

2003-2006 Work and ministry

Worked with local churches in London.

2007-2008 Language study

Received an invitation from the Albanian Bible Society to join the Old Testament translation team of new Albanian Bible translation. Studied MSt in Classical Hebrew at Oxford University.

2010 Translation begins

Working as part of a three-person team from across Christian traditions, books are assigned and translation begins.


Women Advancing God’s Word

This article was first published in the March 2014 issue of Word@Work.

“She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.” - Proverbs 31:20

The Bible Society of Singapore (BSS) honours women who have contributed to the Bible movement as the world celebrates International Women’s Day on 8 March. We call each of them, “The woman who fears the Lord” as characterised in Proverbs 31, bold in their global endeavours to spread God’s Word.

Female Involvement in the Bible Mission

Women have always been at the forefront of Bible mission work. In August 1811, the first Ladies’ Association started within the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) to support its work. The committee of 48 ladies met monthly. After nine years, they raised more than 2,650 pounds (equivalent to 180,000 pounds today[1]) and distributed more than 2,400 Bibles and Testaments.

Straits Ladies’ Bible Association

Female Associations started to form in different countries and soon made their way to South-East Asia. The Straits Ladies’ Bible Association was established on 10 July 1837. Within a year, the women handed to the Auxiliary Bible Society 194 Spanish dollars (equivalent to 14,570 pounds today[2]).

Sophia Cooke: A Heart for Bible Missions

Sophia Cooke is an example of a lady who sowed God’s Word with love and left a lasting legacy in Singapore. By the late 1840s, most missionaries had left Singapore for China but Sophia Cooke stayed on to continue the mission work here.

In 1857, she and a few other ladies formed the Ladies’ Bible and Tract Society which met monthly for prayer. They published a quarterly magazine, The Christian in Singapore, to edify fellow believers in their walk with God.

More than 55 years after the Bible mission began, there was still no permanent agent to help in the work despite requests by Governor Stamford Raffles and Rev Dr Robert Morrison. In 1880, Cooke impressed upon the committee in London the need for ‘organised work’. It was then that our first agent, John Haffenden, offered his services to the Singapore Auxiliary Bible Society, which became the centre for distribution of Scriptures in the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, including the Dutch East Indies.

Cooke was also a strong advocate of female education in the East. Girls who faced destitution and degradation grew under her care as civilised and educated women, equipped with Scriptural truths, literacy, arithmetic, sewing, and cooking. Her legacy in education continues today in St Margaret’s School – Singapore’s first girls’ school.

Cooke is in the company of many other women like Sophia Blackmore and Margaret Dryburgh, whose legacy challenged the belief that only men, particularly ordained men, could be called by God to be missionaries.

The Word Continues to Pass Down

Today, an increasing number of women have risen to the call to spread the Word. One of them in BSS is Gwen De Rozario, Associate Director of CARE[3].

When Gwen first heard God’s call to children’s ministry, she obeyed and organised Singapore’s first-ever children’s praise and worship event ARISE! in 2002. She subsequently quit her job in obedience to the Lord, and trusted in His providence. Working with churches and partners like the Bible Society and families, she seeks to ground children in the Word, train and release them in praise and worship, prayer and missions and God has blessed her work taking the ARISE! vision global.

Despite her full-time ministry commitments, Gwen joined BSS to advance the Word. She was integral in bringing the Christian community together for our Children’s Resource & Equipping Fair in 2013. It was a great success. Parents and children’s ministry leaders learnt how to better engage the next generation with God’s Word.

Another woman who made an impact in the Bible movement is Dr Cheah Fung Fong, Chair of Trinity Annual Conference, Board of Children’s Ministry (TRAC BOCM) since 2004. Her passion to pass the Word to the next generation is exemplified through her leadership and work. Together with like-minded partners, TRAC BOCM share best practices, pray for the next generation and equip parents and ministry leaders to disciple children at home and in churches. This was seen in the recent partnership between BSS and TRAC BOCM, in organising the Family Matters Conference last August 2013.

The fruits of her labour are not only seen in Singapore but in the mission field and in its multiplying effect.

“I have been bringing groups of children and youth from Singapore to minister to children and youth in Cambodia for six years. We heard a wonderful testimony from the Cambodian youth. They were so encouraged by their Singaporean friends’ passion for God’s Word that they organised mission trips to share the gospel to their peers in the remote parts of Cambodia! Praise God for multiplying our small steps of faith to share God’s Word!”

“Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all… a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” - Proverbs 31:29-30

BSS encourages all women to join in the Bible mission movement, to sow the Word and advocate its values.

 

[1] Inflation at 2.1% per annum up to 2012. 
Source: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/inflation/calculator/flash/default.aspx

[2] The monetary system of Spain (1830-1840). 
Source: http://georgeborrowstudies.net/monetarysystems/monetarysystems.html

[3] CARE – Centre for Advocacy, Relations & Engagement, department of BSS


Life-Changing Impact of the Bible

This article was first published in the December 2013 issue of Word@Work.

Since Rev Dr Robert Morrison’s request for 1,000 Chinese New Testaments to be sent and distributed amongst Singaporeans in 1823, the Bible mission work has continued to impact the lives of Singaporeans who receive and read God’s Word.

When God’s Word is sowed into the hearts of people who need its life-changing power, there is a great harvest.

The gospel is capable of changing even the most hard-core offenders. Here is a testimony of an ex-offender whose life was completely transformed after reading the Bible:

“Years ago, I was involved in a gang clash with two seriously injured and one killed, and was sentenced to prison.

I felt hopeless, suicidal and cried out to idols, but there was no response. I was surrounded by enemies, two of whom became Christians and started reading their Bibles. They stopped smoking and using foul language. I was amazed and wanted to know their Jesus.

I was then transferred to Changi Prison, where one of my cellmates had a Bible. Immediately I asked his permission to read it. After reading Matthew 5:33-37, I was convicted of my sins…I had done nothing good. The Word gave me consolation… I saw Jesus shedding His blood to redeem my life. I prayed to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour right away.

I now feel peace and joy flooding my soul, because I have become a child of God.”

The power of God’s Word is able to capture the hearts of those who have turned towards chasing material wealth and idols, as evident in this testimony.

Chua was a success according to material standards, so much that money had become his master. One day, he had a serious motor accident which left him partially paralysed and gave him a bad case of gastric ulcers. This incident caused Chua to start pondering the true meaning of life for the first time, and he began to explore various religions and cults, burning incense and candles to idols for success.

However, the secret of true peace and joy continued to elude Chua, until he was given a Bible by a fellow businessman he met.

In his own words, Chua said, “God had laid it on my heart to read His Word… I met Jesus in the gospel of John. I cried and asked God to forgive my sins…With tears pouring down my cheeks; I came to know the true God. Jesus healed me completely… He healed my nearly paralysed body, my gastric ulcers and helped me forsake my bad habits… Praise the Lord.”

The Bible Society of Singapore (BSS) provides Bibles, New Testaments and Scripture Portions for distribution in Singapore and overseas, and this Bible mission work has been touching and transforming lives of people like Chua and the ex-offender for 190 years. We pray that you will continue to support the work of BSS, so that we can continue to sow God’s Word and make an impact on people’s hearts and lives.