A Cape Town man who has been employed by the Bible Society of South Africa for the past 28 years, set out on Wednesday on a 1 400km walk from John o’Groats in the north of Scotland to Land’s End in the south west of England to raise R100 000 for a Zulu audio
bible project.
Alan Stranex (65) a retired minister and chartered accountant, said in a statement released by the society on Thursday that to walk the length of the United Kingdom was the fulfilment of a dream.
”But to be able to make a contribution to people in our country for whom the bible is a closed book, is worth far more than that personal ideal,” Stranex said.
According to research done by the University of Pretoria, between 12 and 20-million people in South Africa are not functionally literate and therefore do not have access to the bible in its printed form.
The society has accepted the challenge of making the gospel accessible to these people by means of audio cassettes.
Although audio cassettes have long been used to make scripture accessible to the blind and visually impaired, research has shown that the text used for this purpose is not necessarily suitable for
illiterate people.
More information on the walk can be found at www.biblesociety.co.za. – Sapa