Media Contact: Andrea Martin
AndreaMartin@tyndale.com|630.
CHICAGO, Ill. (March 2013)—Ernestina Naadu Mills, former First Lady of Ghana, had a dream. She wanted every first-year student in Ghana’s high schools to receive a Bible. After a meeting with Mrs. Mills in 2011, Tyndale House Publishers’ President, Mark Taylor, decided Tyndale should be a part of the initiative and partnered with Scripture Union, Family Christian Stores, Mardel, and a number of independent stores in the US to create the Ghana Student Bible Campaign. Their goal: provide Bibles for every first-year student in every high school in Ghana. The former First Lady of Ghana’s dream is now a reality. Over 200,000 custom Ghana NLT Bibles are being distributed in every region of the nation!
Starting last spring, the Bibles were purchased by customers at Family Christian Stores, Mardel, and other independent stores. The stores were amazed by how popular the program was as their customers purchased over 200,000 Bibles in under eight weeks, bringing God’s Good News to Ghana’s high school students and their families.
“Mardel is committed to spreading God’s Word across the globe and helping people in need. Our relationship with Tyndale House Publishers allows us to reach high school students in Ghana, Africa, with Bibles,” said Dylan Hillhouse, Mardel merchandise manager. “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner in building the kingdom.”
Why is the Ghana Student Bible Campaign so important? Ghana has a population of 17 million people. Fifty percent of the population is under the age of 18 years old. Schools in this nation are allowed not only to read and teach the Bible but also to share the gospel with their students. The investment Tyndale is able to make in the Ghana Student Bible Campaign, along with our retail partners and their customers, has the potential of transforming an entire nation and indeed the world as young people are open and receptive to the gospel message.
Mary Chapman, Brand & Product Director at Tyndale, traveled to Ghana last month to kick off the Bible distribution, along with Scripture Union. “While the door of opportunity remains open to the gospel in Ghana we must act. We cannot take this open door for granted,” explains Chapman. “Seeing the faces of the young people who were anxious and excited about receiving the Word of God was truly a sight to behold.”
Tyndale is committed to missions and will continue to support and promote bookstore Bible partnerships, getting Bibles into the hands of as many people as possible around the globe. Over the past five years, Tyndale House and their partners have distributed nearly two million Bibles to those in the military, prison, crisis pregnancy centers, and more through various Bible campaigns. “Every year a new class of students enters Ghana’s High Schools,” Chapman said. “With God’s provision and blessing we will continue to meet this need through the The Ghana Student Bible Campaign.”
Tyndale House Publishers, founded in 1962, is the world’s largest privately held Christian publisher of books, Bibles, and digital media. Tyndale has published many New York Times bestsellers. The largest portion of its profit goes to the nonprofit Tyndale House Foundation, which makes grants to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world. Tyndale was founded to publish Living Letters, which later comprised part of The Living Bible, a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible that became a global publishing phenomenon. Tyndale now publishes the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), the translation of choice for millions of people. Each NLT sale benefits the worldwide translation work of Wycliffe Bible Translators.