Igbo, as we have mentioned, is a language spoken in southern Nigeria. We had received a request to include the Igbo Bible texts on our site. So, we are pleased to announce that we have uploaded it this month and is ready for use here

The production of inspirational videos has been another task we continued to pursue this past month. From these videos we produce ‘shorts’, or short versions, which we use to populate WP social media. The number of viewers is increasing and somehow tickling the algorithms.

Also, the topics and languages are still too few to access full potential. WP has a much greater impact in non-English speaking countries and it is to be seen what happens when we have more languages present in our videos. Here are a few examples of what we are aiming at:

For more videos go here:

WordproAction – YouTube

For playlists go here:

Chinese:

French Playlists:

Italian Playlists

English Playlist

On another front, some of our friends in Africa, whom we also support, are doing outreach in a more personal way. Patrick, from Kenya, recently in Mozambique, has sent us some images of their latest Bible training meetings:

There are several other areas we invested time and brain power, namely corrections, updatings, site management and monitoring. Below are websites stats and a traffic chart for a given moment of the month:

Recently we received this message:
Why do you offer a catholic Bible? By catholic do you mean Roman Catholic?

Actually we offer, 4 catholic Bibles: the Latin Vulgate, the English Douay-Rheims, Chinese Catholic Bible – Traditional characters, and the Mandarin Catholic Bible. If you are interested, in this link, we explain how some Catholic Bibles compare with the authorized version, the KJV. The KJV is by far the most widespread and accepted English translation in the world, today and ever since 1611 AD.

With the wideapread and promotion of modern translations, Bible versions became an issue in recent years. The Latin Vulgate is in our site because it precedes the KJV, and for many centuries was the only Bible available in the world. As for the Chinese Catholic versions, we decided they were helpful in the context of the field we were living and working in for so many years: China. In fact, as we send Bible verses to Chinese Catholic friends everyday, we find that after translation, (using an authomatic translation program), the spirit of the verses in the Chinese Catholic Bible is very much the same as the equivalent English (KJV). We also find that it matches in spirit and many times in wording the CUV Chinese version. That has been very encouraging to us, because for many years we were told that the Catholic Bibles were different from the so called Protestant Bibles. We find that is not the case. After a brief study on the topic, years ago, we found that modern Catholic Bibles, just like modern so called Protestant Bible versions, are very different in word and many times, in spirit, from older versions. So, it seems that the corruption of scriptures comes from the modernization of Bible texts, not from whether the Bible is Catholic or not.

Let us see the Verse of the Day we sent out today:
你們祈禱時，不要嘮嘮叨叨，如同外邦人一樣，因為他們以為只要多言，便可獲得垂允。 你們不要跟他們一樣，因為你們的父，在你們求他以前，已知道你們需要什麼。瑪竇福音 6:7-8 (Catholic Bible)
Translation:
When you pray, do not chatter, like the Gentiles, for they think that if they speak more, they will be answered. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

你们祷告，不可像外邦人，用许多重复话。他们以为话多了必蒙垂听。 你们不可效法他们。因为你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。马太福音 6:7-8 (CUV Bible)
Translation:
When you pray, do not use many repetitions as the Gentiles do. They think that if they talk too much, they will be heard. Do not imitate them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

English versions:
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him Matthew 6:7-8 (KJV)

And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.
Be not you therefore like to them, for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him. (Douay-Rheims)

As you may see, the difference is not abysmal. I find it quite good, in spite of the machine translation, and I find them spiritually coherent. At WP you may even compared all those versions, in this LINK:

A point to be remembered: Get a good Bible version and let us obey it. Amen?

This past month, we have invested more time in expanding our social media output. We really do not see ourselves as youtubers or tweeters but, since most of the people are spending hours and hours of time on these platforms, we should, as much as possibe, have a presence there and, in this case, hopefully, a stronger presence. We have taken the opportunity of being in a nature gifted country, to make more youtube videos and try some more instagram and tiktok content.
You may check it out in the links below.

Youtube

If you wish to help with this mission, the aim thereof is to promote the Lord and His word, you may click the ‘like’ button, if you like it, of course. As you know, the ‘likes’ in particular, help with giving visibility to the channel. You may also produce content and send to us to be used with scriptures. Thanks. For the moment it is all free for the mission, no monetization – one day you may wish to change that, but that is probably beyond my tenancy.

