Program:
Reaching Those in Crisis
- Budget:
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- Category:
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Religion
- Population Served:
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Adults
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Aging/Elderly/Senior Citizens
Program Description:
The American Bible Society is committed to working alongside partner organizations to bring the life-changing message of God’s Word to victims of catastrophic events and others facing difficult circumstances.
Program Long-Term Success:
Many inmates in prisons, jails and detention centers in the United States have expressed a desire to read the Scriptures, yet only 1 percent of the correctional facilities have budgets for Bibles. The Bible Society and American Rehabilitation Ministries partnered in God Sets You Free™, which provided Bibles to 153,076 inmates who wanted one. Based on sample surveys, approximately 96 percent of those receiving Scripture have taken steps to adopt more responsible behaviors.
Program Short-Term Success:
When Hurricane Gustav swept across the U.S. Gulf Coast, flooding homes and crops and leaving tens of thousands of people without power, ABS and Operation Compassion (OC) were there. Scripture resources — along with food, ice, water and blankets — were provided to churches to help people devastated by the storm. ABS revisited people in Texas cities impacted by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Thousands of people were the victims of floods that hit the Appalachian region this past year. ABS and OC teamed up again to provide food, water, clothing and shelter to those in need. Many of these flood victims flocked to the Appalachian Dream Center where, in addition to food, they were offered Scriptures and an invitation to commit to a discipleship program at a local church.
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Program:
Bible Translations
- Budget:
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$2,000,000
- Category:
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Religion
- Population Served:
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Adults
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Aging/Elderly/Senior Citizens
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Program Description:
Translation of Scripture from the original Greek and Hebrew into the language of unreached peoples around the world.
Program Long-Term Success:
Provision of translations of the Holy Scriptures that are faithful to the wording of the original language biblical texts. Ongoing activities include convening scholarly conferences, as well as the creative use of the Web site, nidainstitute.org, as a means of promoting the exchange of information and ideas.
Translation for Russia
Russia has many language groups that lack modern Bible translations, including the languages spoken by the religiously diverse Ossetic, Buryat and Bashkir peoples. In order to provide the Bible in the mother tongues of these groups, the Bible Society of Russia (BSR) translation teams continue translating the Old Testament in these languages. BSR plans to provide early editions for additional Bible books and will publish the entire Old Testament by 2015.
Program Short-Term Success:
The Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship at the American Bible Society takes seriously its mission to engage with and deepen the fields of biblical scholarship and Bible translation. In addition to its operational initiatives in Bible translation projects, the Nida Institute also carries out its mission through ongoing activities that seek to advance the conversation between contemporary translation studies and Bible translation.
The American Bible Society engaged in translation efforts through the work of The Seed Company (TSC) and national Bible Societies, furthering the reach of God’s Word in 44 languages this past year.
Two key milestones include:
- The first print run of 5,000 New Testament copies in the heart language of the Zaiwa people in Myanmar and southwest China. Until now, there has not been a translation for the estimated 60,000 Zaiwa Christians and countless other seekers in the region.
- A community testing, distribution and promotion event in July at the Rosebud Sioux Reservation by the Lakota Scripture Translation Team. 136 sets of audio/booklet publications called “Life In All Its Fullness” and “God’s Promises to You” and copies of the Gospel of Luke on DVD were distributed.
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Program:
Armed Services Ministry
- Budget:
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- Category:
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Religion
- Population Served:
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Military/Veterans
Program Description:
The American Bible Society’s Armed Services Ministry continued its 192-year commitment to serve the critical needs of our nation’s active military personnel and its veterans.
Program Long-Term Success:
Truth for Troops
ABS joined Focus on the Family’s children’s magazine, Clubhouse Jr., to create a “Truth for Troops” campaign. Starting with a feature article in the June issue of Clubhouse Jr., children and their families were challenged to do simple projects to raise money to provide Bibles for military personnel. The article directs these families to TruthForTroops.AmericanBible.org, where they can send a card, say a prayer or find help with project ideas for earning money to send a Bible to a soldier.
