We’ve blogged on this association before, but it comes up today because the group has just published its excellent Children’s Bible in its 150th language edition:

The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has prepared its Bible for Children, “God speaks to His Children,” in the 150^th version: Sindhi, an Indo-Aryan language which is spoken by about 20 million people in Pakistan’s south eastern Sindh province as well as in the north west Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. It is mainly written in a modified Arabic script. The first Sindhi edition of “God speaks to His Children”  – consisting of 10,000 copies – is currently being printed in Pakistan.

Maria Zurowski, head of ACN’s Family Apostolate section, explained June 22: “While Scripture often gets neglected in the West, it is of paramount importance for countless people in Third World countries, especially children and young people, including child soldiers and inmates. Also, bishops from around the world have praised this little book as an ‘excellent tool for evangelisation.’ It has been translated into some of the globe’s rarest languages, such as Tukano for indigenous people in Brazil’s Amazon region or Tshiluba, a tribal language spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

So far, more than 43 million copies of ACN’s Bible for Children have been distributed and the charity plans to print 1.35 million additional copies this year. Versions in 30 languages are available online: www.kirche-in-not.org/kinderbibel.html

Do check out the website for ACIN – their list of the projects in the most urgent need, as well as their news page, which has a bit of news from somewhere around the world almost daily. Add it to AsiaNews to get a sense of what’s going on in the Church around the world.