Story number 2 for 10 Dec 2002

(Malawi)–Elsewhere, despite war, drought and famine, Malawi still has hope. So says the International Bible Society’s Paul Tolleson. He points to the recent release of the contemporary Chichewa (chih-CHAY-wah) New Testament as the foundation that will shore up the church’s future. “The primary way is reaching out to the young people. This has really been a problem throughout Africa, especially where they don’t have a contemporary translation of the Bible. They look at the bible as being this old book that they have a hard time reading, and it’s not relevant to them today.” Tolleson says they discovered another need while visiting the churches in Malawi. “We also need to train our lay leaders in how to use the Bible in their ministry; how to study the Bible themselves. Most of the Bibles have no study helps to them, so, one of the things that we’ll be doing here at International Bible Society, is providing study Bibles.”