2019-2021 Mission Grant 11

Touching the Living Word

Lutheran Braille Workers

$100,000

A number of LBW's volunteers stuffing multiple Zinc Plates before being sent through the Braille Press.

A number of young men at a school in India who are excited to be reading their volumes of a Braille Bible.

Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW) has been bringing the gospel to blind and visually impaired people around the world since 1943. In its 76 year history, LBW has produced and distributed for free over 14 million volumes of braille, large print, and audio materials. Many volunteers help produce these Bibles and other materials using zinc plates, braille presses, specialized paper, covers, and spiral bindings. Currently these materials are published in 11 languages and sent to over 130 countries. They have published over 220,000 volumes over the last 42 months as the demand keeps increasing. This incredible volume takes its toll on the production equipment since each page requires separate zinc plates which are produced by a plate embossing device. The main challenge facing LBW’s goal is having the machines and technology available to produce the zinc plates. With this grant LBW will be able to purchase a PUMA plate embossing device capable of creating the necessary number of zinc plates to meet production needs. It will also allow the production of more plates in different languages, reaching even more people with the Good News of Salvation.

WHEREAS, the Bible declares, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations ..." (Matthew 24:14a), and He uses our hands to help share the Gospel; and
WHEREAS, Lutheran Braille Workers, one of the largest producers of the Bible in Braille throughout the world, is daily asked to send God's Word to people who are Blind or Visually impaired; and
WHEREAS, LBW has been sending Braille Bibles and other Christian materials in multiple languages to over 130 countries worldwide for free; and
WHEREAS, the number of requests for the Bible in Braille have only increased, along with the need for zinc plates in production of these materials; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the delegates gathered at the 2019 Lutheran Women's Missionary League Convention in Mobile, Alabama, vote the sum of $100,000 to help fund touching the Living Word—Lutheran Braille Workers.

A Zinc Plate used to produce pages in Braille materials; a copy of a Spanish Bible for the sighted, and a copy of one volume of a Braille Bible in Spanish.

A young volunteer stuffing specialized paper into a Zinc Plate before it is sent through a Braille Press which will produce Braille dots on both sides of the paper.