To facilitate the project, the Ministry of Culture gave the BSR a database containing the addresses of almost 6,000 district libraries. The original plan was to send each library a standard set of books, consisting of four Bibles and four Bible encyclopaedias, but later it decided to prepare a special catalogue so that libraries could make their own choice of books. Each was entitled 500 roubles’ worth (US$18) of books at no charge. This worked out at between eight and 12 books. Half the libraries responded and by February 26,447 books had been ordered. More than 16,000 have already been despatched and the rest are in preparation for delivery.

Access

The BSR is also doing all it can to give access to God’s Word to blind people. Through the Ministry of Culture it has established contacts with libraries for the blind and informed them all about the O-21-supported Prozrenie (‘Recovery of Sight’) project.

There are about 300,000 blind people in Russia, and the BSR is distributing Scripture cassettes and Braille Bible books to 72 regional libraries for the blind, and more than 900 local branches of the All-Russia Association of the Blind (ARAB).

Response

From December 2000 to January 2001 the BSR delivered tapes and Braille books (the four Gospels, Acts, Romans and Corinthians) to every library, and now the responses are coming in. The Vladimir Regional Special Library for the Blind has made giving listeners access to New Testament cassettes its priority for the first half of the current year.

The project, which started in October 2000, has 1,805 donors, almost half of whom are new. In December, the donations were so high that the BSR had to employ a new worker to write letters of thanks. By February 2001 the total sum of donations was 302,634 roubles (US$10,656).

Thousand prisons

Meanwhile, God’s Word Is Not Chained is an O-21 project which aims to bring the Gospel to prisoners. Russia has more than 1,000 prisons, where over one million people are serving their sentences. There are another two million or so staff and guards.

In co-operation with the Ministry of Justice, between September 1999 and August 2000, the BSR distributed 1,140 sets of New Testament audio-cassettes to more than 1,000 penal colonies and prisons. In some, the New Testament is now being broadcast through local prison radio.

“After the tapes were delivered, we received a lot of responses from prisons about the changes which resulted from listening to the Word of God,” said Mr Vdovikov.

All confessions

The BSR has taken part in more than 80 meetings with organisations of all Christian confessions, establishing contacts with groups of believers who minister to the prisoners.

“Because we co-ordinated our efforts the organisations started to use the New Testament audio tapes in their ministry, organising listening sessions for the prisoners to help them understand the Scripture more deeply,” said Mr Vdovikov.

The fundraising project, which began in 1999, has seen more than 800 churches and Christian organisations taking part, with 3,308 people donating to the cause. As of February 2001 the total amount donated was 809,654 roubles (US$28,509).

The BSR is continuing to receive donations for God’s Word Is Not Chained, and hopes to develop the project to allow prisons to replenish their libraries with Bibles and the related reference books. Each library will be entitled to free books worth 300 roubles (US$12). So far, 187 prisons have received a total of 1,600 books.

Mail order

For various reasons, often to do with people living at a great distance from a bookshop, many people in Russia find it hard to obtain a Bible, so the BSR has begun a program called Feed the Hungry, enabling people to buy Bibles via mail order. It sends catalogues to all who ask, orders are then placed, and the BSR sends out books on a cash-on-delivery basis, paying the cost of delivery itself. Last year, some 185,000 catalogues were sent out, bringing in orders for 30,000 books.

The To the Ends of the Earth program uses a different approach to provide inhabitants of the remote regions of Siberia and the Far East with Bibles, New Testaments and children’s Scriptures. In the year 2000, Bible Society staff made four mission trips, distributing 35,000 Scriptures and bringing the total to 55,000 over two years.