Broad distribution in Moldova

n A deaf boy at summer camp shares with his friend what the Bible says

CHISINAU, Moldova — Thanks to a gift from the Netherlands Bible Society, in the latter part of last year the Interconfessional Bible Society of Moldova provided nearly 2,000 Bibles for two deaf communities, an orphanage, a prison, and several theological college libraries. A Bible Society report detailed the different kinds of donation which the gift had made possible.

Free Bibles

The largest share of the donation, some US$1,300, was allocated to providing Bibles to meet the needs of children, elderly people or people on low incomes who ask if they can have a Bible for free. The money will provide almost a thousand Bibles for people of this kind.

Libraries for the hearing-impaired

Hearing-impaired people find pictures enhance their understanding of text, so illustrated Bibles are a blessing to them but, of course, they cost more. Most of Moldova’s deaf people are unemployed and their state provision is low so they do not generally have money to buy them. Some US$105 was allocated to establishing libraries of illustrated Bibles for two deaf communities, in Chisinau and Tiraspol.

Christian camp for children

The support from the Netherlands also enabled the Bible Society to help organise the first evangelistic summer camp for hearing-impaired young people in Moldova. All the activities and entertainments centred around the Bible and on one day the children dressed up as Bible characters and performed short plays based on Bible stories. A total of 140 Bibles were donated to the camp; only three children there owned a Bible already.

Orphanage

The report describes the joy of the children at an orphanage near Strasheni at receiving colourful new Bibles, encyclopaedias, atlases and other Bible-related books, worth US$90. The orphanage cannot afford new textbooks on the curriculum subjects, nor new Bibles or Bible aids. The few children’s Bibles which had once been in the library were missing and most of the books which are left are old and shabby.

Prison

The category receiving the second-largest donation was that of prisoners. The report refers to one prison which holds 187 women, 69 of them serving sentences for murder. Some 34 of those are women who killed in response to regular violence which they themselves had suffered.

The figures for murder, however, represent just the tip of the iceberg of criminal cases involving family violence. Bibles and New Testaments are in great demand in prison prayer rooms and are warmly welcomed by prison officials. Having ties with Christians responsible for co-ordination of services in prisons, the Interconfessional Bible Society of Moldova gave them free books to partly satisfy that demand.