We have been experiencing some problems due to the recent change in interface and some people still being accessing the old pages, which are being faded out. We did solve most problems and the rest we hope to solve in the near future. From our mail box this past month:

“Greetings in the name of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST, Great job on the site! I love the multi-column function that allows you to view different languages simultaneously! God Bless” – RAJENDRA

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“Greetings of Peace and love from North West India

1. Thanks a lot for the mail. Your efforts would be rewarded in Eternity. Well the people of Submission (you know about whom I am talking) are more aggressive than us. We here prayed for you and appreciate for the work you are involved in. 
2. You have no idea how the Lord using you. In our recent meeting about Sikh Evangelization and Muslims Evangelization, we have learnt that you website is used extensively among Muslims and Sikhs for it is easy accessible and also having Unicode Typesetting. Be encouraged! You are the Champion in Evangelism….Bless you in the name of Jesus my dears. 
3. I am attaching the file that you have sent with Translated work Keep moving in the Lord with His Grace, our prayers are with and for you…Pls do uplold the Right Version of Punjabi Bible...” – Jitender

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“Dear Brothers and Sisters! It is really a wonderful work for the Lord. I pray for it. Please note: * Under this link is nothing: http://www.wordproject.org/bibles/fa/index.htm * You wrote the following for the Arabic Bible: Ø±Ø¶ المقدسة [Arabic Holy Bible] It must be: الكتاب المقدس Blessings”, Aziz Saad.

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“Hello, I am believer in Jesus as Lord , and i believe that bible is the word that the holy GOD send to us, and i am living in Guangzhou .China
my problem is i came from french spoken countries and i have some difficulties to find the bible (book) in french, i have to wait some one of my countrie mate to send to me. Do you have any bible ( book ) in french ”Louis Second 1910”, if yes how to get it, do you have any representative in Guangzhou, we are a community of Jesus, and i come to you for my brother and sister. waiting for your reply. May LORD Jesus Bless you.” Lionel

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“Good morning! I wanted to thank you for the amazing work you’ve done in facilitating access to the Bible. WordProject has been helping me learn the beautiful language of French, and I’ve been using it daily for almost 2 months now. This is just a memo to notify you: Chapters 10-22 of Revelation (Apocalypse) of the French audio do not seem to be functioning. Please see if you can repair these broken links. Once again, your service is greatly appreciated.” – Monte

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“Bonjour mesdames/messieurs
Dieu soit loué pour cette bible que vous avez mise gratuitement en ligne. Merci a vous, Christ vous le rendra.Peut-on vous signaler quelque anomalie que l’on rencontre parfois soit en lisant ou soit en ecoutant ? Si oui, alors faites-moi signe pour que je vous informe de ce que je constate parfois. 
Que la grace de notre Seigneur soit avec vous.” – Franck

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“Hi, I wonder if there is a way to embed individual chapter readings onto other web pages? For instance, I could embed a chapter into a commentary section on an internet facebook page. I am very glad and appreciative of this website” – Eliot

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“I really appreciate the work you have done with wordproject.org. It is a beautiful site and I love all the languages available.” – Brian

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“Nimefurahi sana kwa huduma yenu ya biblia kwa njia ya mtandao nimetumia ni nzuri sana.hongereni sana maana itanisaidia kwanye huduma ya injili ninayofanya.huduma yenu ni nzuri sana – Translation: I am very pleased with your service bible through the network I use it and is very good. Helps me in the gospel ministry” – Yona

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“… je aime beaucoup word project” – Olivier

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“Dear Friend in Christ, I am from Islamic Republic of Pakistan where it is difficult to have Radio and TV channel for preaching purposes. They would not allow us to do that here the Satan has real strong hold over everything… Urdu is spoken in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and also in Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran and others. I would ask you to pray and share it among the brethren. I would offer my services for being translator, recorder and distribution/sales. I pray that your consideration will have His mark over your decision. May God bless you abundantly! May His perfect will be done! Grace and Peace be with you, all brethrens. Yours brother in Christ.” – Michael – Pakistan

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“I was just wondering if you could get the Hindi audio bible (http://www.wordproject.org/bibles/audio/03_hindi/index.htm) made available on spotify.com I believe this would increase usage and could make some revenue for you as well. Thank you! for your great work. God Bless “- Arthur

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“Hello! I thank you so much for the great work you have been doing with this webside. I downloaded the French Bible. The book Deuteronomy doesn’t working. When you try to download it, there only appears an error-message. Maybe you can check it out. Thank you so much! Be blessed!” Simone from Germany!

