Why use mini Bibles?

One hot afternoon, a regular visitor dropped by the Chia-yi OMF office to have tea and chat. He had come by the office to talk about God a few times before, and had even seen God do some incredible things in his life. As he sat down, he saw the bookshelf with many books and Bibles, and cheerfully asked if he could have a Bible. The missionary pulled a Bible off the shelf and opened it up with the visitor. While the visitor politely listened to the explanation of the format, and as he squinted at the small text, his enthusiasm waned.

The missionary told him about one of the stories that was in the large book in front of him. Afterwards, the missionary took down a mini-Bible and told him that the same story as well as some others were in that booklet as well. As the visitor eagerly put down the larger book and took the mini-Bible he said, "This I can deal with!"

Opening the Door

Like many working class Taiwanese prefer to get their information orally. Although they can read, they simply prefer not to. Imagine this kind of person opening up a Bible with small Chinese characters, confusing numbers, obscure references and notes written in tiny coded text, and no pictures! When a new believer asked why the Bible had to be so big and difficult to read, we realized that we needed to find a less intimidating way to introduce God’s Word to them.

During the past two years, OMF & World Team, in cooperation with the Bible Society of Taiwan, have printed three mini-Bibles: the story of creation found in Genesis chapters 1-4, selected stories from the Gospel of Luke, and an introduction to Christ. These booklets are taken directly from the Today Chinese Bible translation and are printed in large characters.

Want to get involved?

For more information on supporting this project or obtaining mini-Bibles, please e-mail minibibles@taiwanteam.org .