Instagram //// Facebook

TikTok is also in the works:

Do not feel discouraged for the meager viewers so far. Any effort we make to bring the message of Christ even to one soul, it is worthy. Forget not the days of small things and, as the saying goes, ‘little is much if the Lord is in it’. We started very slow, years ago, with WP online bibles, and today we have a steady flow of users, as you may see for yourself in the stats below:

WP user comment:
Just for keeping up with the tradition, here is one of the comments we received this month in our mailbox:
'Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How can I help? Finding believers in the United States is actually harder than you may think. Having a building that you call a church does not actually make it a church. I want to serve our Creator more than I do so I am hoping that you have a believer that can reach out to me to offer direction. I can not contribute money as I have none. I do not seek money either. I have skills that I can offer but to find out about them I will need to talk to someone directly. If God has sent me they will know. I was so glad to see such a large assemblance of the spoken word because Faith cometh by hearing. Sincerely,' J.L.

Other than that, hopefully we will be able to get back to producing Audio Bibles for Africa soon. Thank you for your support and prayers.

Here we are at the end of another month asserting the project and where, if any, progress has been made. We have tried to invest the colder days of winter increasing our video production. Nature proclaims a great message, but we place some audio scriptures in background for a greater message.
So far we have but a modest video attendace, but the potential is there. Let us not forget that God’s work does not hinge on big numbers and large audiences, as it is clearly implied in the famous parable, where the shepherd rejoices over one (just one) lost sheep that was found.

On the website though, we are granted handsome stats. In fact, we are slowly growing towards two million users per month. (see below)

From users, we received interesting and motivational reactions :

"My native language is Igbo one of the main native languages in Nigeria. One of the main online Bible resources available is Holy Bible (Baịbụlụ Nsọ) in the Igbo language, published by Bible Society of Nigeria in 2010. Is there a way to convert it to Wordproject format so it can be more easily assessable in web base program
thanks, for the good works you are doing. GU".

Messages like this are the reason why we keep growing and expanding: In this case, we have undertaken the mission of placing the Igbo language on our site – We found out that this is an important Nigerian language, spoken by over 28 million people.

Also,

"I am from Brazil. I am emailing you to ask permission to put your Audio Bible, in Brazilian Portuguese in my site. The site is a non profit organization and neutral in relation to criticizing other religions and also has ecumenicc material. We do not criticize other denominations. I am catholic and participate at the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, in my country. My God bless you ! Thank you! C.M."

and:

Hello, i am getting ready to launch my website and i would like to promote your website and possibly use it as reference for all/some of my posts. I would love to spread God's words. Although i know there shouldn't be a problem, I figured it would be best to get an approval from you before i do so. Thank you so much for your prompt response. Thank you, D.

And more general, like this:

Dear Brethren. I praise Lord Jesus Christ for your work in bringing forth the word of God to many who might otherwise not have access to it. I was surprised but so happy to see you are from China. I am in America but while there are many openly Christians here, there are growing laws that ban Christianity in public places. Nonetheless every knee shall bow at the name of Jesus Christ and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. God bless and protect you always. In Christ. D.R.

We are thankful for all who care enough to write.

On another front, this week I was having a dialogue with an old friend, who is a Christian, and he was sort of complaining that people are giving too much time, body and soul, to social media, getting their knowledge from the world, not from the Word. Furthermore, he implied that our (Christian) involvement in the media is less than helpful in contrast with a more personal and physical approach, that perhaps should be. With all due respect, we hold a position whereof the media itself is not the problem, but the fascination with evil that proliferates in it. Actually, when we consider it deeper, the media allows us to reach people with the Gospel that could never be reached otherwise. Here below are some screenshots containing the list of nations Wordproject was engaging with at that given moment. No way would we be able reach so many places under the old conventional way. Printing millions, or billions of Bibles would be a logistic nightmare, not least the difficulty in bringing them to so many different nations.

This month, on our trip to the North of the country, we distributed at least 20 audio Bibles, to friends and acquaintances, and even to friends we never met before, usually called stangers. It is always a blessing to share the Word with others, in person or through the media, it does not matter.

