News Item / Press Release

What is the joint project about?

The Center for Bible Research - publisher of the 29-volume Study Bible - has developed a free app for Latin America and the entire Spanish-speaking world, namely BibliaDeEstudio (the NT Study Bible in Spanish); GlobalRize has developed a fast-growing evangelization strategy in recent years, including in Spanish (for Latin America), called Palabras Bíblicas.

Arjan Vaders, Spanish language team leader at GlobalRize, explains: "In the joint project, we combine the best of both organizations by distributing BibliaDeEstudio for free in Latin America, significantly increasing its reach and multiplying its use. The joint project also aims at mutual learning and development, using each other's expertise and network. The goal is to create a win-win situation on all sides. We focus on the growth of returning app users, both quantitatively and qualitatively. " Arjan will take the lead on this project and work closely with Haije Bergstra, project manager for BibliaDeEstudio and Evelyn Flores Infantes, marketing and sales at CvB. "Our commitment is to work together intensively for a year and then evaluate the project."

Intermediate stage of the BibliaDeEstudio project

Gijs van de Brink, involved with Study Bible from the very beginning, is enthusiastic about the collaboration: "The Center for Bible Research supports and helps fellow believers worldwide to learn about the Bible. Thanks to users and donors of the Study Bible in the Netherlands, we can BibliaDeEstudio make available free of charge to our fellow Spanish-speaking believers, especially those living in Latin American countries. There are few opportunities for Latino church leaders to pursue higher theological education in their own country and language. There is quite a bit of training, including virtual and distance, but the cost is sometimes too high and good materials at a low price are often not available. Since BibliaDeEstudio has been available on mobile devices without an Internet connection, the number of Latino users has increased substantially." By December 2020, nearly 34,000 users were already signed up. The intention is to engage more intensively with these and new users and facilitate app use with online seminars.

Collaboration and opportunities

Frans de Lange, operations director of GlobalRize, is grateful to partner with the Center for Bible research in this joint project for our Latino "hermanos y hermanas" (brothers and sisters) in the faith. "For our mentors and chat staff, this app is a gem of Bible teaching. This will only enhance our evangelistic contacts. It is also nice to promote this Bible teaching and make it available through our Spanish-language websites and social media.", said the former CU mayor from Elburg. In addition to sharing content with each other to promote the app, they will also collaborate in the area of online marketing and both organizations hope to promote both online evangelism and online biblical equipping in their own networks in Latin America.

See: https://www.bibliadeestudio.org/ and https://studiebijbel.nl/   

See: https://www.globalrize.nl/ and https://www.palabrasbiblicas.net/