Updated April 12 at 7:30 p.m.

At the end of the five-year campaign to raise money and awareness for oral Bible translation in India, the India Project raised $69,710.

Double the amount

At the Seeds for India Gala, the intended end of the campaign, students and adults listened to God’s call to give $47,771.34 compared to $21,773 in the last five years, out of their $116,000 goal. Of the amount raised at the gala, 77 students donated $13,332.17, which an anonymous donor matched. In order to raise the $46,290 left, they are reaching out to students and adults through email and social media.

“To have raised double the amount of what has been raised in the past five years was unbelievable,” said Claire Zasso, India Project fundraising coordinator and senior English major. “If someone had told me that that was going to happen tonight, I don’t think I would have believed them because it was so, so far outside of what I believed God would do. But he is able to do far more than we could ever ask or think that he does.”

Throughout the event, speakers shared how God has worked in amazing ways, including President Barry Corey, special projects assistant for the journalism and integrated media department and the first India Project Bible translation coordinator Mairin McCuistion, president of Wisdom Works, LLC and former board member of the Seed Company Mark Matlock, and Gospel Patrons ministry founder John Rinehart.

A big night

At the start of the evening, Corey shared about the beginning of the project, which started in 2012 as he was hoping Biola would adopt an unreached people group. A year later, the Student Missionary Union responding by partnering with the Seed Company to adopt India.

“A number of years ago when we began talking about what the Seed Company had in mind… about distributing God’s word to unreached people groups in that 10/40 window, we began to say, ‘Is that maybe something our students could get behind?’” Corey said to the audience. “Tonight’s going to be a big night and I’m very hopeful that, as we said in this campaign, we just finished that God’s need and God’s time is not going to lack God’s supply. We’re really thrilled about what’s going forward on this.”

McCuistion also discussed the start of the India project, including her first trip to India, where she and a few other students researched the Bible oral translation process.

“It was so incredible to meet them, and it really brought this project to life, beyond just a research or concept project,” McCuistion said.

The ripple effect

In further seeing the project grow, Matlock shared how he first heard about the project in chapel at Biola and immediately went to sign up for one of the trips to India. He focused on how the ripple effect of going to something normal, such as chapel, can impact on one’s life drastically.

“This [event] was fantastic because there were so many students here that were really passionate about missions and seeing people get the word of God for the very first time, so that was exciting,” Matlock said.

At the end of the night, Rinehart spoke, from his own experiences, on how God remains greater than money, as well as the history of William Tyndale’s part in translating the first English Bible. Senior communication major Lauren Miller enjoyed learning about this process and felt inspired to join the Bible translation effort.

“It was really great to… gain the historical perspective on how we got the word of God and so it just gave me more appreciation for that and it encouraged me to try to be a part of that as well in spreading the word around the world,” Miller said.