Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

This "blog digest" is brought to you by the ELCA Global Mission Support team. Here you will find posts and re-posts by ELCA missionaries, ELCA Global Mission churchwide staff, and other friends.

80 Million Bibles for China

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Franklin Ishida
Amity Bible printing

Millions of Bibles come off the press each year in Shanghai

The Amity Printing Company (APC), located in Shanghai, China, recently celebrated the printing of its 80 millionth Bible.  The event highlighted the importance of the Amity Foundation’s continuing Christian vision and values. This event also marks an important occasion, as the APC has scaled up their operations in the last 3 years, printing 10 million copies of the Bible for domestic and international churches each year.

The official speeches focused on the importance of the cooperation between international and national churches in making this occasion possible. Mr Qiu Zhonghui, the Amity Foundation’s General Secretary, introduced the event and highlighted three important services supplied through the APC. These included increasing the cooperation between the Chinese Church and Christian society in China with the objective of printing Bibles, involving international churches in the Chinese Christian movement and reaching the Chinese population with the Bible’s and the Amity Foundation’s message of love and charity.

International partners highlighted the historical background for the APC and the connection to the TSPM, with the representative for the United Bible Societies commenting that ” all of us today are celebrating a miracle”. The APC therefore demonstrates the importance of faith acting out love both through practical and spiritual nourishment and knowledge.

APC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture between the Amity Foundation, an independent Chinese voluntary organization, and the United Bible Societies. It is the world’s largest Bible printer and 75% of the Bibles Amity prints annually is sold inside China. Most are in Mandarin, but editions  in several ethnic minority languages are produced as well as a paralel Chinese-English version.  In addition, APC produces Bibles in other languages for export. Domestic Bibles retail for as low as $1.20.

Early in the history of APC, the ELCA had provided funding for the purchase of paper. Paper of the appropriate quality for Bibles was not available at the time in China and had to be imported from abroad at a higher cost. Since then, APC has spearheaded efforts to produce better quality paper domestically in China, thus reducing the APC’s reliance on outside assistance.

(Parts of this entry were taken from news from the Amity Foundation.)

Friday night Bible dates

Posted on May 24, 2009 by Anne Edison-Albright

I am a very fortunate fellow. I have a standing date every Friday night with Kate, my wife. The babysitter comes, the pizza goes in the oven, the kid’s video is all ready to go, quick good-bye hugs, and we are off, zooming down one of grand avenues of Buenos Aires, fighting Friday evening traffic en route to I.S.E.D.E.T, the ecumenical seminary where we take a single course, Iniciación Bíblica, or “Bible Initiation.”

The objectives of the Bible Initiation course are to read the Bible in one year, acquiring a general knowledge of Old and New Testament Books. A Friday night “Bible date” may sound dull, but when I pick up the Bible to prepare for class I can feel my heart rate go up, a butterfly or two in my stomach, and my mood improve.

These “first date” type feelings reveal that Bible dating is about growing a relationship with God. In the human-human realm, dating involves mutually exploring who that “other” is, what makes him or her tick, laugh, cry and love. Dating God is different. God already “knows” us intimately in the true Hebrew sense. What is astounding for me personally, though, is that engaging God’s message in Biblical texts is refreshing and renewing the most important relationship I will ever have: the one I have with Jesus Christ.

So, to add some excitement in your life, add regular Bible dates to you calendar. Open your Bible; read it, struggle with it, and let God breathe new life into the relationship that binds you to God´s saving grace for the world. –David Wunch

img_4633-798271David Wunch and Kate Lawler are ELCA missionaries in South America. They serve as Regional Representatives and coordinate the Young Adult in Global Mission site in Argentina.