A Russian brother from The Bible League reminds people of the preciousness of the Bible as he shares his own story of the time when he had to hand copy the New Testament.
Yuri was in his youth in still-communist Russian when a Christian group formed in his village. He went to one of the meetings after a copy of New Testament was handed to him. That was the moment that the Holy Spirit changed his heart to devote himself to Christian life.
Because of the high price of the Bible – at that time a New Testament cost $100, Yuri decided to hand write the New Testament on his own. He borrowed the group’s New Testament and he started copying it, risking his own life. If discovered he would face reprisal from communist officials, and his Orthodox family would persecute him.
Every night he would carefully copy every single word in the New Testament verse by verse and finally after a year he got his own hand-copied version of New Testament.
Now Yuri is serving at the Bible League through Project Philip Bible studies to evangelize and guide new believers, shinning the light of God’s love into the lives of others. Now as people complete a study through Project Philip, they receive a New Testament of a Bible of their own.
As Yuri points to a shelf full of Bibles that he uses with those he helps go through Project Philip, he exclaims in joy, “I can’t believe how blessed I am today to have more than one Bible to share after copying my first New Testament by hand!”