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我每天都在这里听圣经,但是现在很难再连续听了,因为很多章节不能连续放或根本不能放.几乎每一本都有问题.还不如以前的website. 请你们打开听一下,就马上会发现问题.真希望你们可以重新编排一遍.谢谢 – Grace

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“Thank you so much for the most exciting Bible site. I’m so blessed to have this site and enjoying so very much. However, the recent changes that you have made seem to have  Some problems.” – Kiko

[most problems reported have been fixed]

by Joana

It was a cold and windy morning.. Not the kind of weather that I usually enjoy, but it would end up to be a unique and special day.  The busiest I had ever yet seen at Mbagathi District Hospital; the day I would deliver my first little baby.

On this particular morning,  6 woman were in labor all at once. It was a sight and sound to make you begin to pray, and indeed, praying was something of an addiction to me when I worked here. Everyone was running around. It was too early for the usual nurse in charge to have decided to show up, so we scrambled to make some order out of the chaos. The nurse interns had a pile of files and were working on gathering  patient history and some basic observations.  The interning doctor on shift was Calvin. Since the morning that we  tried for hours to cannulate an extremely overweight  patient,  him and I had become good friends. He was  also very good at deliveries, I had always  learnt a lot from him. Now he was preparing each and every mother for the birthing and I was his assistant. And that s just the team that we were: 3 nurses, another CO intern , Calvin and then me.

Each of the mothers in labor had  a unique way of  expressing their pain and apprehension; some howled  and some muttered meaningless nonsense, others just hit their beds with unexplainable strength and energy.

I was setting up an Iv solution for a young mother in her early 20s. She was freakishly thin with dust and grime covering her little body and  her swollen stomach. Her contractions were coming fast and strong..i could just see the bulging around her opening each time at the peak of a contraction. A quick examination confirmed that, yes, the time was near.  I started calling for Calvin, ‘it is coming, it is coming!!’ he was very calm but also very preoccupied, “I can t be there right now,” he told me, as he slowly drew medicine from a vial into a syringe. ‘you know what to do right?’  I knew I had the basic idea, I had practiced with big plastic dummies in class and I had observed countless births since my very first shift in maternity. A wave of confidence suddenly swept over me and I agreed that, yes, I could do it.”  “ok, that s good. Remember to support that head and those shoulders,’ and that was that, left alone with no time to lose, that baby wanted to come out, and come out NOW.

I tore open the delivery pack and began preparing the birth site, while supporting the perineum with a heavy wad of cotton. The young mother was holding onto my coat and at times tugging at me ferociously, unnerving me that I might lose my balance.  It was not her first child and she was a great pusher, she panted and moaned and shrieked .I encouraged her that with each mighty contraction the baby was slowly being revealed. Suddenly the head popped out. It took me a second to react and start wiping the airways of the little head…there was more pushing and shoving and then the shoulders came out, one at a time. I caught it just in time as the whole infant spurted out with a considerable force. It was so small, warm and slippery, I had a terrible thought that it might slip form my trembling hands.. But that  didn’t happen…I placed the baby on mommy s stomach and she gave it an intense look, as if she couldn’t’ t decide what to feel. It was a  baby boy..pinkish brown all over with little scrunched up face and large lumpy head covered in dark thick curls. A quick rub on his back and his screams filled the room along with the all the others,  like a symphony of wails. It s was the sound of new life. Little souls protesting their reluctance to enter this  world. And yet all I wanted to say was, ‘welcome! welcome to existence!’ The cord clamps were attached and I cut the filmy cord that had  stopped pulsating. A quick glance up at the clock on the wall to my right to note the time: 9:15. I was feeling elated and out of control. The nurse ran over to whisk the baby off to the resuscitation machine: to be suctioned, dried, oxygenated and so on and so forth.

