"Happy New Year" to all the readers of the Bible illustration blog!
My apologies for not posting recently but things have been extremely hectic here!
I hope everyone had a very pleasant Christmas.
There have been lots of exciting things happening during the closing weeks of 2008 which I would like to share with you. We have now officially teamed up with 'New Tribes Mission' with a view to redoing their Chronological Bible picture set which will now comprise of around 164 pictures. The present set of 105 pictures were painted in 1985 by Caloy Gabulo, an artist from the Philippines. These pictures are used by NTM missionaries to present the Gospel message to primitive people groups around the globe.
This is an exciting and challenging project and many things will have to be taken into consideration as we prepare these pictures as many of the tribal people who will be viewing them have never even seen a picture before!
In one particular tribe, if only half a person is shown in a picture, (e.g. the other half is out of view,) they think that the person must only have one arm and leg! This is just one of the many aspects that need to be considered. We enjoy pictures with dynamic perspective and dramatic lighting because we have developed a sophisticated visual language that we understand and take for granted. It's hard for us to imagine the questions that might come into the minds of those viewing pictures for the first time. Some missionaries have pointed out however that the tribal people's ability to understand and appreciate this visual language develops fast, and so we shouldn't get bogged down with simplifying the pictures too much. They stress that Biblical accuracy should remain paramount in the pictures even though certain aspects of Bible times may be hard at first to explain.
This project is going to be immensely interesting and challenging and there will no doubt be lots to blog about! I would appreciate your prayers as we move forward on this.
The second exciting development is that we are in the process of providing pictures for our very first Bible! The pictures for the 'International Children's Bible' will need to be finished by the end of February. Authentic Media will be looking to publish this Bible in the Summer of 2009, God willing.
Finally, a Christian card producer has taken some of our 'Nativity pictures' with a view to producing a range of Christmas cards and Advent calendars for 2009! Watch this space.
Because of the above workload things might be quiet on the blog until the end of February. If I get chance to post though, I will.
5 comments:
Good to hear from you, Graham! Everyone has been busy this time of the year...well most everyone. And as my youngest son (who is NOT very patient) likes to remind me (I'm still practicing for my patience also) "Patience is a virtue; Virtue is a grace; and Grace is a little girl who will not wash her face." We will try to be 'patient'. Smile-- Deboraw
Thanks Deboraw!
Best of luck with your projects Graham. Your story about the tribal people not being able to make sense of pictures reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. A young man from a tribe encountered a newspaper photograph for the first time and could only see the dots that make up the photo.
I have to say I don't care for the term "primitive people groups" being used as a description of a people not versed in Western culture. When you look at our predominant celebrity culture we are fairly "primitive" ourselves.
It`s good to know that New Tribes is taking this much care with their teaching material. My parents were missionaries in Papua New Guinea through New Tribes of Brazil, in the early seventies. I was a baby then, but later learned that the natives really reacted in unexpected ways when they saw a photography.
I have a question though, related to missions. I've searched all over the net for an online Bible for children. Something free, with all the main stories and good illustrations. I haven`t found anything. Am I just not looking right? There are so many bible translations available online, but none for children?
Hello Ricardo
Thanks for the comment. BibleGateway.com have the text of the 'New Century Version' to read online. This version is used in the International Children's Bible so it is a good one for kids. No pictures though, sorry!
Part of the 'Thomas Nelson illustrated Bible' is also available online to read and that is fully illustrated, but only the Gospel of John is online so far.
Finding an illustrated children's Bible online is not an easy job!
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