How EasyBibles and quality.easyBibles began and grew.
November 1 1998 – Revd Martin Lloyd was asked to co-ordinate easyEnglish for Wycliffe Associates, UK. A small team had translated about 10 psalms at level A (1200 words). Several Bible Commentaries without Bible texts at the same reading level were also being produced. This team grew to 60 to 80 people writing, checking and field-testing EE, including Accessible EE (now called ‘veryeasy’ English by Martin) which began in 2000. EE may be downloaded from www.easyEnglish.info .
November 26 2003 – in travelling to promote EE, Martin reached Kampala, Uganda – where he was asked by the Bible Society of Uganda to start easySwahili – on his return to Tanzania. This was the first ‘easyBibles’ language.
2004 and 2005 – easyBibles spread to South and West Africa (Zulu and Fulani) as well as rapidly through East Africa. There, David Angango, Programmes Manager or TransWorld Radio soon became a friend of the project. He initiated work in Swahili for Kenya, Dholuo, Masaai, Luganda (for Uganda), Gikuyu, Kimeru, French and Kirundi (for Birundi), Amharic (for Ethiopia), Juba Arabic & Nuer (for Sudan).
2004 – Martin made his second visit to India – this time to promote EB; easyTelugu (without translated Bible text) started plus easyBengali in Bangladesh. Then Martin went to Hong Kong and up north, by train, to Hunan Province to ask “What Bibles do you have?” and “Who can read them?” So Martin was led to meet Mr Ma’s team in Zhoukou, Henan Province – by phone – with David Wang as the messenger.
2005 – Martin & Jenny went to Shanghai and met Mr Ma, who told them that easyChinese had already started. On returning to the UK, easyWelsh began. Veryeasy Portuguese began by email with Catholic Professor Carlos Gohn in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Soon Martin in Lima, Peru was able to initiate easySpanish.
April 2006 – Martin handed back to Wycliffe Associates UK the leadership of EE as the combined workload with also initiating and encouraging EB too was proving unnecessarily large. It also meant that Martin now travels to Africa and Asia without any Western labels attached.
In October, while Jenny and Martin had a holiday with friends in Seattle, Martin went to LA to the International Theological Seminary and met Dr Joel Robertson and several African and Asian students.
Also in 2006, Martin revisited the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission in Milton Keynes and their Bible College Dean, Dr Jason Lim – who has since met the easyChinese team three times inside China.
2007 – the ministry of EB spread steadily to many new languages – including Polish, Shona for Zimbabwe, Nepali, French and Lingala from the DRC, Yoruba from Lagos, Fanti from Ghana, Indonesian, Russian from Ukraine and Gita from Tanzania.
Martin met several deaf churches and their leaders in UK, Kenya and the Philippines to see if the ‘veryeasy’ versions can support their main communication, which is by the use of signing.
‘Veryeasy’ languages are becoming increasingly relevant to prison ministries.
2008 – in the period May to July, Martin went to some of the poorest countries in the world. So easy and veryeasy languages began in :
Ethiopia – Oromo and Amharic
Malawi – Chichewa and Tumbuka
Mozambique – Portuguese and Yao
Zambia – Bemba
He also visited India (where the Friends’ Missionary Prayer Band have started easy languages for North India) and Thailand.
Throughout 2008 the work has been developing strongly in Pakistan – Urdu, Punjabi, Farsi and Seraiki and soon Sindhi. EasyBisaya(Cebuano) and Subanon from the Philippines have started; also easyHebrew from Israel.
2009- Martin visited Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore and India.
Jan 2010 – We changed our financial policy to work only volunteers. Nobody will be paid to write, translate or check Bible texts.
Feb 2010 – Ian started printing veryeasy and easy gospel booklets. These are posted free of charge to teams doing the work to sell at very low prices to cover their distribution expenses.
March 2010 – teams formed to staple the booklets together – and a charitable fund set up to pay for postage costs.
April 2010 – Richard, a businessman who travels each week to Bradford started to carry large numbers of booklets for stapling and trimming by printing firms – free of charge.
May 2010 – Martin visited Tokyo 2010 and Malaysia to promote easyBibles. Many new contacts were made – praise God!
June 2010 – Martin visited Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS) and Liverpool Hope University
July 2010 – Martin met Father Mario from Italy, who not only helped improve veryeasyItalian but will return to his missionary work in Northern Uganda in September and help to find translators and checkers. Printing started for Edition 2 booklets in large numbers with veryeasyVaiphei for Manipur, India. A new team met in Llanfairfechan to collate and fold large numbers of booklets – ready for Bradford. Martin again visited OCMS.
August 2010 – Walter from DRC agreed to lead veryeasy French
September 2010 – Martin Baskerville took easyBible materials to Burundi and DRC.
October 2010 - Martin visited Budapest.
November 2010 – Made new UK Comboni friends and contacts with prison chaplains.
celebrated ‘easyBibles’ 7th birthday.
December 2010 – Met L’arche friends in London and Liverpool. Number of online projects reached 100.
January 2011 – Fr John Fraser – Comboi father based in Glasgow agreed to supervise ’easy’ and ‘veryeasy’ languages for Uganda.
In Preston i met the UK leader of L’arche. Attended my first ‘Good Gifts’ meeting for learning disabled children and their parents in Llangefni, Anglesey, Wales, UK.
Went to Verona and Rome for exciting Comboni meetings.
February 2011 – Revisited Verona and Rome. Made additional contacts.
Visited Catholics in Dublin – but no doors opened.
March 2011 – 2 weeks in China – mainly in Zhoukou, Henan Province for 3rd time – much progress, particularly for learning disabled in Zhoukou and Shanghai.
Met Revd John Sephton, a retired prison assistant chaplain – in Ormskirk, Lancashire to discuss opportunities for ex-offenders to help write veryeasy materials.
Continued similar discussions with Kainos in Runcorn.
May 2011 - Returned to Rome for 1 week – also met director of Franciscan University. Visited Roman Catholic and Anglican Franciscans in London. Jenny attended ‘Good Gifts’ committee meeting in Llangefni. This work is exploring links with ‘Faith and Light’ groups – also set up by Jean Vanier – who founded L’arche.
June 2011 – Visited Jean Vanier and L’arche in Paris – a great team – extremely hospitable.
July 2011 – thinking time as Stage 3 of easyBibles is to be launched in September. Much encouragement with French from DRC.
Ingrediants for Stage 3 must include continuous flow (of materials), spectrum of reading levels and all-round enthusiasm.
August 2011 – went to Brussels, Brugge & Ghent seeking easyFrench and Dutch helpers and later N E England where i met a wonderful church fellowship.
September 2011 – quality.easyBibles launched with French for Africa, Spanish, Chinese and Urdu for Muslims.
November, December 2011 – prepared for ‘KABWE 2012′.
January 2012 – Lydie Akwue from Switzerland agreed to help check ‘French for Africa’ and lead ‘French for Europe’.
FEBRUARY 7th 2012 – THE CLIMAX OF MANY YEARS WORK – AFRICAN ‘EASYBIBLES’ HANDED OVER TO AFRICAN COMMITTEE IN KABWE, ZAMBIA.
April 2012 – Conferences start to be arranged for Hong Kong for March 11-17th 2013 and Lima, Peru for Oct 2013 to hand over leadership of ‘easyBibles’ to Asia and South America.