ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608190017
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SUN CITY, ARIZ.
SOURCE: ANYA LOCKERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
For seven months a year, members of the Fountain of Life Lutheran Church spend a few hours each week helping people around the world read the Bible - not with their eyes, but with the stroke of a fingertip.
The 40 men and women make Braille books of the Bible for people in 120 countries and in 40 languages, meeting weekly from October through May.
The volunteers who live in this retirement community say they take pleasure in knowing they are spreading the word of God.
``Third World countries are poor, and they need this,'' said Darlene Holm, coordinator of the group. ``When we are making these books, we are sending a part of us wherever we go. I like to think of it as feeling God's work.''
Elizabeth Schwartz has been helping make the Braille books for five years.
``I had friends that were blind and I like to help,'' she said. ``It's nice to know that they have Braille.''
The books run anywhere from 50 to 97 pages. On one recent Thursday, the volunteers wound up a session by putting the finishing touches on II Kings, one of the longer Braille books at 84 pages.
The assembly line operation begins with one person punching holes in white 81/2-by-11-inch sheets of paper. The next volunteer puts the paper between two zinc plates that contain the rough, bumpy imprints that are Braille.
Each different set of zinc plates contains the Braille for one page of a book of the Bible. The plates then are put inside a metal jacket, and taken through the press.
When the plates come out of the jackets, the paper goes through a binding process and part of the book is made. The whole procedure lasts about two hours.
The volunteers range in age from 60 to 92. The project is directed by Lutheran Braille Workers Inc. in Yucaipa, Calif., with the money coming only from donations and gifts from churches and other groups across the country.
Since the Sun City group was founded in 1987, it has made thousands of the Braille books for people in countries including Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Ireland, Japan and Vietnam.
Nationwide and in Canada, there are 201 volunteer centers producing Braille religious books, said Viola Walter, office manager for Lutheran Braille Workers. The organization provides the volunteer centers with all the materials they need to make the books.
Lutheran Braille Workers began 53 years ago when Helene Loewe and her father, Carl Loeber, learned from a Lutheran magazine that religious Braille books were needed in Germany because so many were destroyed during World War II.
``It mushroomed from there,'' Walter said.
Today, the company ships more than 12,000 books a month in Braille to countries around the world.
The group recently began sending Braille religious books to schools for the blind in Moscow and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
Naturally, the recipients of these books are more than appreciative, since, as Walter notes, very little Scriptural material is produced in Braille.
And volunteers like Florence Bartz are just ``happy to do the Lord's will.''
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Lutheran Braille Workers volunteers assemble Brailleby CNBversions of the Bible in 40 languages at Fountain of Life Lutheran
Church in Sun City, Ariz.