Australia's History 1988 onwards

Bibles printed and sent

Brazil: Eating an Elephant?
In 1985, the Brazilian Minister for Education requested 25 million New Testaments to be place in the schools of Brazil, so that it could be taught for an hour a week as part of the school curriculum.

Using the slogan, “How would you eat an elephant?” (Answer – one bite at a time!), Bible League challenged Australian Christians to send a “bicentennial love gift to the children of Brazil”. The response enabled Bible League Australia to print at 50 cents per copy and send 1.3 million Portuguese New Testaments to Rio de Janeiro, as the Australian participation in their ministry.

Ukraine: Opening the door of opportunity.
Local Ukraine Christians were invited by the Bible League in the late 1980's to produce a small booklet that would promote the Gospel of Christ in a Bible teaching framework. They came up with a beautifully illustrated "Compact Children's Bible". Made up of stories from Old and New Testaments which also included a clear Gospel outline.

Printed in Sydney, through the economies of scale, for about 19 cents a copy this beautiful production was circulated among Ukrainians in places like Kiev and Cherkassy. Almost 1 million copies were shipped to the Ukraine and eventually a similar number of the Russian version followed.

Russia: Biggest printing of a single book …
Any Christian who said in 1985, that it would have been easier to preach the Gospel and place the Bible in Russia in 1995 than it was in Australia, would have had his or her sanity brought into question! However, it was Former Federal Member for Macquarie, Alasdair Webster, who distributed dozens of Bible League Scriptures while on a parliamentary delegation to Russia.

Later, 2.3 million Russian versions of the “Celebration” New Testament — the biggest printing of a single book in Australian printing history to that day (as we understand)—were printed and placed at a cost of 50 cents per copy. Latest estimates are that six to ten people read each copy.

Wycliffe Bible translations sponsored by Bible League
Since its association with Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1962, Bible League (along with International Bible Society) has undertaken to fund the majority of translations produced by Wycliffe. Bible League Australia's office has undertaken to raise funds for the publication of translations by Australian members of Wycliffe, which are so far, 29 specific projects. Bible League's worldwide offices have published 677 New Testaments and additional Scriptures in over 800 languages.

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