Not least, we visited or passed through amazing places this months:

Where do wars come from? James 4 verses 1 and 2 say “… come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not”. We are going through a period of constant strife in the world. Hot and cold wars, economic and trade wars, religious wars, idiological wars, gender wars, identity wars. It is hard to have peace in the middle of such a storm. More people are turning to God, for spiritual guidance and encouragement and to be able to endure in such stressing times. Ultimately, the fight ‘is not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’. This month we have been very active trying to diversify our outreach with other means of engagement, i.e. posting Bible verses on Twiter, Facebook and Instagram:

Also, there are plenty of opportunities to comment on videos and shorts placed by others on the topics of faith, religion and social issues. A constant search for answers in the Word is actually quite a challenge but an efficient way to positively influence social debates. Many of the answers and guidelines contained in the Bible are perhaps forgotten and many people appreciate being reminded of them. With that purpose in mind, we updated the Verse Selection by Topics section to include ‘Jesus the Son of God – Trinity‘ verses in all the 70 plus languages of site. Here is a sample:

The number of users and the interaction with the website remains satisfactory. We have not arrived at the level we would like, but the costs with bandwidth for audio downloads are already high for the budget of a family ministry such as ours. You may check the stats here below, and particularly the volume corresponding to audio downloads.

As usual, there were corrections and typos to be fixed and some ideas that were brought up by users in the comments, below:

Hello. I've just found your site (which is excellent, by the way), and was looking at the Russian version of Proverbs --- I noticed that although there is an audio Bible in Russian on your site (here), the links to it from the accompanying text do not work (here).  ...Thought I'd let you know!  Best wishes, P. 
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Hello, I have been looking for an audio bible in the  ukranian language and have found it on on your web site but as i was wanting an offline version i looked into the apps that are listed here but i can't find the ukranian language in the app, is there any way to get ukranian in the app?Its good to see someone working at making the bible more accessible, free of cost. Thanks for what you have already done, but if all the bibles on your website could be ported to the app it would be nice, thanks again. Sincerly. J.
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I was reading Ephesians 6 and noticed that after I translated the word deprecación from the Spanish the English word didn't have the same meaning as in the English Bible. My wife who is native Spanish speakers agrees with my finding. Here is both languages together below:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
18 Orando en todo tiempo con toda deprecación y súplica en el Espíritu, y velando en ello con toda instancia y suplicación por todos los santos,
Sincerely, A.
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Where can I purchase a hindi bible that has been transliterated into romanized script? M.
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Shalom,
J’ai une question à vous poser, pourriez-vous s’il vous me dire la personnes qui s’est prête sa voix pour le  nouveau testament. J’aime beaucoup sa voix et cela m’apaise quand j’écoute sa voix. J’ai longtemps cherché sa voix pour celle de l’ancien testament l, je l’ai jamais trouvé. S’il vous plaît pourriez-vous m’aide ?  (translation: Shalom, I have a question for you, could you please tell me the person who lent his voice for the new testament. I really like his voice and it soothes me when I listen to his voice. I searched for his voice for a long time for that of the old testament, I never found him. Please could you help me?) D.
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 Can I put Burmese Bible Audio and Bible Text in my website? How to mention copyright please? Thank you.
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Pudieran por favor agregar una versión  " CATOLICA " en ESPAÑOL. La versión Reina Valera, NO es " Catolica " aunque esté en español. Gracias de antemano. Bendiciones. Ps. Vengo usando esta app pormas de 3 años y la verdad que e aprendido bastante. R.
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Hello, May the peace of Christ Jesus be with you. I'm recording a song, and at the end, I want to insert audio from this site, John 17 in the following languages: English, Spanish, Italian, German, etc. it's possible? It will be of great importance for the content. Thank you very much in advance!  S.

Here is an interesting one we might follow upon:

