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YouVersion.com and the Bible App: Now for the First Time, Completely in Chinese

Now you can experience both YouVersion.com and the Bible App™ entirely in Chinese! While we’ve offered both Simplified and Traditional Chinese as individual language options at YouVersion.com for months, what we’re announcing today is much more than that. When the YouVersion community formally launches an additional language, what that means is that every single interaction you can have with YouVersion’s tools and community is now available completely in that language. Chinese is our fourth total language launch. (English was first, followed by Norwegian and Spanish.)

Specifically, here are all the ways that the YouVersion community (that’s you!) can now engage with God’s Word in Chinese:

  • Great Chinese Bibles. YouVersion’s partners have graciously provided our community with several high quality, widely read Chinese versions of the Bible. (To see the full list, check 简体中文 and 繁體中文 near the bottom of the Versions page or, in the Bible App, click to change your current version and scroll to see the available Chinese versions.)
  • Entire User Interface. Thanks once again to our world-changing community of YouVersion volunteers, when you select Simplified or Traditional Chinese as the default language on your device—whether on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android, or BlackBerry—the Bible App displays all of your controls and menu options in that language.
  • Communication in Chinese. Volunteers now make relevant YouVersion blog posts available in Simplified and Traditional Chinese. And when you initiate communication with YouVersion in Chinese, your email and other responses will be in Chinese as well.
  • Support in Chinese. Now, you can even get help with the Bible App and YouVersion.com in Simplified or Traditional Chinese! When you have questions, YouVersion volunteers who speak Chinese will be happy to assist you.

The Bible App™: Chinese Language Launch

YouVersion’s vision has always been simple: To help people connect freely with God’s Word, as easily as possible, no matter where they live or what language they speak. If your friends’ or loved ones’ heart language is Chinese, please share this great news about YouVersion.com and the Bible App with them. And be sure to come connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. We love hearing from you!

Keep checking back… To all our new Chinese speakers: Welcome to our YouVersion family! We’re thrilled to have you join us. Over the next couple of weeks here on our blog, we’ll be providing more details about each individual piece of the complete Chinese launch. We’re excited to share with you all that our community has to offer!

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The Bible App: YouVersion Reading Plan Brings Hope, Joy, and Inspiration

A YouVersion reading plan is a great tool to help you engage with the Bible, giving you a manageable portion of Scripture to read each day. Some reading plans cover the entire Bible, some focus on specific topics, and still others offer devotions to help you reflect on what you’re reading. When one such devotional plan, Fostering Hope, launched in May in honor of Foster Care Awareness Month, it received an immediate response, with thousands of people subscribing to read it.

As people in the YouVersion community—people just like you—use the tools in the Bible App™ to connect with God’s Word, He softens hearts and changes lives, literally all over the world. The stories you share with the rest of us—about what God is doing in your life—are an integral part of the revolution taking place in how people are connecting with the Bible. In the coming months, we’ll be sharing some of your stories right here. Today, we have an email from Nigeria, specifically about the Fostering Hope reading plan:

Dear Doctor Deb,*

I wanted to let you know what an inspiration you were to me when today I stumbled onto your Fostering Hope Bible reading plan. Something about it struck me, and before I knew it, I had read all 31 days—just this morning. I couldn’t put it down. I wept in some parts and prayed in others, but reading it changed my life. My prayer is that just as you have been a ray of hope and joy to many helpless and hurting people, God will help you too.

I just had to tell you that today.

God bless you,
Bola A.

P.S.: We’ve been considering different options for women’s ministry in our church, and more than ever I see we need to include adoption. I trust that God will show us the way.

*Doctor Deb is the author of the Fostering Hope reading plan.

Do you have a story you’d like to share with us? Here’s how:

  • Video. Upload a video of 4 minutes or less to YouVersion’s Vimeo page. (Please include your first name and last initial and tell us where you’re from.)
  • Facebook. Even if you tell us your story on video or through the form below, please consider sharing at least some of it with the whole YouVersion community, right on YouVersion’s Facebook page. We love encouraging one another to daily seek God and engage with the Bible.
  • Right Here! Tell us your story in 400 words or less:



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2 New Afrikaans Translations for the Bible App and YouVersion.com: NLV and DB

YouVersion Versions and LanguagesAs part of a partnership with Christlike Uitgewersmaatskappy, YouVersion is very pleased to offer, for the first time, the Nuwe Lewende Vertaling (NLV) and Die Boodskap (DB) Afrikaans translations of the Bible, available right now through the Bible App™ and at YouVersion.com. Simply look under Afrikaans on the Versions list in the Bible App, or select Bible, Versions at YouVersion.com.

