Lisbon, Portugal …. [Ray Dabrowski/ANN]
The idea started with one person. Soon others joined in and now the Bible World CD-ROM is receiving acclaim on the Portuguese Christian scene, said Arthur Machado, communication director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Portugal.
Distributed free, the CD-ROM provides a Web link and includes a Bible text, Bible commentary, photographs of Bible-related places, as well as video materials about Bible lands, antiquity and culture.
“It was a private initiative of Joao Miguel from a computer company, Ideias Sem Fim (Ideas Without End), that brought together several organizations, including a Bible society, the Embassy of Israel and our church. Today, we are working on a newer version with more search options,” Machado said.
The media material was done by Israeli producers and supplied through a partnership with the Embassy of Israel in Lisbon. Machado said that since several thousand copies have been distributed, they are now developing plans for the next version of the CD that would include additional materials, including a Bible encyclopedia and more versions of the Scriptures.
The initiative started as a mission project to “thank God for providing business success to the owners of a computer company,” Machado said.
The project received media attention, including a national TV program, and is marketed through the Internet, and congregations.
In Portugal, the project is the latest of new mission initiatives undertaken by the Adventist Church throughout Europe.
Because there are challenges facing Christian mission in his country, Mario Brito, president of the Adventist Church in Portugal, said Christian mission today requires new methodology.
To make Christianity attractive and persuasive for today’s postmodern population “we need to reach out with different methods than we did in the past. Yesterday, public meetings and witnessing was different. Now, technology provides a contemporary arena where people are looking for answers to their dilemmas, and as a church we must be in that arena,” Brito commented.
Copyright © 2005 by Adventist News Network.
