For two days on 14 and 15 November 2025, the Psalms could be heard echoing from inside the Grand Kawanua, Manado. The beautiful Psalm verses came from the participants who took part in the "Reading the Beautiful Psalms" activity. Approximately one hundred participants consisting of men and women, made the judges have to try hard to determine who are the top 10 best from each category. In addition to the Beautiful Psalm Reading Competition, the activities held in the series of the North Sulawesi Bible Week presented various competitions and spiritual activities involving children and teenagers. The North Sulawesi Bible Week organised by the Indonesian Bible Institute (LAI) in collaboration with BAMAG-LKKI took place on 13-15 November.
During the three-day event, Grand Kawanua was filled with God's people who enthusiastically participated in various activities. The first day began with the Opening Service with the minister of the word Rev. Dr Lenny Matoke, Sp.S, MA, based on the reading of Proverbs 8, he advised the entire congregation that communicating with the Lord Jesus through prayer and reading the word is important to improve the spiritual life of faith. Interestingly in this service, the Bible reading was done by Farly Kumolontang, using a Braile Bible, also involving the Bitung Deaf Community as sign language interpreters. Also present were several representatives of the Church Synods in the city of Manado and Head of the People's Welfare Bureau (Kesra) of North Sulawesi Province, Mrs Verra Maya Pinontoan, S.Psi.M.AP. as representativeGovernor of North Sulawesi.
After the Opening Service, three seminars were held. The first seminar was presented by Pastor Anwar, Ph.D., with the discussion "Thousands of Errors in Bible Translation: Is This True?", the second seminar was presented by Dr. Ir. Cornelius D. Ronowidjojo, Ph.D., titled "The Role of the Bible in Building Indonesia's Golden Generation", and the third seminar was presented by Mr Ulbrits Siahaan, S.Th. with the theme "From Zero to Hero", which invites young people, especially in North Sulawesi, to play an active role in developing their talents.
No less exciting than the activities carried out by adults, kindergarten and elementary school children were also very excited to take part in the Colouring and Drawing Competition. Various creativity was poured into the beautiful colours of crayons scratched on paper. Interestingly, this activity was also attended by non-Christian children who were able to compete and become one of the winners of the competition. In addition, this activity also featured a Bible Quiz Competition which was participated by junior high school teenagers. This competition was exciting and competitive, as well as a moment to dig deeper into the knowledge of God's word. For Sunday school teachers, the Bible Storytelling Contest was a great opportunity to showcase their creativity and ability to tell Bible stories in an interesting, inspiring, and easy-to-understand way. For those who are curious about the objects in the Bible, there is the LAI Museum Exhibition that can add insight into the Bible, or just want to shop, there is also an Exhibition Booth for LAI Products. Separately, in the Leadership Training of Trainers activity organised by the North Sulawesi Student Ministry, a Digital Literacy Seminar was held "Prayer, Devotion, Digitalisation". The seminar material was presented nicely by kak Reggy Leo as Content Educreator. In addition, LAI's Digital Ministry and Development team also had the opportunity to socialise LAI's digital programmes. Aiming to increase people's engagement with the Bible.
The whole series of events of the three-day North Sulawesi Bible Week was closed with a thanksgiving service and ended with the announcement of the winners of each competition category. All thanks be to God that this activity can take place well and bring joy to God's people. With the end of North Sulawesi Bible Week, the entire series of LAI Bible Week in 2025 is officially closed. See you at LAI Bible Week in 2026 and look forward to seeing LAI in your city! Greetings Bible for All! [zvp]
