Cuban-American Community Makes IBS History with first Spanish-English customized Scripture resources

Colorado Springs, CO (April 14, 2009)—The predominantly Cuban-American city of Hialeah, Florida, helped make International Bible Society (IBS) history recently, when it became the first community to receive customized CityReachers^® Scriptures in both English and Spanish.

Hialeah is the second-largest Spanish-speaking community in the United States. Approximately 92 percent of Hialeah’s population speaks Spanish as a first language. The 83,000 free English/Spanish Gospels of John and 75,000 Who Is Jesus? DVDs in Spanish and English were delivered door to door April 1-4, 2009, the week before Easter.

More than 1,300 miles away, city residents in Fort Worth, Texas, also received early Easter gifts, as 86,000 custom New Testaments arrived on people’s doorsteps.

Christian community and business leaders in Fort Worth, Texas, and Hialeah, Florida, partnered with IBS’s CityReachers program to provide their respective communities with the custom Scriptures, which contain the contemporary New International Version^® (NIV) Bible translation, a guide to reading the Bible, testimonies by area residents, and images of local landmarks on the cover. The American Bible Society co-branded and co-sponsored the Hialeah distribution.

“I want to personally thank you for putting a Bible at my doorstep,” wrote Brandon of Fort Worth. “You are doing a wonderful thing; thank you, and God bless.”

Cities nationwide have realized spiritual values are an essential component for fighting crime and moral decay in their communities. The Bible provides the powerful message of hope and life-change through salvation in Jesus Christ.

IBS, an affiliate of IBS-STL Global, launched CityReachers in 2004. To date, more than 1 million New Testaments have been distributed. Cities reached include Brampton, Ontario; Colorado Springs; the Colorado River Valley (Arizona, California, and Nevada); Houston; Jackson, Mississippi; the Virginia Peninsula; Philadelphia; Spokane, Washington; Tampa Bay, Florida; and Pittsburgh.

For more information, call (888) 465-4448 or visit www.ibs.org/cityreachers.

About Us

International Bible Society is an affiliate of IBS-STL Global, one of the largest Bible and Christian literature ministries worldwide. IBS-STL translates the Bible into major languages and distributes Christian resources through ministry, wholesale, and retail channels to engage people with the life-transforming message of Jesus Christ. It is the translation sponsor and copyright holder of the New International Version^® of the Bible, the world’s most widely read contemporary English translation, and the Today’s New International Version^®, Nueva Versión Internacional^®, and 45 international Bible translations. For more information, visit www.ibsstl.org.