INTERNATIONAL: Charity Child’s Bible spreading God’s love for 45 years

A special Bible for children created by a Catholic charity – available in almost 200 languages – turns 45 this year.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) marked the UNESCO International Year of the Child in 1979 by publishing the first edition of the Child’s Bible – God speaks to his children.

The book helps the Church’s pastoral outreach by retelling key stories from the Bible for children aged six to nine.

Dr Caroline Hull, National Director at ACN (UK) said that the Child’s Bible has helped bring God’s love to tens of millions of children around the globe thanks to generous donations from the charity’s benefactors.

Dr Hull added: “This is a beautiful way of introducing children to the story of salvation and enabling them to develop and deepen their relationship with God.”

She explained: “For each Child’s Bible ACN sells, we are able to send out three more to the suffering Church throughout the world.”

More than 50 million copies of the book have been distributed in 194 languages –including Assyrian and Zulu – to children in need in the past 45 years, making this one of the charity’s longest-running projects.

Dr Hull said: “In many cases the Child’s Bible is the only written work in a certain language, allowing children to learn about the Faith in their mother tongue, while also helping to preserve the written form of the language.

“In areas where large parts of the population do not speak the official language – such as in the Amazon – having access to Bible stories in their own language can also make it easier for children to trust God and understand that Christianity is not a foreign imposition.”

She highlighted: “For many children around the world the Child’s Bible is the only book they get to own.”

She concluded: “We are incredibly grateful to all our wonderful benefactors who have made this project possible over the last four and a half decades.”