Program Short-Term Success:
The Bible Society’s Equipped for Life program provided 82,623 free Bibles and Scripture Portions to VA chaplains for veterans in their care. With the help of several VA chaplains, the God Understands™ Scripture Portion series was developed. It is designed to assist veterans facing some of life’s difficult challenges. The series addresses eight relevant issues: anger, guilt, doubt, fairness, fear of death, hopelessness, meaninglessness and sadness. The National Chaplain Center helped us reach 153 Veterans Medical Centers with 47,350 God Understands Portions.
Working with Campus Crusade for Christ/Military Ministries, the Bible Society’s Strength to Serve program for those on active duty provided 204,655 Rapid Deployment Kit New Testaments with Psalms and Proverbs to deployed forces. Additionally, 10,680 Bibles were sent to troops who requested them from their chaplains. ABS also sent the God Understands series to 250 Army Command chaplains, requesting that they indicate how they would like to see these Scripture Portions redesigned for active duty personnel.
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Program:
Providing Hope for Struggling Children and At-Risk Youth
- Budget:
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- Category:
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Religion
- Population Served:
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
Many low-income urban school districts report that up to 70 percent of fourth-grade students cannot read at a basic level. Mission: Literacy™ is an effective multicultural literacy program that uses biblically based instruction materials to tutor struggling readers.
Program Long-Term Success:
Affirmation of the power of God to speak to every generation through the Holy Scriptures. Urban youth find themselves surrounded and influenced by violence, gangs, drug use and rejection from society. Many of these youth are alienated from the Church and the gospel, leaving them spiritually destitute. Urban culture materials from ABS are used by Youth for Christ to equip Bible-based mentoring programs for unchurched middle and high school students.
Program Short-Term Success:
The American Bible Society and the Bank Street College of Education created the original curriculum. The Salvation Army implemented the materials in New Jersey schools and worked closely with the Bible Society to prepare a fully updated edition. Students are expanding their reading skills as they discover the joy of reading God’s Word. To date, ABS has launched 11 Mission: Literacy™ Institutes and trained 108 individuals to implement the program in Ohio, Connecticut, Minnesota and New Jersey.
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Program:
International Ministry
- Budget:
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- Category:
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Religion
- Population Served:
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Adults
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Aging/Elderly/Senior Citizens
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Program Description:
The American Bible Society extends its Bible outreach internationally through the United Bible Societies (UBS), a fellowship of 145 national Bible Societies. The American Bible Society was instrumental in founding this global fellowship in the interest of greater ministry impact and efficiency.
Program Long-Term Success:
The American Bible Society continues to extend its Bible outreach internationally through the United Bible Societies (UBS). The UBS continues to grow and allows grass roots collaboration with all Christian churches and church-related organizations for Bible outreach in more than 200 countries and territories. Programs focus efforts in two main areas: International Bible Impact (God’s Word for the world) and Every Heart Language (God’s Word in every language).
Program Short-Term Success:
Ministry leaders at the American Bible Society partnered with 56 national Bible Societies to launch and extend 92 Scripture-based projects this past year. Determination for each of these projects was subject to the successful research and validation of ABS Global Scripture Impact research.
In China, the Bible Society continues to work with the United Bible Societies’ China Partnership unit and the China Christian Council/Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM) to support a paper subsidy that prints millions of Bibles at an affordable price. This expands the reach of Bible distribution projects. Amity Printing Company prints the Bibles throughout the year, and CCC/TSPM coordinates sales and distribution to various congregations at 70 distribution points.
Only 5 percent or less of the people in Pakistan are Christians, and political turmoil in the northwest of the country is adding to existing religious intolerance. The Pakistan Bible Society provides Scriptures and a Christian presence in the community through ministry to patients in Christian hospitals and to growing churches. It distributed Scripture packets to approximately 32,000 people in a culturally sensitive way, while providing an opportunity to share Christ’s love across the nation.
In Africa, the End to End project is a strategic effort between the Bible Societies and well-known international ministries to finish the work of the Great Commission in 15 nations. ABS has a critical opportunity to identify and equip front-line ministry leaders in many of these areas and beyond Africa.
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples: