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Unexpected Publicity in Lithuania
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Viewing historical Bibles at the exhibition.
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Sometimes things happen that we don't really expect yet looking back, we can see God's hand all over it. This was recently the experience of the Lithuanian Bible Society when the local media got wind of something interesting.
Several months ago, the German Bible Society gave an interesting gift to their colleagues in Lithuania, a few facsimiles of the first Lithuanian Bible translation from the 16th century. Mrs Vilhelmina Kalinauskiene, the General Secretary in Lithuania shared that they decided to present one of those copies to the library of Vilnius University.
This led to the idea of organising an exhibition where people could see the history of Bible translations, and several very old Lithuanian Bibles. Vilnius University has the originals of the most important publications in this field, but they are treasured so much that they were never shown to the general public. "It was the first time all of us ever saw the first printed Lithuanian Bible (1735)," says Vilhelmina.
A national TV channel filmed the exhibition and included it in their morning show, and Vilhelmina and three experts were invited by a national radio station to discuss the importance and uniqueness of the exhibition. A local radio station also recorded and broadcast all the speeches.
"We are really excited that this exhibition and donation gave rise to such considerable interest," said Vilhelmina. While old books may not seem terribly exciting to many of us, they brought a wonderful opportunity to talk about the Word of God on national broadcasts, showing how it has been preserved and still speaks into our lives today.
Give thanks for this unexpected national stage on which to speak of the Bible. Please pray that God will not only draw people in to the exhibition but that He will draw people into His living Word as a result.
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