wfn.org | TCN: Taiwan Bible Society publishes Proverbs in Braille

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2984 Edition

>May 4~10, 2009

Taiwan Bible Society publishes Proverbs in Braille

>Reported by Lin Yi-ying

>Written by Lydia Ma

Taiwan Bible Society recently finished printing the book of Proverbs for  the visually-impaired. The society’s newest project is to

re-publish all the books of the Bible in Braille in an easily accessible  format.

According to Elder Lai Shih-min, the staff responsible for this project  at the society, the organization published 100 copies of

Proverbs in Braille for the book’s first edition. It is encouraging  Christians across Taiwan to call in and order free copies for their

visually-impaired friends who might be interested in learning more about  God.

To make it easier for the visually-impaired to go through the book with  their friends who can read, Proverbs in Braille makes use of

empty spaces next to each Braille character to print its equivalent  traditional Chinese character. The organization hopes that this

arrangement will facilitate sharing the gospel with the  visually-impaired.

Back in the 1970s, Taiwan Bible Society had published the whole Chinese  Union Bible in Braille. At the time, each volume was

roughly the size of one A4 (210 x 297 mm) paper. To own one complete  set, people would have to buy several volumes and it

would take more than one entire bookshelf to store just one Bible. Every  volume was bulky and heavy, which made reading the

Bible fairly inconvenient for the visually-impaired. Because of these  challenges, the society did not print many editions of the Bible

>in Braille in the past.

Many Christians have requested the Bible in Braille over the years,  prompting Taiwan Bible Society to issue an electronic version of

it. Unfortunately, the cost of buying a computer especially designed for  the visually-impaired that supports the software is

unaffordable for most people. Seeing that there are over 40,000  visually-impaired people in Taiwan in need of the gospel, the

society decided to resurrect the Bible in Braille regardless of the  cost.

Taiwan currently has about 50,000 visually-impaired people. Of this  population, over 2,000 have been baptized. This means that

there are over 40,000 people who are either already seekers or people in  need of hearing about the Gospel.

According to reports, the new Proverbs in Braille contains 121 pages and  the cost of making one page alone is $120 NTD.

Therefore, the production cost of one book amounts to approximately  $15,000 NTD (or $450 USD). The reason why making such

a Bible is so expensive is because the cost of the initial plate is very  high. The society estimates that the production cost will

decrease to $10 NTD per page and $1,220 NTD (or $36 USD) per book for  the second edition once the cost of the plate is no

>longer taken into account.

Taiwan Bible Society is urging Christians to pray for this project and  donate generously so that the new Proverbs in Braille can be

delivered into the hands of the visually-impaired. The society is also  planning to publish the four gospels in the near future so that

visually-impaired people can also know about the good news of the  gospel.

For more information about this publication, contact Elder Lai at (02)  2751-0882 ext.26.

Reminder to our readers -------------------------------

Don’t forget that you can also get our weekly news and read past  news anytime by visiting our website: http://enews.pctpress.org/

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