Spanish Bible Studies Blossoming

What began a year ago as a way for Christian Reformed Home Missions to fill a request from one church for the translation into Spanish of one of the Bible studies in the Coffee Break Discover Your Bible series has blossomed into a line of four books with more on the way for the Spanish-speaking community.

Viviana Cornejo, ministry developer for Hispanic ministry for Christian Reformed Home Missions, has performed the translating. The first effort was done, she said, to fulfill the request from Crosswinds Church in Holland, Mich. The first one was The Fruit of Spirit, which is part of the Discover Your Bible series.

Crosswinds used it, but it was also posted on the Hispanic webpage of the CRC in PDF format.

"The responses were wonderful and encouraged us to keep doing this," said Cornejo.

With the success of the first translation, Cornejo was given approval to do more. The next ones were Discover Comfort and then Discover Forgiveness.

The Bible studies are now available for download on the Faith Alive Christian Resources. They can be accessed here: Spanish Bible studies.

Last year, the studies were promoted in Small Talk, the Coffee Break newsletter in Spanish. This is when the word really spread about the translations. "We began to receive many, many emails requesting the material from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, etc. and from USA as well," says Cornejo.

The reason she has been able to do all of the translations is because Home Missions allowed her to use some of her time on the project.

"We feel happy to provide resources that they need," said Cornejo. "This is happening with churches and other agencies as well… Definitively the need is there. We are grateful that Home Missions is allowing our Hispanic/Latino ministry to serve in this way."

Crosswinds CRC began with Luke Part 1 and 2, then Ruth, and now they’re going on to Luke Part 3 and later Part 4, she said.

Emelia Rodriguez, one of the women in the initial Crosswinds Bible study, said she appreciated the translation because it helped her understand the Bible better. "I go back home and write what I learned in my Bible," she said.

Cornejo says to have the Discover Your Bible series available in Spanish "has been a dream and a desire in my heart for long time, so to see it now is an answer of prayers."

"Now, we are having requests from Anglo pastors who would like to reach Hispanic people and use this material," she said.

She says she doesn't know how far the project will expand, but she would like to make the entire Discover Your Bible series available in Spanish, "and not in PDF only, but to have it just like the English DYB looks like."

The DYB titles available in Spanish are:

• Discover the Fruit of the Spirit—Descubriendo El Fruto del Espíritu
• Discover Comfort—Descubriendo El Consuelo
• Discover Forgiveness—Descubriendo El Perdón
• Discover Ruth—Descubriendo Rut
• Discover Luke, Part 1, 2, and 3 (Part 4 will be available by the middle of December) —Descubriendo Lucas, Primera Parte, Segunda Parte, Tercera Parte (la Cuarta Parta estará disponible a mediados de Diciembre)
• Discover Life, A Woman and Her World—La mujer y su mundo.

The Bible studies can currently be downloaded for $2 for US participants here.

Cornejo says she has wanted to do the translations “to respond to the need of having good Bible study material available… [This] is what gives me the energy to follow what once was a deep desire.”

Also, on another subject, Faith Alive is offering a 30 percent off sale on its product. The sale ends on December 12, 2010. For more information, visit: Christmas sale.