One of the six teams sent by Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, to

distribute water to residents in Flint, Michigan

FLINT, MICHIGAN, USA: Baptists Provide Water to Ease Crisis B States. The crisis began in April 2014 after

Flint switched its water supply from Lake Huron (via Detroit, Michigan) to the Flint River. The drinking water had a series of problems that culminated with lead contamination, creating public health risks.

worthily to support

churches and their members the American Bible

aptists were among religious groups that responded to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, in the United

The Flint River has had a long history of being polluted and the pipes laden with lead, which is toxic, especially to young children.

President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in Flint and ordered federal aid for the city. An emergency manager had made the changes in water supply. Beginning in 2011, the governor of Michigan appointed

200 Years - American Bible Society continued Baptist

Society with generous financial contri- butions in order to provide the needed Scriptures to carry on our worldwide missions program.” There

have been several noted

American Bible translators who were Baptist. Among the most well known was Adoniram Judson, who made the first complete translation of the Bible from the original languages into Burmese, which he completed in 1834. Robert Bratcher, who died in July

2010 at age 90, was the New Testament translator for the Good News Bible. Born in Brazil to Southern Baptist missionaries from the US, Bratcher had worked with ABS in revising a Brazilian Bible. First issued in 1966, the Good News Bible was aimed at those who spoke English as a second language. The complete Good News Bible, also known as Today’s English Version, was published in 1976. It was, for a time, the best selling Bible in the US. The Baptist World Alliance has worked

closely with both ABS and United Bible Societies (UBS), the global umbrella fel-

26 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

lowship of 145 individual Bible societies that has ABS as a member and major supporter. In 1989, the BWA presented a US$100,000 check to ABS at the BWA General Council to open a drive to provide one million Bibles and New Testaments to people of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. One year earlier, in 1988, the BWA provided 100,000 Russian-language Bibles to Baptists in the Soviet Union through UBS. The BWA collaborated with the Men-

nonite World Conference and UBS to pro- vide the first braille translation of the New Testament into Russian. Archie Goldie, Baptist World Aid director at the time, told of the utter joy on a blind Russian woman’s face when she read the translation of St. Matthew’s gospel in braille in Moscow. “Now I can read the Bible for myself,” she declared, as she soaked in the significance of the experience. Over the years, ABS has transformed

the means by which the Bible has been produced and transmitted. While printing Bibles continues to be important, digital delivery has taken on new prominence. ABS collaborated with several Bible

societies to launch a website that allows persons across the world to receive the Bible on their mobile devices; hosted the Digital Word Summit that culminated in the launching of Every Tribe Every Na- tion; introduced the Bible Minded app as a way to encourage the memorization of Scripture; and signed a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), to manage the new .BIBLE top-level Internet domain. As part of the bicentenary, ABS hosted

the UBS World Assembly in the city of Philadelphia from May 12-18. The World Assembly occurs every six or seven years. The meetings in Philadelphia

attracted

leaders from some 140 Bible societies working in more than 200 countries and territories. Approximately 500 Christian leaders attended. The week’s events were launched with

a gala celebrating the 200 years of ABS ministry and looked ahead to the future of the organization. Among the issues discussed during the World Assembly were the future of Bible translation, publishing, distribution, engagement and ministry.

A volunteer holds up a routing sign for a water distributing site in Flint, Michigan