God’s Word is meant to shine light into the hearts of everyone, but when people read the Bible in their own language, the Gospel message truly comes alive.
Because of that knowledge, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is committed to making sure more people around the world can read, know and keep close the salvation story of Christ Jesus.
In fact, in 2018 alone, FCA distributed 236,490 Bibles worldwide, and has put the Word of God into the hands of more than 2.5 million people over the past 15 years.
In the past decade or so, a relatively new aim for the 65-year-old international sports ministry has been to share Bibles with people in other countries, and even offer translations in various languages.
“When they can actually have the Scriptures printed in their own language, and they have a chance to utilize it for the first time, it’s had a huge impact,” said FCA Executive Director of International Ministry Dan Britton. “It’s been phenomenal. They have ownership. They’re involved in the process. They’ve helped create it. It’s been awesome to see.”
Thus far, FCA has offered Bibles—New Testaments, Sports Bibles, Sports Bible Handbooks and more—in a dozen languages, including Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Korean, Urdu, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Over the years, the number of resources translated and printed has also grown. For example, FCA’s “Heart of an Athlete” devotional has been offered in Chinese and Spanish. Additionally, FCA has created and distributed the Japanese Baseball New Testament, Chinese Sports Devotional Bible, and Russian Coach’s Bible. Free eBooks downloads of FCA Resources are available on Amazon. Do an Amazmon search for 'FCA (Language)'.
“When we started working internationally, we found that FCA Bibles were huge assets that our international leaders could use in their countries,” Britton said. “People were taking devotionals or daily sessions out of the Bibles and translating them into their own language. God’s Word is God’s Word, but we put resources within the Bibles that contextualize the athletic experience. What we saw was a significant hunger for more of those Bible products—the Athlete’s Bible, the Coach’s Bible, the Sports New Testaments and even sport-specific Bibles that really took off.”
A leader with FCA in Korea shared that while in South Africa at a meeting with sports ministry leaders from 20 countries, he encountered many of the leaders using FCA Bibles.
“Thanks so much for your effort to distribute Bibles to sports ministry leaders across the globe,” he said. “Many are using the FCA Bible in their countries as they minister to coaches and athletes. I know FCA will have many opportunities in the future to serve international sports ministry leaders by distributing FCA resources.”