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Summer 2007

“We need this book with Nenets illustrations!”

Eunsub Song, exegetical advisor for the Nenets Bible translation, recently visited our office in Moscow on her way from South Korea to the north Siberian town of Salekhard, where she has lived for more than six years.

“Four years ago 2,000 copies of Stories about Jesus were printed in Nenets, and audio cassettes were produced to be distributed with the book,” Eunsub said. “The Nenets church quickly distributed the books, so when the tapes arrived, only 1,000 books were left. People have really liked this book! Now we have neither books nor cassettes – so we have copied 1,000 more cassettes – and, can you imagine, they have all been paid for by Nenets believers!

“The first gift came from the poorest, but most faithful babushka (old lady) in our church, Katya. I had invited her for lunch, as friends had given me several huge white salmon, and Katya really enjoyed the meal. She sang some hymns and recited a few psalms, and when we prayed, she prayed for the Bible translation. Then she gave me 1,000 rubles (about $40) for audio cassettes!

“The next gift came from my friend Nastya. Her father, Nicolai, is blind and his speech is impaired following a stroke. His daily routine is to listen to Stories about Jesus on the cassette recorder. Whenever they have a guest – and Nastya has lots of guests from the tundra and other villages – Nicolai puts on the recorder and every guest has to listen to the tape with him. That is his way of telling people about Jesus, as he cannot speak! Nastya says people have wept as they listened to this recording. She gave me 3,500 rubles for more tapes. Altogether the Nenets believers have collected 11,500 rubles ($440) for the cassettes.

“So now we have more cassettes – but we don’t have any books left! When I saw the Crimean-Tatar and Karakalpak Stories about Jesus illustrated by native artists, I was convinced that we needed this book with Nenets illustrations,” Eunsub continued. “Literacy is very low among the Nenets and people need books with illustrations, but the pictures in the first book were very Russian. If we had illustrations by a Nenets artist in a large format book, it would be so much better! With our books not only are we telling people about God, but we are also helping them to read their language, and to preserve and develop it.”

Summer project

We are planning to print 2,000 copies of Stories about Jesus in a large format book with illustrations by a Nenets artist. Please support this project with your summer gift to IBT Russia/CIS!                     

Here you can sign for the IBT Russia/CIS monthly English Newsletter

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