Tanya Holland: July 2009 Archives

Adventists in the church's Middle Asian region welcomed 'Follow the Bible' to Kazakhstan July 12, making the country the 74th stop on the Bible's worldwide tour.

Kazakhstan, along with Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Tadzhikistan and Turkmenistan, make up the church's South Union Conference.

More than 450 people awaited the Bible at a camp meeting near Lake Karaungur, where heavy rain, thick clouds and strong winds threatened to interrupt the meeting. But as soon as the Bible arrived, the rain stopped, clouds disappeared and the program started. To commemorate the special Bible like the patriarchs who built altars on mountain tops in Kazakhstan, church members inscribed a marble plate on the mountain next to Lake Karaungur with the words, "But seek first the kingdom of God. Follow the Bible."

The next day church leaders and members gathered in the central church in the capital of Kazakhstan Astana. After the meeting, local church President Rubin Ott flew with the Bible to Uzbekistan.

The traveling Bible united members in reading and studying Scripture in the country's capital, Tashkent. Church leaders were invited to a committee on religious liberty in Uzbekistan with the country's government. Leaders reported the talk was cordial and the government officially allowed the Bible to cross the border into Uzbekistan.

The next day, the traveling Bible arrived in Kirgizstan where church members took it on a cruise around the lake Issyk-Kul and built another commemorative marble plate, this time with an inscription of Psalms 37:3: "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness."

Finally, the traveling Bible returned to Almata, Kazakhstan. In church on Sabbath morning, religious liberty expert for the Kazakh government Vladimir Ivanov congratulated church members for renewing people's interest in Scripture. "You returned the Bible to the world," he said.

At the end of the meeting, Ott passed the Bible to Victor Kazakov, president of the church's East Russian Union Mission, who will accompany the Bible on the next leg of it's journey -- East Russia and Siberia.

According to the Bible society, some 60,000 Bibles were distributed in Kazakhstan last year.

Church members and leaders met in Minsk, the capital of Belorussia to pass the traveling Bible to Paul Liberansky, president of the church's Caucasus Union Mission.

As the Bible crossed the border into the Rostov region, the delegation stopped to pray over the Bible. The special Bible drew attention from the police, who were photographed with it. In Millerovo, a city made famous by Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov, church leaders presented the Bible to the public.

The Bible then stopped in the village of Tarasovka, home to one of the oldest Seventh-day Adventist churches in Russia. Later it stopped in Novocherkassk, the historical capital of the Cossacks movement. A group of 150 Pathfinders and other young people welcomed the Bible to their youth camp, where they carried wheat sheaves to symbolize the spiritual bread provided by the Bible.

More young people welcomed the Bible to Tikhorestsk, in the Krasnodar region, with flags and balloons. They also read Bible verses, told stories about the traveling Bible and prayed together.

In Kropotkin, church members constructed and dedicated a large plywood Bible opened to the book of Ezekiel, printed in Russian, to the project.

Later, in Armavir, local Baptists joined Adventists in celebrating the Bible. A local Baptists pastor spoke on the importance of the Bible in his own life, and a Pentecostal member began keeping the Sabbath after studying the Bible.

In another village, church members presented a local woman with the first copy of a Bible she'd ever owned. "All my life I dreamed of this book," she told them.

Next the Bible visited the village of Kochybeevskoe, where a large group of Mennonites became Adventists at the beginning of the 20th Century. The group has attended church meetings numerous times.

The Bible stopped at the central library in Nevinnomisk, where church members donated several copies of the Bible in modern languages and copies of the New Testament in Armenian and Georgian languages to the library.

In a nearby city, one local began reciting the Bible by heart when Follow the Bible stopped in his village. A new Adventist, he began memorizing Scripture a couple years ago.

Following a mountaintop ceremony in Piatigorsk, the Bible flew across the Caucasus to the city of Stavropol, where Scripture was read in the region's newest Adventist church, which is still under construction.

Later that day, young people hosted a concert in the park to commemorate the traveling Bible, after which a researcher Bible translator from the Russian Bible Society in Moscow gave a speech to those gathered.

Later, pastors representing various Protestant churches welcomed Follow the Bible to the region. They spoke of the importance of Bible study and called for Christians to dialogue with Muslims. Participants received copies of the New Testament in modern languages and watched videos about the traveling Bible.

On July 10, the Bible arrived in Myikop, where the church is constructing another sanctuary, a 4-story administrative building for the local church conference, a medical center, an Adventist Book Center and apartments. Members took the Bible downtown for a photo op at the city's monument to Ekaterina the Great.

When the Bible arrived in Rostov, church members there read John 3:16 in as many languages as they could speak. One member recited the first chapter of Revelation and said she'd set a goal to learn the entire book of Revelation by heart.

Members were touched when a recent immigrant from China said when he left his home country, Chinese customs confiscated his Bible. The local church president gave him a copy of the Bible in Chinese, and he read John 3:16 in his own language.

Local children then presented a 30-meter scroll on which they'd hand copied the entire Gospel of John.

Next, church president for the South Union, Rubin Ott, will fly the traveling Bible from the Caucasus Union Mission to five countries in his union.

Crieff, Scotland -- Inspired by the 66-language Bible traveling the world in the lead-up to the General Conference Session in Atlanta next year, an initiative called "Follow the Bible", Scottish Seventh-day Adventists decided to have their own personalized, handwritten Bible.

Members from all the churches in Scotland submitted handwritten passages of Scripture to the Mission office where they were compiled into the "Scottish Adventist Bible."

Writing out the Bible by hand can bring new insights and meaning, participants said. "In the same way students write out revision notes, handwriting the Bible makes passages stand out for you," said Carole Peacock, secretary to the president.

Some members kept an international spirit by writing their selection out in their own language. Arthur Gall of the Dundee church submitted John 19 written in Scottish vernacular.

"Meanwhile Jesus' mither an her sister wis staundin aside the cross, an wi them, Mary, the wife o Clopas an Mary Magdala. When Jesus saw his mither an the disciple at he loved staundin aside her, he said tae her, "This is yir son." An syne tae the Disciple, "This is yir mither" and frae that day the Disciple tuick her intil his ain hame."

"It brought it home to me writing it out," said Gall, who was baptized in January and says he's enthusiastic to share the Bible with his fellow Scots.

The Scottish Adventist Bible attracted considerable attention at the Scottish Mission Day of Fellowship as members poured through the pages to see who had contributed and in which languages.

More importantly, as part of "Follow the Bible", Scottish Mission President Pastor Llew Edwards hopes that this initiative has helped Adventists in Scotland to appreciate their Bibles more, not just as a historical heritage but as a life-changing book to cherish and share. He has experienced that, "somehow actually writing the text of Scripture out yourself has its own way of 'speaking' to you as you write."

-- TED News Bulletin, July 1, 2009