The Bible App is spreading across the entire planet, being added to literally thousands more devices every single day. And yet, of the many requests we receive at YouVersion for languages people would like to use to engage with the Bible, Afrikaans is consistently near the top of the list. We’re thrilled to be in a position to share these excellent translations. If you have friends or loved ones who would like to experience the Scriptures in Afrikaans, please be sure to share this exciting news with them.

If you’re in the YouVersion community, you’re part of a worldwide revolution of people connecting with the Bible—and with each other—anytime, anyplace, in more than 40 languages (so far). YouVersion’s driving purpose is to make God’s Word freely available to as many people as possible, wherever they are in the world. When we get to do that in their heart language, we consider it a tremendous privilege.

To our brothers and sisters joining us in the beautiful Afrikaans language, welcome to our global YouVersion family!

2 Nuwe Afrikaanse Vertalings vir die Bible App en YouVersion.com: NLV en DB

YouVersion Versions and LanguagesAs deel van n vennootskap met Christelike Uitgewersmaatskappy, is YouVersion verheug om vir die eerste keer die Nuwe Lewende Vertaling (NLV) en Die Boodskap (DB) Afrikaanse vertalings van die Bybel, beskikbaar te stel deur die Bible App™ en deur YouVersion.com. Kyk onder Afrikaans op die lys van weergawes in die Bible App of selekteer Bybel, Weergawes by YouVersion.com.

Die Bible App is besig om dwarsoor die hele planeet te versprei. Dit word by letterlik duisende toestelle bygevoeg elke dag. Van al die versoeke wat YouVersion elke dag ontvang vir vertalings, is Afrikaans konstant naby bo aan die lys. Ons is dus ongelooflik verheug om nou in n posisie te wees om hierdie fantastiese vertalings met julle te deel. As julle vriende of geliefdes het wat graag die Woord in Afrikaans sal wil beleef, deel asseblief hierdie opwindende nuus met hulle.

As jy deel is van die YouVersion gemeenskap, is jy deel van n wêreldwye revolusie van mense wat elke dag met die Bybel – en met mekaar – enige tyd of plek, in meer as 40 tale (tot dusvêr) verbind word. YouVersion se missie is om die Woord van God vrylik beskikbaar te maak vir soveel mense as moontlik, waar ook al hulle in die wêreld is. Ons beskou dit as n geweldige voorreg om dit te kan doen in hulle moedertaal.

Aan ons Afrikaanse broers en susters wat by ons aansluit, welkom by ons wêreldwye YouVersion familie!

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A Look at the Passages Interactive Bible Exhibit

At YouVersion, we love the Bible. If you love the Bible too, or even if you’re just trying to understand it more, you really should make it a point to check out the Passages Interactive Bible Exhibit. This extraordinary collection includes such rare pieces as cuneiform tablets, unpublished biblical and classical papyri, Dead Sea Scrolls, beautiful illuminated manuscripts, and even a large portion of a Gutenberg Bible! The self-guided tour leads you through the history of the Bible, from its earliest beginnings in the hands of Jewish scribes, to early Judeo-Christian culture, through the struggle to get the Bible into the common language of the people, all the way up to modern printings and the influence of technology. Along those lines, our very own Bible App wraps up the exhibit! In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, until October, the Passages exhibit will be traveling to Vatican City in Rome, then later to New York City.

Passages Exhibit Website

The driving passion of the YouVersion community is to help as many people as possible experience and engage with God’s Word. The Passages Interactive Bible Exhibit offers a unique opportunity to fully explore the sacrifices and dedication of the countless people who made possible the Bible we enjoy today, spanning thousands of years, many of them literally giving their lives to ensure that the story of God’s love would reach us. Don’t miss your chance to see firsthand these one-of-a-kind antiquities!

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God’s Words, Your Heart Language: YouVersion and the Bible App

As our special live webcast mentioned last week, of all the people currently installing the Bible App™ onto their devices, 25% of them have their default language set to something other than English. (Just two months ago, that number was 12%.) When a person is able to read or listen to the Bible in their heart language, God uses that opportunity to connect with them in a truly special, unique way. We have a short video for you today about one such story, an opportunity where a Bible App user got to share God’s Word with a woman who was able to experience it for the very first time in her own language:

When people in the YouVersion community (like you!) use the Bible App™ to engage with God’s Word and share it with others, He softens hearts and changes lives, literally all over the world. The stories you bring back to the rest of us—about what God is doing in your life—are an integral part of the revolution taking place in how people connect with the Bible. In the coming months, we’ll be telling more of your stories right here.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Here’s how:

  • Video. Upload a video of 4 minutes or less to YouVersion’s Vimeo page. (Please include your first name and last initial and tell us where you’re from.)
  • Facebook. Even if you tell us your story on video or through the form below, please consider sharing at least some of it with the whole YouVersion community, right on YouVersion’s Facebook page.
  • Right Here! Tell us your story in 400 words or less: