Romania (MNN/IBS) — 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.
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existing Romanian Bibles was increasingly outdated, Biblica created the New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.
