Bibles for 28.9 million more people worldwide!

28.9 million people worldwide received a Bible for the first time in 2010, according to the annual Scripture Distribution Report published by Bible Society.

Bibles being carried into a church in Yunnan Province, China.

Of these, 3.8 million were Bibles distributed in mainland China from the Amity Printing Press in Nanjing.

A further 9.86 million New Testaments were distributed worldwide.

When Bibles, New Testaments, individual books and Scripture selections are added up, more than 365 million separate distributions were made last year.

In New Zealand, 60,257 Bibles and 26,387 New Testaments were distributed, reflecting the importance of this part of our mission.

Bible Society New Zealand supporters also helped to provide many Scriptures for people living overseas by supporting our international mission.

“We give thanks to God for the generous support of so many of the New Zealand Christian community, so that the Bible and its message can get to people everywhere," says Francis Burdett, Chief Executive of Bible Society New Zealand.

“But there are still literally millions of people yet to know anything of the Word of God, so there’s still much more work to be done," he added.

This article is from The Word at Work – Summer 2011.