Scottish Christians to distribute thousands of Bibles in Vietnam

The Scottish Bible Society has launched an appeal to raise funds to print and distribute thousands of Bibles in Vietnam.

The campaign has been launched to meet the demand for Bibles in the country, which has seen a rapid growth in the number of Christians coupled with a huge shortage of Bibles.

Although the Old Testament has been available in modern Vietnamese since 2004, work on the New Testament translation only finished last year.

“The church is growing rapidly yet lacks the basic tool, the Bible, in sufficient quantities to strengthen existing and new Christians in their faith. This is where we need help from Christians in Scotland,” said Elaine Duncan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Bible Society.

Two projects have been put together to manage the distribution of the Bibles. Under the Good News for a Thriving Nation project, Bible Society aims to distribute 32,000 Bibles and 15,000 New Testaments around Vietnam.

The Growing up with God’s Word project is targeted at young people and will see the distribution of 30,000 children’s Bibles, 10,000 Bibles and 115,000 New Testaments.

Ms Duncan said the old Bible translation used outdated language that was difficult for young people to understand, particularly newcomers to the Bible.

She told of one woman who had endured the years of persecution under the former communist regime because of her faith and Bible, and who longed for an affordable Bible.

“By making Scripture available to the Churches in Vietnam, we allow each Christian to own a copy of the Bible, and also give them the opportunity to reach out to others with the Word of God,” she said.

“Now that the work has been carried out on the modern translation, it is important to produce and distribute it to the growing number of Christians in Vietnam. To reach as many as possible, we need help in raising the funds to do so.”