Several of the booklets have also been printed, such as Sunset to Sunset: God's Sabbath Rest and The Gospel of the Kingdom. The Bible Study Course is available in Estonian and Russian and is mailed out on a regular basis as requested.

In Estonia we have had more people take the Bible Study Course in their native language than receive the English Good News. We have found that people's spiritual knowledge develops far more quickly if they study the Bible and literature in their native language—the language they are most comfortable using.

One of our newest items is the Swedish booklet The Road to Eternal Life. It is available on the new Swedish page of our UCG site at http://www.ucg.org/svenska/. Translation was done by members Solveig Hammar of Stockholm and Kira Spenser of Mjolby, Sweden, with layout by Cincinnati, Ohio, member Linda Saar.

Outside the major languages such as English, Spanish, German and Italian, we started to translate booklets and articles first into Russian in 1996 followed by Estonian and then other languages. How is this done and who does it?

Estonian: the New York Connection

For the Estonian and Russian languages, our most consistent effort was organized by elder Johnnie Lambert of Elmira, New York. Mr. Lambert undertook having the entire Bible Study Course translated into Estonian by one of our attendees, Toomas Schvaak.

The text was then sent to Jude Sieker in New York for layout. She has spent countless volunteer hours laying out the text along with graphics using the Quark XPress desktop publishing program, and then converting them to PDF files. Mr. Lambert purchased a color laser printer and printed the entire study course on it.

In addition to being offered on radio advertisements, the study course was offered to Good News readers and was requested by most of the readers, who were anxious to read something in their native language. The course was then sent out monthly, one lesson at a time, from Mr. and Mrs. Lambert's home. The process worked very well and more than 180 regularly received it.

Since the publication of the Bible Study Course, Toomas Schvak has translated two or three articles from every issue of The Good News magazine. With every mailing, the translated articles are photocopied and inserted into the magazine. Since English is not a language known very well in Estonia, the Estonian inserts have been responsible for sparking a significant interest in The Good News .

The first mass-produced booklets in Russian and Estonian were printed in western Ukraine by our Sabbatarian friends. Their cost was about one third what it would cost to have it printed in the United States. Also, it saved us on shipping charges from the United States to the readers.

In the Estonian language, besides The Gospel of the Kingdom and Sunset to Sunset: God's Sabbath Rest, the Heaven and Hell booklet was translated and printed on the Lamberts' printer. Two other booklets in production are God's Holy Day Plan and Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God.

International Cooperation Produces Russian Literature

Once the Estonian language Bible Study Course was translated, Mr. Lambert proceeded to have it translated into Russian. An Estonian member did the first translation. It was then sent to Basil Kopey in Moscow and Natasha Weatherhead in Barbados for further review with our Sabbatarian friends in Ukraine giving their input as well. It is so important not only to have doctrinal concepts accurately translated, but to make sure that they sound right to the ear in the local language.

Along with Jude Sieker, who has continued to give her time in laying out the new Russian lessons, Carolyn Barker has learned from Jude to do the layout work. Carolyn has done half of the Russian lessons. Because of very substantial cost savings, we have had the printing done in Ukraine.

The Sabbatarians have been so impressed with our Bible Study Course that they printed an additional 1,000 copies for themselves in addition to our order of 2,000.

The course is shipped to Estonia where Johnnie Lambert and the members in Tartu are doing the regular mailings.

Two other booklets, The Road to Eternal Life and God's Holy Day Plan, have also been translated into Russian, and are in the process of being published.

Romanian and More

One of our most prolific new languages is Romanian. UCG Church member Dr. Dumitru-Dan Teodorescu of Tampa, Florida, has translated many of our booklets, including The Middle East in Bible Prophecy.

Everything we offer is available in printable PDF format on our UCG Web site. Most of the site content is maintained by elder Henrikas Klovas who lives in Kaunas, Lithuania. All material is converted into PDF and is easily downloadable and printable by anyone accessing the Web site. UN