Thank You, YouVersion Community! And Happy Birthday, KJV!

YouVersion King James Version Event Page (in progress)Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our worldwide celebration of the King James Bible today, the 400th anniversary of its printing. More than 10,000 of us took part in this global YouVersion flash mob, together reading God’s Word aloud 8 times in just 400 seconds!

For example, the community member who joined us from the farthest point south was from Christchurch, New Zealand, while the participant farthest north was in Rovaniemi, Finland. (View map.)

And we had a lot of fun too, as YouVersion’s Facebook page blew up with people sharing where they were and what they were reading:
Matt K. Crazy to think that most of us read an old timeless translation on electronic devices! So awesome!
Pat D. Read Hebrews 2 from a 1950s KJV Bible from Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Ruth H. Happy Birthday, KJV! So grateful for those who went before us in making God’s Word accessible in the language best understood by the people in that time and place.
Jan R. I love this! We should do this once a month!
Michelle N. That was neat. Let’s do it again!
Betsy B. Spent the majority of my 400 seconds trying to pronounce weird names. 2 Samuel 23 – David’s mighty men! Usually I just skip over the hard ones or replace their names with Bob or Fred, but I made myself say them today. I wondered if they were listening from Heaven and laughing with us trying to say their names.

Many people also joined in on Twitter, sharing their experiences and links:
@Sylvia_Raoi Glad to be in this wonderful campaign! May all glory go to my Lord!
@brandonaldson Our #KJV400 reading party after we finished our reading. All together, out loud, different chapters, cool! http://twitpic.com/4sf14e
@jared_clark Stopped on the side of HWY 66 to read Mark chapter 8 aloud in 400 seconds!
@AmandaSims I just said the word “Behold” more in 4 minutes than I have in the last 4 years. #kjv400

Thanks once again for joining in the celebration. Please continue to share your stories with us all. We’d love to hear all about the ways that God used your time today engaging with His Word and with His people!

REMINDER: Let’s Read the Entire KJV Bible in 400 Seconds!

Don’t forget: If you signed up to participate in our 400 years / 400 seconds event, tomorrow’s the day! We’re going to make history as we read the entire King James Version of the Bible together as a community—in just 400 seconds:

MONDAY, MAY 2
12:00 PM Noon U.S. EDT (GMT-4) /
11:00 AM U.S. CDT (GMT-5)

400 Years of the King James Version of the Bible

Be sure to check your email for the passage you signed up to read to make sure you’re all ready when it’s go time. You can also see your passage by signing in at YouVersion and then visiting our KJV event page.

It’s been fantastic to see people from all over the world joining in this celebration—it’s truly a global event! Make sure you share photos, video, and posts on Twitter using the #kjv400 tag, or add your photos and posts to the Facebook event. Visit http://www.youversion.com/kjv400 tomorrow to see everyone participating with you.

Don’t know what we’re talking about? It’s not too late to join us! You can even enter for a chance to win an iPad 2 when you register and use the Twitter #kjv400 hash tag. Check out our event page for all the details and to sign up.

Let’s do-eth this!

Use Your YouVersion Notes and Bookmarks with Glo Bible

Lenses from the Glo BibleThe makers of Glo Bible, innovative Bible exploration software for PC, Mac and iPad, wanted to make it easy for our YouVersion community to use tools from the Bible App™ and YouVersion.com. So, in what’s likely to be one of many such collaborations, Glo has become the first of YouVersion’s partners to integrate our community directly within their software. This means that you can link your YouVersion account with the latest release of Glo Bible, synchronizing all your bookmarks and notes between both applications! For the first time, you can use YouVersion notes and community tools within a desktop application.

Every month, millions of us in the YouVersion community add bookmarks and save notes in YouVersion. Whether you’re jotting private reflections, sharing your insights on certain passages, or simply thinking aloud, notes are a great way to capture what God’s Word seems to be speaking to you at a specific moment in time. Of course it goes without saying that there’s no better way to “mark your place” to jump back than with a quick bookmark. And now, no matter where you’re engaging with God’s Word, whether inside your Glo Bible, at YouVersion.com, or on the go using the Bible App, you’ll always have easy access to your favorite passages and notes.

You can learn more about Glo Bible at their website and on their YouTube channel.

YouVersion Community: Let’s Read the Entire Bible in 400 Seconds!

Have you ever read through the entire Bible in a year? Or the New Testament in 30 days? Maybe you’re even so hard-core you’ve read the whole Bible in 90 Days. But what if we told you we’re planning to make history by reading the entire King James Bible in just 400 seconds?

400 Years of the King James Version of the Bible

Sound impossible? It would be…if you tried it by yourself. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, on May 2, 2011, the YouVersion community is going to read the Bible together — in just 400 seconds. (That’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds.)

Let’s do this! Here’s how:

  1. We’ll all volunteer (and sign up) to read a small section from the Bible out loud.
  2. On Monday, May 2, starting at 12:00 PM Noon U.S. EDT, 11 AM CDT (GMT-5), we’ll each read our portions out loud, simultaneously. Think of it like a global flash mob.
  3. We’ll all share what we’re doing with our friends on Facebook and on Twitter.

That’s it! Visit the YouVersion KJV in 400 Seconds page for details and to reserve your spot. Let’s make history by celebrating history!

New for the Bible App for Android: Verse of the Day Widget

YouVersion now has another helpful widget for the Bible App™ for Android. The Bible Verse of the Day widget displays an inspirational verse every day, right on your device’s home screen. If you’d like to read the verse in its context, simply tap it, and the widget will take you directly to that verse in the Bible App reader.

The Bible App™ for Android Verse of the Day Widget
Also included in this release—thanks once again to the world-changing community of YouVersion volunteers—is the addition of Ukrainian, Norwegian, Italian, Romanian and Japanese as interface options. What that means is that when you select one of these as the default language for your device, you’ll see all of the controls and menu options for the Bible App in that same language.

To get this widget and the new language options, you’ll need to update to the newest version of the Bible App for Android, version 3.1, available immediately in the Android App Market.

How to Add Your Widget:

Note: Remember, you have to update to the newest version first.

  1. Go to your Home screen.
  2. Make room on your Home screen for another widget
    (removing other unused icons and widgets if necessary).
  3. Tap Menu.
  4. Tap Add.
  5. Tap Widgets.
  6. Tap the “Bible (Verse of the Day)” item.