Bible verse campaign raises
Society profile as well as funds

RIGA, Latvia — A campaign planned as a way of raising funds for the new Latvian Bible translation has brought the Latvian Bible Society (LBS) blessings of a number of different kinds.

“Several people mentioned that their ‘golden verse’ was one they had heard at the beginning of their Christian life... One wrote that his favourite verse, Proverbs 3:27, was the first Bible text that he ever heard but at the time he did not know its source.”

For 12 months until March the Society ran a campaign called My Golden Bible Verse. Supporters could buy a set of five postcards from bookshops, four bearing striking and attractive photographs of seasonal landscapes and one response card. They were asked to write their favourite Bible verse and the reason for their choice on the response card and send it to the Bible Society.

Drawn

In March,11 cards were drawn from all those which had been sent in. This was done live during the Christian Word and Music programme which goes out on Latvian State Radio. The sender of the first card picked out of the hat received a travel agency voucher worth 80 Lats (US$128). The senders of the next ten cards picked each received two Bible Society books, the Bible Atlas and Opening Up the Bible.

The most popular was, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 RSV). Texts from the New Testament outnumbered those from the Old by 86 to 58.

Among the ‘extra’ benefits of the exercise were the short testimonies given as the writers explained why the texts had special meanings for them.

“Several people mentioned that their ‘golden verse’ was one they had heard at the beginning of their Christian life,” said the Rev Valdis Teraudkalns, General Secretary of the LBS. “One wrote that his favourite verse, Proverbs 3:27, was the first Bible text that he ever heard but at the time he did not know its source.”

Another person said that his favourite text is the one carved on his grandparents’ gravestone: “We know and believe the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16 RSV). “Their lives were always in accordance with these words,” he said.

Rural areas

Although the response to the campaign was not large – possibly because most Bible Society donors live in rural areas without bookshops – Mr Teraudkalns thinks that the Golden Bible Verse campaign had a significant impact in publicity terms. While it was running, for example, Latvia’s main Christian journals published regular items about it and it was advertised on Latvian Christian Radio with the voice of a famous actor from the national theatre.