New Gaelic children’s Bible gets audio version

Support from the Church of Scotland has helped give voice to a new collection of Bible stories for the youngest reader.

Funding from the Kirk's Gaelic committee has allowed the recording of an audio book version of the recently released Gaelic version of the Lion Tell A Story Bible, which is being made available free for any child or their families who requests a copy.

The audio version is narrated by the familiar voice of Gaelic broadcaster Angus MacDonald from Point on Lewis, who waived a recording fee.

The audio version can be accessed by a QR code included in the book, enabling children and their families to read along with Angus's narration, supplementing the written text and adding a useful resource for those learning the language, whatever their age.

"The completion of the audio book has been transformative," Rev Hugh M. Stewart, minister of Lochs-in-Bernera and Uig, commented.

"The child, if they wish, can hear the text being read as they read it for themselves. The audio version also, helps parents, grandparents and guardians of children in Gaelic Medium Education who do not have any Gaelic themselves but have begun learning the language.

"You are supplementing the written page and it is very good for parents, grandparents and guardians who are learning Gaelic along with their children. It allows them to both enjoy what the book teaches, in terms of the story, but they are also learning the language at the same time."

Pupils at Uig Primary School also helped out the project by inserting QR codes into copies of the Bible for the Gaelic Hub at their local church.

"it was amazing to see the children from Uig enthusiastically learning about QR coding, after which they enthusiastically placed slips and inserted QR codes into 700 Gaelic Children's Bibles that will now be shared with children elsewhere in Scotland," Mr Stewart said.

"We thank them and their teachers very much for being with us."

Mr Stewart also thanked original author Deborah Locke and Christian publisher SPCK for granting wider copyright permission, which allowed the audio book to be completed.

Some 1,500 physical copies of the Tell A Story Bible, with its Gaelic text translated for the Gaelic Committee by Maletta Macphail, are being made available free for any child who requests one and 550 copies have already been distributed with requests coming from all over Scotland and even Canada and Spain.

To request a copy, please contact the Gaelic Hub at Uig Parish Church, Isle of Lewis, by emailing GaidhligUig@outlook.com

The Gaelic version was produced with funding from the Church of Scotland Gaelic committee through its Pròiseact Pentecostes (Project Pentecost) initiative, aimed at creating intergenerational Biblically-based resources in Gaelic, and is published by the Scottish Bible Society.