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Ministry celebrates Bucharest birthday with unusual gift

Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, turns 550 years old this month. To celebrate the city's history, 10 local churches, World Vision Romania, and Biblica Europe gifted the city with 10,000 copies of a Bucharest City New Testament, reports MNN.

Graham Sopp of Biblica, formerly the International Bible Society-Send The Light, says, "These are going out through local churches. Members of local churches are giving these New Testaments as gifts."

The customized New Testaments display Bucharest on the cover, use Biblica's New Romanian translation (NTR), and include personal testimonies from a senior civil servant, a soccer player, an actress, and a prominent lawyer.

Sopp, Biblica Europe Ministries Director, says the churches' ownership of the project was encouraging. "I am delighted that these Bucharest churches have a passion to share God's Word. It is wonderful to see the NTR Bible translation being used in this way. Please pray for the impact of these New Testaments on those who receive them."

The Romanian Church has survived both the Turkish Ottoman Empire and communist rule. However, today the Church faces new challenges, as the population becomes increasingly secular, materialistic, and post-Christian.

Yet, Sopp notes that "a lot of people, now that the Communist dictatorship has gone away, are still looking for meaning in life. There is a great deal of openness and receptiveness to the message of Jesus Christ."

Is 10,000 copies enough? "I think they'll all be gone within two or three weeks. I've already had people asking me to do more. So I think this project is taking off. I can see all the New Testaments will be in the hands of recipients by the middle of October."

Because the language of existing Romanian Bibles was increasingly outdated, Biblica created the New Romanian Translation. More than a decade in the making, the NTR blends contemporary language with accurate translation faithful to the meaning of the original writers.

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TAGS: Bucharest Romania 550 years Biblica Europe World Vision Romania New Testaments

[09/29/2009]

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