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First Time Ever: Experience the Bible App and YouVersion.com in Romanian

For the first time ever, now you can select Romanian as your language of choice at the YouVersion.com website, and inside the Bible App on several platforms: iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), Android, Java, and bada. If you’ve already installed the Bible App on one of these platforms, all you have to do to start getting Romanian today is set it as the default language for your device. And if you have the most recent update of the Bible App on iOS or on Android, you can even pick Romanian from directly in your Bible App Settings!

Romanian is YouVersion’s sixteenth language launch. Before Romanian, we’ve offered releases in Spanish, German, French, Japanese, and Slovak, to name just a few. More than just menus and screens, we’re even adding 25 reading plans in Romanian! In the Bible App and at YouVersion.com, you’ll find Bibles in literally hundreds of languages—including three in Romanian. YouVersion’s mission is to make God’s Word available to as many people as possible, wherever they live and whatever language they prefer. And while Romania is home to almost 22 million people, Romanian speakers live literally all over the world. We’d love for them to share in the joy of experiencing the Bible in their heart language. If you have friends who love Romanian, would you let them know about YouVersion? You’re an important part of the YouVersion community. Every time you share God’s Word on Facebook and Twitter, you’re sharing YouVersion’s voice with the world.

How can we offer so many languages? It’s all because passionate volunteers generously share their gifts to constantly bring more languages to the YouVersion community around the world. They’re people just like you, excited about helping others experience God’s Word in languages they love. And with non stop updates and improvements to the Bible App and YouVersion.com, there’s always translation to do. If you’re fluent in English and another language—and you can translate between them—please prayerfully consider joining our global revolution of Bible engagement. For example, we have opportunities in many languages right now, especially in Arabic, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Your gifts can literally change people’s eternity!

But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what one of our great Romanian language volunteers recently had to say about what it’s like to translate for the YouVersion community:

“God’s Word is worth spreading using all available tools, especially nowadays, when technology offers so many possibilities. I came across YouVersion in the right moment and did not hesitate to enroll and become part of it. As a result of volunteering with YouVersion, I have become more willing to work as much as possible for His Kingdom! My favorite part is when new challenges and projects come in…and there have been a lot ever since I joined!”
—Dragoslav S., Timişoara, Romania

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YouVersion Bible App and Website Now in Slovak

For the first time ever, now you can select Slovak as your default language for the Bible App™ on several platforms, including iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), Android, bada, and Java devices, as well as at YouVersion.com. If you’re already using the Bible App on a supported device, all you need to do is change your device’s default language to Slovak. And if you’re running the most recent version of the Bible App for iOS or Android, you can even select Slovak right from inside your Bible App Settings.

Slovak is YouVersion’s fifteenth major language update. Earlier releases included Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French, and Japanese, to name just a few. (That doesn’t even consider the nearly 150 different languages we offer Bibles in.) As part of this launch, we’re even adding 25 Reading Plans in Slovak. Please share this exciting news on Facebook, Twitter, and face-to-face with all of your friends who speak Slovak.

Have you ever wondered how YouVersion can offer so many different languages? It’s certainly not because we know all of these languages. We’re only able to do it because people just like you choose to serve the global YouVersion community with their gifts in translation. Even though the Bible App has so far been downloaded more than 55 million times,  we’re only getting started. More and more new users join every day. Just imagine the impact you could make, literally worldwide, by translating just a few small parts of YouVersion—screens, buttons, menus, Reading Plans, and more! Learn how you can join us today at volunteer.youversion.com.

We asked one of our key Slovak language volunteers to share just a glimpse of what it can feel like to use your talents to help people all over the world fall in love with God’s Word:

“For a long time, I looked for some kind of service I would fit in doing. I wanted a background role, something I could do to help people get closer to God, but remain unknown (as opposed to speaking in front of a group of people). Online technology is one of my biggest hobbies, so when I found the opportunity to translate YouVersion’s mobile applications and website, that was ideal for me. When I joined a year and a half ago, I was welcomed more than warmly. It feels really good to work with the people of this community. I truly enjoy serving in this way.”
—Tomáš P., Bratislava, Slovakia

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Japanese Now Available in the Bible App and at YouVersion.com

Thanks to our amazing community of translation volunteers, YouVersion.com and the Bible App’s interface on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), Android, and bada are now entirely available in Japanese. (And coming soon: Java devices!) If you already have the Bible App on a supported device, simply set the default language for your device to Japanese. And if you have the latest update of the Bible App for iOS or Android, you can even select Japanese directly in your Bible App Settings!

While we offer Bibles in nearly 300 different languages, Japanese is the fourteenth language YouVersion has launched across several platforms, including Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, and French, among others. For this launch, besides menus and controls, we’ve also added 25 reading plans in Japanese. With a population of around 127 million people, Japan has more than 120 million cell phones and 99 million Internet users, representing a tremendous opportunity to reach people with God’s Word. If you have friends whose preferred language is Japanese, please share this great news with them—and please help us spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, making Japanese language options available across multiple YouVersion platforms wouldn’t be possible without help from our incredible YouVersion community. It can only happen when people who are passionate about sharing God’s Word share their gifts in translation with the world. And because we’re constantly improving the Bible App—and we’d like to offer even more—there’s always translation to do. If you can volunteer to translate into Japanese, we’d love to hear from you. Please join us. You’ll be helping the world fall in love with God’s Word.

What’s it like to use your gifts to help YouVersion reach the world? We asked one of our key Japanese language volunteers to share some of her thoughts with you:

“As I live away from Japan, I don’t have many opportunities to directly share the Word with people in Japan. But being a part of the Japanese translation team enabled me to take part in spreading God’s word in a very unique way. The Word of God is powerful, as said in Isaiah: ‘As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’”

—Tomomi G., Seattle, WA, U.S.A.

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The Bible App and YouVersion.com Add Several New Languages

YouVersion Versions and LanguagesTo help as many people as possible connect with God’s Word, YouVersion offers the Bible App™ and the YouVersion.com website in several languages. But we don’t translate anything… So how could that be possible?

You.

That’s right. YouVersion has an incredible community of passionate volunteers—people just like you—all over the world. And thanks to their vision, their devotion, and their translation work, more people than ever now have the opportunity to easily explore the Bible for themselves…in the language of their choosing! Here’s just some of what these amazing world-changers have been up to recently:

Mobile Updates

The following languages are now available on these mobile platforms:

  • Afrikaans on BlackBerry
  • Brazilian Portuguese on Windows Phone
  • British English on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch)
  • Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional) on Windows Phone
  • European Portuguese on Android
  • Hungarian on iOS
  • Turkish on iOS and Android

YouVersion.com

Many of these languages are already available on select mobile platforms, and now they’re also available at YouVersion.com:

Finally, you can find this language now at YouVersion.com, even though we don’t offer it (yet) for the Bible App on mobile devices:

Don’t see a language that you wish we had? Could you translate from English into it? Let us know what you can do. And join a very special global team of people who are changing the world together—one language at a time.