The Bible: A River of Blessing

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A year-long project by the Colombian Bible Society (CBS) to take God’s Word to people in the Amazon Basin region recently experienced special blessings during a week’s outreach centred on the river port of Letícia.

The evangelistic effort involved many Christian organisations and ministries, including the local Pastors’ Association, missionaries from Peru, El Salvador and the USA, and the CBS’s neighbouring Bible Society – the Bible Society of Brazil, whose Bible distribution ship, Light of the Amazon II, gave support. (See earlier story.)

Fundraising

The project, called The Bible: A River of Blessing and supported by the UBS expansion effort Opportunity 21, began in November 1999 and finished in October 2000. It aimed to reach 5,000 families in the Amazon Basin with the Bible and to give 24,000 adults and 12,000 children appropriate Bible Portions.

The long list of evangelism activities during the week in Letícia (July 2-9) included visits to people’s homes, mission meetings, children’s clubs, special programmes on local radio and more.

Communities

All the evangelistic material for the week, such as Bibles, New Testaments, New Reader Portions and Selections, were supplied by the CBS under the auspices of the UBS.

A report given to the O-21 Steering Group in November said that the achievements included providing God’s Word to more than 10 towns and communities along the banks of the Amazon in and around Letícia;donating Bibles to 6,000 families; supporting 600 pastors, leaders, missionaries and others who minister with severely limited resources, and giving each a study Bible; distributing 24,000 Bible Portions to adults, 12,000 New Reader Portions to children, 250,000 Bible Selections, and 6,000 New Testaments to people in prisons, shops and colleges.

Summing up the benefits of the week, the report said that hundreds of people had had “an encounter with Jesus,” thousands had received God’s Word and the Church had been mobilised to evangelism.

Co-operated

The Bible Societies of Brazil and Colombia had co-operated and worked together with other missions and ministries in “an effective distribution of the biblical material”. Following its success, the project is now set to continue in communities along the Amazon next year. (WR 356/25 - 12.00)