Joana EMT ready..

Blood was oozing out slowly and steady out from the mother. I had a gag reflex as the scent of everything suddenly seemed very strong. I inspected the site and was incredibly relieved to note there was no tear, (as I dread little else more than having to suture). After a few minutes the placenta was ready to be delivered. I massaged  her uterus until I felt  it contracting into a grapefruit sized lobe beneath her navel. Giving firm and even pulls on the protruding end of the cord with one hand and applying downward pressure on the uterus with the other, I know that this will help the placenta to move down and then out. As it was slowly proceeding, the cord would be wrapped more and more around the forceps that I had used to clamp the cord at the mother s end. Eventually the whole thing slipped out in a smooth’ swoosh’. As it came out it was caught in my two hands and turned gently until all the membranes were twisted.  It was very important step to then thoroughly inspect the placenta to  assure  that it was all intact and no pieces were left behind which would be a potential source of infection. Then there was the final work of cleaning out the clots and cleaning up the mother.  I felt she worked so hard and I could imagine her relief. I went and made her a huge cup of hot chocolate. There was a big smile on my face and all the tension was melting away and converting into a deep feeling of joy and satisfaction. The mother and I shared a small moment of silence and exchange of smiles. I respected her deeply as she got up from the cot, wrapped her blood soaked kanga around her hips and limped off to collect her child. This was definitely an experience I could not forget.

Here is a reaction to the Portuguese Audio Bibles left in Mozambique last month – (received via email from A. and J.):

On behalf of those who received an Audio Bible we want to thank you with all our hearts.
The other day we got a feedback from Pastor Sebastião. He just loves is  Audio Bible, listens to it every afternoon until late at night, he said. In the morning he goes to the Machamba with his wife:  “But as soon as we are home, my wife is cooking and looking after our children, I sit in the backyard of my little house and listen to the Word of God.” His daughter Sabina, is a student at the Catholic School in Macomia and a good friend of J.. Sabina just spent 2 weeks at home and told us that in fact the whole family listens to the Audio Bible, every night and they all love it!

Luis Rafael, a Church Deacon told A. that he is so happy to have an Audio Bible. Since he got it, he listens to it every day for 2 hours! These are just a couple of the many reactions, many of them expressed to me by phone, text message, or in person, while we were there. People were really thankful. We have to remember that in all the cities of the North of Mozambique there is not one place where you can acquire even a printed Bible.

Set of audioBibles for Beira

by Jorge

As we stopped at a village in the bush in the North of Mozambique… as we went out of the car to relax, we pulled out our soccer ball and kicked it around a bit until several villager children gathered around us to play too… As I watched their joy I thought about the approach of church denomination missions in Africa and how it needs to change…

Playingball

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imagine coming to Africa to promote Barcelona or Manchester United… and encourage people to attend or watch their games, or opening branches and appeal for membership to these clubs …. rather than bringing the “ball” and teach and encourage the practice of the “sport” – where everyone can benefit from the activity  and exercise… well, I  felt quite strong about this – the church denominational approach to evangelization in Africa [and maybe in other parts of the world] has been more like instituting the club and making members… creating spectators [and division or club-ism] rather than bringing the ball [the Bible?] and letting people enjoy it, use It for their fun and recreation, health, strength and unity – also guidance, light, and most of all Salvation in Jesus Christ. (the analogy is lost here but nevertheless the truth worth mentioning)

village in Mozambique

The point is that I think the Christian life is worth living and worth living all the way… not half way, with some visits to the church on Sunday and sometimes only for weddings and ceremonies … and I do believe the  central point, the focus of the Christian life is the Word of God…without It there is no life. I feel
that Christians, by and large, promote the denomination and that needs to change. The Christian should promote Christ, His Word, not a particular denomination, whatever that may be, anywhere, anytime and all the time… Every Christian has been given that challenge. “And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me….”