TWR to Grow Outreach of Mission 66 Broadcasts
Brazilian scholar Luiz Sayão developed the contemporary audio Bible commentary Mission 66 (known as Rota 66 in Brazil). [Image courtesy of TWR]
Mission 66, a contemporary audio Bible commentary developed by Brazilian scholar Luiz Sayão, will reach a wider audience thanks to a partnership with TWR (also known as Trans World Radio).
The agreement was signed by Sayão and Lauren Libby, president and CEO of TWR, in a March 22 ceremony at the mission agency’s U.S. headquarters in Cary, North Carolina.
The program, known as Rota 66 (or Route 66) in Brazil, is a takeoff on the name of a famous U.S. highway. But it also refers to the 66 books of the Bible, which it covers from beginning to end.
It already had a strong connection with TWR, having been developed in conjunction with RTM (or Radio Trans Mundial) Brazil, TWR’s partner in that nation. Sayão, who led the team that translated the New International Version of the Bible into Portuguese, began working on Rota 66 in 2006 and completed it three years later. It is broadcast via RTM Brazil and TWR high-powered transmitters.
Audio recordings of the New Testament portion of Mission 66 already have been completed in Spanish and Mandarin, the primary language of China. Translations are at various stages in English, Portuguese for Africa, German, Japanese, Arabic, Ukrainian, Italian, French and three other languages.
TWR will work to bring the program to as much of the world population as possible as soon as possible, said Esteban Larrosa, TWR vice president for Latin America, the Caribbean and U.S. Hispanic ministries. “In the first phase, we will be going to the 10 major languages, spoken languages, of the world, so that most of the population will have access to the content.”
That sort of content isn’t available in many parts of the world, Libby said.
“What Mission 66 does is it gives a succinct overview of each book of the Bible in over 600 episodes, and it is slated for the secular, non-American mind,” he said.
In the 30-minute programs, Sayão focuses on sound biblical teaching while keeping his audience in mind. “It was made in a way that people that are not religious or go to a church, they will be able to grasp the meaning of that and apply it to their lives also,” he said.
Sayão, 59, is the director of the Baptist Theological Seminary of São Paulo, Brazil, and also has taught at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. In addition to the NIV Portuguese translation, he led a project to develop a Brazilian study Bible and translated The Message into Portuguese. He is fluent in seven languages.
Images: (middle, right) Sayão [middle] met with Lauren Libby [left], president and CEO of TWR, in a March 22 ceremony at the mission agency’s headquarters for the Americas in Cary, North Carolina. (bottom, left) Sayão's programs focus on delivering sound biblical teaching for Christian and non-Christian audiences alike.
