The stories of the Bible, in every language

Our kids used to love going to the park in our neighborhood in Thailand, especially when the fire ants were not out! One day, the man who owned the noodle shop across the street was there with his young daughter. He recognized us from the times we had eaten in his shop, and though we wanted to communicate God's love to him and share with Him about Jesus, our knowledge of the Thai language was about as lacking as his English. So an opportunity was lost.

I have thought many times how great it would have been to have had some Bible stories available in the Thai language as videos on my mobile phone - always with me. If such a resource had been available that day at the park, I could have showed that Buddhist man a video of a story of the Bible in his own language, and maybe God would have worked in his heart through it to draw this man to Jesus Christ.

This story is an illustration of (and motivation for) the vision behind the Open Bible Stories project on Door43 - see http://door43.org/stories. We want to see 30 stories of the Bible (eventually 365 stories) released under an open license, translated into every language of the world, and available as unrestricted audio and mobile phone-friendly video files. How would the world change if everyone, everywhere could have even just 30 stories of the Bible that communicate God's love, His purpose throughout history and the sending of Jesus, His Son, to redeem us from our sins and reconcile us to the Father?

Without a doubt, this is an ambitious project. There is not a single resource "thing" that exists in all ~7,000 languages of the world today. Even the Bible has only been translated into just under 600, and about 2,500 have at least Scripture portions. So how do we envision this happening?

It's a good question and it comes down to this: open collaboration. We are developing these stories on Door43, an open platform where anyone can contribute and help translate and improve the resources. Because the Open Bible Stories project is released under an open license, there are no legal restrictions that would hinder the advance and development of the project.

The first stories are underway (see "The Compassionate Father" here) in the first languages, audio and video versions are being recorded and the first mobile phone application to display the stories is functioning as a prototype. There is one piece, however, that is still urgently needed, not just for the Open Bible Stories project, but for discipleship resources that are being created by many organizations and ministries: open-licensed illustrations of the stories of the Bible. Existing illustrations are not available for use in unrestricted (and free of charge) resources. So we are looking for illustrators and artists who can help create an open-licensed collection of Bible illustrations. If you know of anyone who may be able to help meet this need, or you know where to find open-licensed illustrations, please contact us or leave a comment below.

Photo credit: chanc