NSW Ambulance has its first official edition of the Bible.
Boxes containing 2000 blue-covered Bibles bearing the NSW Ambulance roundel arrived at Acting Senior Chaplain Peter Van Praag’s office in Rozelle in June.
They’re the fruit of a year-long collaboration between NSW Ambulance chaplains and Bible Society Australia.
“There’ve been many hands in this project, and those who came before me have done all the heavy lifting,” confessed Van Praag, who’s taken the wheel of the Senior Chaplain’s Charlie 1 car from Rev. Paul McFarlane.
“It’s been a long held hope of our chaplaincy program to make a NSW Ambulance Bible available.”
“Paramedics see a lot of challenging things in the course of our work. Christians reconcile these situations through our faith, and that means opening up a Bible.”
The NSW Ambulance edition has everything you’d expect in a Bible – the Old and New Testaments from Genesis to Jesus and beyond. The custom print also includes a series of reflections about serving as a paramedic, ethics, leadership and serving others.
There’s even an explanation of the history and significance of the Maltese Cross featured prominently in the NSW Ambulance roundel.
For biblical experts it’s the CEV or Contemporary English Version. There are more than 100 translations of the Bible into English, with enough acronyms to rival a CAD system – KJV, NIV, GNV, NRSV to name a few.
“Our Bible is in contemporary language and easy to read,” said Peter Van Praag.
“It’s a great resource for people of faith or of no faith at all, for anyone who might be a bit curious about Jesus and his life.”
“I’m particularly grateful to paramedics who’ve given us permission to use images of them carrying out their duties to give the publication a distinctive NSW Ambulance feel.”
Bible Society Australia’s publishing team, along with scripture grant coordinator Tina King, delivered the project.
“I’m just so thrilled to have worked with NSW Ambulance chaplains, and to hear about the impact of their work with people they come into contact with.”
“The NSW Ambulance Bible follows in the footsteps of a number of other Australian emergency service agency bible versions.
“NSW Police, Corrective Services NSW, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Defence Force have long had their own custom Bibles, so it’s great that now NSW Ambulance has a Bible too,” said Mrs King.
The Bibles are now on their way into the hands of NSW Ambulance chaplains across the state.
If you’d like a NSW Ambulance Bible of your own, reach out to your nearest chaplain.