PENANG (Herald Malaysia): A special handwritten Bible (Old Testament), was offered up at the Eucharistic Celebration of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Penang, on Dec 10.

The Church was celebrating its feastday and bi-centennial, and the handwritten bible was one of the bicentennial project.

The handwritten bible project was started on Dec 8, 2010 and closed on Nov 30, 2011. Each person had to write half a page or one page, approximately 15-30 lines of 5 to 10 verses of the Bible depending on the length of the verse. Their names and where they were from were also written down. The next person continued from where the last person stopped.

“The response was very encouraging,” said Sabrina Oh, one of the organizers. “We had 2,876 participants who are not only from our parish but from other parishes, as well as visitors from other countries. The written work was bound and after presenting it during the feastday Mass, it will be kept at the church.”

Peggy Daniel said that she wanted to be part of history, and that was why she participated in the project. “I feel honoured to be involved in a God-filled project. We should know the Word of God well and this will help and guide us to live the Word according to His plan for us.”

Cynthia Muak said that she felt very blessed to be able to contribute to the handwritten Bible.

She said, “As a working team member, I am impressed by the dedication and cooperation among its members to ensure the target was achieved, that is the completion of the 46 books of the Old Testament. I have a deeper love for God and His Word, after this project, and I thank the Lord, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for leading me to this project.”

“At first, when I was writing the verses, I felt the tension, as I was scared that I may write wrongly because we were not allowed to use liquid paper. How my heart beat! Later on, I was all right and my handwriting became more beautiful!” said an excited Jane Khoo.

Jane also informed that an old lady came to write but she could not do so as her hand was shaking but the organizer encouraged her, and as she slowly wrote, she suddenly found that her hand was not shaking at all.

Visitors from other countries who happened to attend Mass at the Church, decided to join in the project too as they found it fascinating to handwrite the Bible and leave their mark on something as important as the Word of God.

A French lady came to write some verses too and she was very happy, as her birthday is on Dec 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Korean parishioners who participated in the project told their friends about it, and some of their friends had specially flown from Singapore to participate in this project.

Gloria Pakianathan was ecstatic to have left her name in the Bible. “I make sure my name is in God’s book, so when I meet God and if He says my name was not there, I can say for sure “Yes Lord, my name is there. I too wrote the IC Bicentennial Souvenir Bible and my name is there.” -- By Lucia Lai