I am Fabien, from France. I'm a piano, guitar player and music producer (but work as an Cybersecurity Manager in my everyday life, although I always wanted to be a music producer). I've been starting to read the Holy Bible for a bit some time now and fell in love with it. I was asked by my fiancée's Pastor from Madagascar to work on a music for God. He pointed out Psalm 91 - to help me during a complicated moment in my life and so that he may also play it by the end of december. As mentioned I am working on Psalm 91, and I am using the English narration version that you provide for free online. I read the copyright statements' page on your website and I was wondering if it would be a problem to use the narrative version on different tracks, which will be dedicated for Psalms and maybe other Bible verses etc. As an example, please find hereby what I've been working during the past days : xxx
If I propose it to a Christian music label, and if they accept it, I wanted to know if it would be OK to use these vocals/narratives. I have not modified anything on the text, except adding echos/delays / and repeat a few words here and there such as "My God". Of course we would be mentioning your website and where the narrative comes from. Should they accept it, and should you be OK, I'm not sure it will be send out for free (or at least it will be free of access on youtube, etc) I'll make sure that most of generated revenues are given to legitimate associations and I may get a bit of revenue myself since I've been working on the background track and I'd like to spend some more time on creating background tracks to get the Holy Bible's words out (especially in Dance clubs and such other places where it should really be heard). To finish, if you are interested in adding Malagasy recordings I can check out if there is anyone who speaks Malagasy who would be willing to help out recording the Holy Bible, with my fiancée, and add these recordings to your website as it's missing this language ?. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Warm regards and God bless. Fabien.

From Africa here are recent images of the blind people receiving the SR600 devices donated by WP. It is to be seen how we are going to order the next batch of audio Bibles. A challenge reserved for this new year. Please pray with us.

From the App department the following are a few reactions or reviews to WP plus android APP:

Not least, Christmas came with some happy moments for our team and family, and the New Year was also welcomed with the hope of healthier and peaceful times in 2023.

We wish you a blessed New Year and thank you for your prayers and support. ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

We started this month where we left the previous month, that is, where we reived a request for a Pashto online Bible. As you probably know, Pashto is an official language in Afghanistan, spoken by 40 to 60 million people. So, we have been working hard this month to convert that language Bible text to our WP format. We have not finished it yet, although there only a few strokes left to be placed, as you may already see here:

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/pus/index.htm

Besides that, there was a lot of fixing up to do, including upgrading the Chinese Bible, with the help of our online friend, Ken Hong, who has been reviewing the whole Chinese CUV text and finding the glitches and ommited characters and punctuation, in the past few months. Many corrections have been done. Here is a sample of his most recent report:

To send a package of audio Bibles to Mozambique we went to DHL, a week later we received the package back at our address, because, they say, the package contains devices with a lithium battery, which, according to their explanation, they are not allowed to transport. Sad news for us all. In this world of ours, it is much easier to carry bombs and all the parafernalia of war, which kills and destroys, than to carry a handful of audio Bibles, potentially explosive, that bring life and inspiration. Keep this world in your prayers.

There is that little memory card inside each audio Bible that can be programmed with the Bibles we wish to distribute. In the case of Mozambique, we changed the original language, to the Makua language. This can be done through a computer and we can make just about any audio Bible language we need, as long as we have the audio, of course. To make our lives easier around here to perform that and other tasks, we addapted our attic to be studio, office and workshop, all in one, as you may see below:

Not least, and to have an answer to give, particularly to the increasing number of Muslim computer warriers, and others, who attack Christians with verbal insults, namely that Jesus could not be the son of God, and stating that the Trinity is not possible, because of logic contradiction where 1+1+1 never equals one… they say. In fact, one body, one soul and one Spirit equals one of us, but never mind… logic contradicts many fundamental truths such as Jesus’s resurrection, and logic would never explain why Muammad ascended to heaven, as they claim. But, logic aside, here are some of the verses you may share with the denniers and apostates, who attack your faith in this manner: (Now in a new section under WP Bible verses selection, called “Jesus Son of God – Trinity)

https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/verses/english/40_simplicity.htm

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And here are some messages we received this month:

Hello team, I am Yohan from south India. I am running a bible shop for the past 12 months. I gone through a good number of customers who are really in need of audio bible device, those who were either senior citizens or illiterate. Kindly assist me to get the device details and the way to procure. Thanks, Y.

This is to let you know that when I came to listen to Genesis 43rd chapter in the Tamil language, I heard it to be Genesis 3rd chapter instead of 43rd chapter - what it has to be. Thus, I came to know the misplacement of the recording. It would be more beneficial if the correct recording is placed in that respective link. Could you please do the needful? Awaiting your positive response. Thank you. T.U.

Hello, Thank you for your many translations of the Bible. I am reading the English/Italian version and value greatly the narrator reading the Italian out. However, I am in Joshua 6 and what the narrator is saying does not match the text. The gist of it is the same, but the words are often different. Since Italian is a language I am still learning, this is very confusing. It also begs the question of why the narrator is reading something other than what is on the screen? Is he self styling to save time—which would be wrong—or has he switched to a new version. I have read the Italian up to this point and although occasionally he changes a word, this chapter has been glaring. I hope you might see fit to re record this in its original version and check other chapters to ensure that what the speaker is reading is faithful to the text. M.M.

