After two years of fundraising, the Bermuda Bible Society presented 200 Bible Talk audio Bibles to the Bermuda Society for the Blind on Monday. The Bible Talk units had been specially purchased from the Japan Bible Society and shipped to Bermuda.

On hand for the presentation was Watabe Makoto, General Secretary of the Japan Bible Society, and Emi Béland, Manager of Foreign Affairs, also of the Japan Bible Society.

"Thank you very much for inviting me," Mr. Watabe told the audience. "I'm very happy we were able to bring the work of the (Japan) Bible Society to Bermuda."

The Japan Bible Society developed the Bible Talk unit from scratch, creating several prototypes over the course of a year.

"We struggled to find ways to make it easily navigatable and easily handled," he added. It is currently produced in English, Spanish and Japanese. An Arabic version will be available for use in Egypt this year, and a Tagalog (Philippines) version is in the process of development. We sincerely hope many languages will be available (in the future)."

The units were presented to Brian Billings, chairman of the Bermuda Society of the Blind, who was delighted in the example Bermuda was setting for other countries in their care and concern for the blind.