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The Bible Society of India serves all Churches in translating, publishing the Bible in many languages and distributing them among their congregations. The BSI is the handmaiden of the Church even as it is a Servant in God’s Mission. 

The 14th of November was observed as the Church Relations Day to reiterate the ‘Philadelphia Promise’ – “to serve all Christian Churches and remain fully committed to the principle of interconfessionality.” 

The Church Relations Department of the BSI organised a combined Prayer Fellowship at Logos Bhavan to celebrate the unity and “interconfessionality” of different denominational Churches that we serve.  Representatives from various denominations introduced the distinctives of their respective denominations and how each of them express the Christian faith in diverse ways at the fellowship meeting. We are thankful to 

• Rev. Dr. Manohar Chandra Prasad (CSI), 
• Rev. Jayawanth H T (Methodist),
• Rev. Jeremiah Anderson (Lutheran), 
• Rev Nghaklian Mawia (Presbyterian), 
• Rev. Charley Jones (Mar Thoma Syrian Church), 
• Pastor Hemanth Peter (Baptist) 
• Mr. Hector Poppen (Catholic Church) 

and all other pastors who participated in the Prayer Fellowship. Rev. Dr. M. Mani Chacko, the General Secretary of the BSI delivered an inspirational message. The service helped all of us to celebrate the diversity of our confessional expressions, worship patterns and faith traditions. It challenged us to be faithful to Christ’s call for the unity of His Church.

The BSI-Church relations day helped us to strengthen our resolve to be at the serve Churches and work towards strengthening relationships with God’s wider faith community. Continue to pray for the Bible Society of India as we work alongside different Churches for the Bible Cause. 

Thanking God for the Telugu Bible Translation. This is the Bi-centenary year of the first published Telugu New Testament. Thanking God for the tireless effort, grit and determination of Ananda Rayar, an Indian Christian, who completed the Telugu New Testament Translation even after the untimely death of the missionaries.

The BSI Ranchi Auxiliary had the privilege of taking Bibles to Charid Village. The New GEL Church availed this opportunity and got the Pulpit Bible for their congregation. So happy that the Bible will be read in Church and the congregation will listen to God’s Word read in Charid Village.

We pray that the Church would listen to God speak, that God’s Word will be planted deep in their hearts and the Church will experience transformation that the Word brings!

Now, you can hear what you have been reading. The Audio Bible makes God’s Word accessible to many people, particularly the elderly, the sick and also people on the go. Please pray for the distribution of audio Scriptures in many languages. If you are in need of the audio Bible please contact your nearest BSI Auxiliary.

We welcome Rev. John Basy Paul into the BSI family as he joins the BSI Telangana Auxiliary. Rev. John Basy Paul will give leadership to the BSI Telangana work as Auxiliary Secretary.

After the installation service at St. George’s Church Abids, Rev. John Basy Paul was inducted at BSI office, Boiguda by Rev. Dr. Mani Chako, General Secretary of BSI.

Please send your greetings and wishes to bsitel@biblesociety.in

The Media and Special audience department of the BSI makes Audio Bibles available to PVDs ( Persons with visual disability).

Recently, we distributed Odia Audio Bibles to 30 students drawn from various colleges in Cuttack. The distribution was done in partnership with the BSI Odisha Auxiliary.

The BSI is committed to making the Bible accessible in the format that people prefer. We thank the many who bless PVDs with the audio device and help them have an ‘easy’ and ‘ready’ access to God’s Word.

Children can (and must ) be creatively engaged with God’s Word . The Digital is a huge opportunity to engage children with the Bible. The Bible Funshop is a digital bible engagement program conducted by the BSI Media Department.The aim of the Funshop is to introduce kids to Digital Bible resources and also help them to creatively engage with Bible stories/passages. The program also helps kids to creatively express their learning ( through short videos)!

The BSI Media Department conducted the Bible Funshop in Jeeva Rakshaka Church, Kothanur, Bangalore. We had about 25 children at the Fun shop.

First we sang a few choruses and learnt the theme song: “ I Like the Bible” . The children learnt the song and sand enthusiastically. It was a heart warming experience to hear the Kids sing: “ I like the Bible… I read it and I do it… When I am going through it… I obey what I have heard. I am a doer of the Word… And I like the Bible”.

Next, we read the story of God speaking to Samuel. The kids were introduced to the Youversion Kids Bible App. They enjoyed reading and engaging with the Bible App in their iPads. After reading the Bible passage, the children engaged in conversations with each other. They read and understood the Bible passage in their small groups.

Fun shop encourages collaborative learning. We had designed a list of questions to help them ‘contextually’ read and understand the passage. The questions were

1. Wha are the characters in the passage? What do we know about them?
2. Samuel’s mother left him at the Tabernacle to serve the Lord alongside Eli. Samuel was alone in the Tabernacle. How did he feel? Did he miss his mother/family? How was he able to be in the Tabernacle all by himself?. How do you feel when you are all alone? What do you do when you are alone?
3. Eli’s sons were bad. They did bad things. Samuel was a good boy. How was Samuel able to be a good boy? What are the bad things that are friend do? How can we stay away from bad influences?
4. God Spoke to Samuel. He responded to God saying, “Speak Lord, Your Servant listens”. Can God speak to us today? How does God speak to us today? How can we respond to God?
5. What is God telling us through the passage. What are we going to do in response to God’s Word to us today?

It was interesting to listen to kids reflecting on the passage from their perspective.  Some felt that Samuel missed his mother so much that he would cry a lot. He would wait for his mother’s annual visit and hug her.  Some could not understand Hannah’s decision to  leave her son at the Tabernacle. One said, “ Hannah must be without any sense”. Others affirmed God’s abiding presence with Samuel as he stayed away from his family. They said, ” Samuel was able to stay at the Tabernacle because he understood Hannah’s vow, that God was with him and that Eli took good care of him”. Next, we watched an animation video about Samuel’s story.

We regrouped after Lunch to work on video making. Children were taught the basics of video making. All the six groups worked on their video presentation of the story. It was a new experience for them to work on the iPad and edit with iMovie App. We watched all the videos made by the six groups and the kids really enjoyed watching their work presentations on the big screen. The bright eyes and the lovely smiles said it all.

The kids were challenged with the story of Mary Jones and her love for the Bible. We introduced the work of the Bible Societies and particularly the work of the Bible Society of India. We challenged the children to read the Bible regularly. We distributed Bible story books to the children and asked them to share the Bible story book with their friends after reading them.

It was truly a ‘fun-filled’ day. The Bible Funshop has been conducted in different cities ( Bangalore, Chennai, Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Shillong) and children have really enjoyed the Digital Bible engagement program. We hope that kids will creatively engage with the Bible and imaginatively express in the ‘Digital Space’.