Hello, Thank you for this website. I use it often and has found it to be excellent. 
This page (https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/big5/38/13.htm#0) and all the pages for the Book Zechariah has a wrong heading: 
撒都該 迦利亞書, it should be 撒迦利亞書
Thanks again. May the Lord continue to bless your ministry! C.P.  
(fixed)

Thank you for Farsi translation. I want you to know that the translation is fantastic it is just like English new kings James version. Thank you and may God bless you. M.

je me réjouis de cette découverte sur la toile de ce très intéressant site d'enseignement biblique. aujourd'hui en quête de la parole de Dieu je pense que DIEU de par votre main m'a répondu. que votre œuvre connaisse une évolution  très croissante. par ailleurs je souhaiterai avoir des prospectus pour pouvoir propager la bonne nouvelle autour de moi, afin que les autres aussi soient sauvés comme moi.
merci pour tout ce que vous faite pour l'évangile et les hommes nés de nouveau. que la grâce et la paix du JESUS CHRIST soient votre partage.
vivement que DIEU nous aide...
Google Translation: I am delighted with this discovery on the web of this very interesting biblical teaching site. today in search of the word of God I think that GOD by your hand answered me. that your work knows a very growing evolution. moreover, I would like to have flyers to be able to spread the good news around me, so that others can also be saved like me.
thank you for all you do for the gospel and born again men. May the grace and peace of JESUS CHRIST be your portion.
May God help us...

That is all for now. See the monthly stats here:

May the Lord bless you and keep you. Thank you for your support and prayers.

WP

Just in case you do not know, in the above images is the Armenian language.
It may not mean a lot to you, but it does mean a lot to the Armenian people, the 3 million of them. The Armenian Bible was missing on our website, and that was until today.
We just uploaded the last files in our format.
According to some online sources, and just for information: “In Armenian the sacred writings that make up the Bible are called ‘Astuadsashuntch‘, which means ‘breath of God’. The name reflects the importance given to the chanting of the gospels during church worship. Until the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia had no written language of its own.” So, thank God, we are able to bless this central Asia country with this online Bible, in a format that is easy to use and soon to download for offline use. The link is HERE

The following message contains a request for another language missing on our website. It is compelling messages like this that have driven us to keep adding new languages to the site – now over 70:

Hi Word Project,  I cannot say how much your site has blessed me and so many people. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 🙂 I am writing to also ask you if you could kindly add PASHTO language to your site. Afghan people speak this language and we need this more than ever. 🙁 Afghanistan is currently number one on the World Watch List as the most dangerous place to be a Christian. I have several online friends there who have to pretend that they are Christians. They definitely don’t have access to the Bible. I really pray that your team can soon add PASHTO to Word Project. 🙂 Please consider this request, Team. Thank you very much for all your hard work! God bless you. DSH.

We also had the usual corrections, reports, errors and mistakes that make us a project, something that is improving as we progress in time. The good news is that we are easy to find online, for those who are searching, of course. For example, a search for ‘Biblia audio em portugues’, produces 18 million results on Google Search and we are happy to be the first on the list. If you type it in English, we come in on the top two. Praise the Lord!

Everyday we send our daily verse to many people, now over 150 friends, whereof you are included. Our list includes politicians, pilots, doctors, musicians, and not least, several pastors, catholic priests and even a bishop or two – In 4 languages: English, Portuguese, Chinese and Swahili. It is great fun, as we see the list growing every day, and to know that the Word is reaching people on a personal level, many of whom do not attend church,or even if they do, for many, the Word, when there is any, is perhaps a Sunday morning shot not a daily one. We thank God for this and we encourage others to share teh Word with their friend by forwarding what they receive. ‘Freely ye have received freely give.’

From our friends Patrick and Mary, in Africa, we received the following images this month, with thanks from the people who are receiving feee WP audio Bibles . This is only possible due to the help we receive from our sponsors. Thank the Lord.

From Safari, in Diani, Mombasa. we received the picture below, of his team. It brought back the memories of our time there at the times of recording the Swahili audio Bible.

We appreciate your support and prayers. ♥