FREEBIBLEIMAGES.ORG the amazing story of a new Bible resource
A new Bible resource is unique in its scope, offering totally free photographs and drawings to illustrate Bible stories.
I personally cringe at some
graphic depictions of scriptural scenes, which can be old-fashioned,
religious and even creepy. Those from FreeBibleimages are not!
Paul Thompson tells the team’s story:
“It all began when a group of
Christian men with a background in I.T., design, finance, marketing and
management were either out of contract, redundant, or recovering from
ill health. We met together in Farnham, Surrey (UK) for prayer and
support.
We noticed that if you were
teaching the Bible to any age-group, it was difficult to successfully
google for images suitable to teach the sequential events in a Bible
story. And if you could find them, they were not free to use. After
research, we set out to create the Bible in pictures online.
All of those involved have
since found work or a way of supporting themselves financially so that
any funds we raise go into the creation, production of images and
placement on our website for free distribution. Our story is one of many
triumphs in the face of sometimes severe adversity.
We value the importance of the
teacher/presenter in effective learning and we know how God uses these
people to inspire others. We believe that that our low-tech approach –
people explaining Scripture with visuals to help them – can be more
effective than other solutions. We also know that images reflecting the
historical setting and culture of the scenes will not date, and can be
used by anyone anywhere to teach every age-group.
No restrictions
Our
heart is for anyone, anywhere, to download sets of sequential
Bible-story visuals without restriction, to use in teaching the Bible in
their own style, language and culture.
For this reason we make all our
resources free, with no obligation to give us any personal details, as
we have many users in parts of the world where Christians are
persecuted.
Our sources
In our journey with God on this project, we have found three sources for images:
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Shooting actors against a green chroma-screen background and then digitally placing these over Middle-Eastern backgrounds.
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Using high-quality film stills from Bible stories set in the Middle East.
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Using illustrations, now out of print, and released to us under a creative commons licence for free distribution.
We have no overheads and
everyone at FreeBibleimages supports themselves financially, giving
their time as volunteers. All money raised goes into the expenses of
shooting and producing images and placing them online.
Future plans
Funds permitting, we plans over the next year to:
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Create sets of images about the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus from film stills licensed by Big Book Media.
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Finish sets of images on the life of Joseph and Elijah.
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Begin shooting the Acts of the Apostles.
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Post about 20 new sets of illustrated stories online.
The vision
To date we have users in 144
countries downloading and using our images in teaching the Bible. We are
hoping more film companies will release film stills to us, and that
publishers will release out-of print Bible story illustrations. Our
vision is to get the whole Bible in images so that anyone at anytime,
anywhere in the world can use them in their communication of the Bible.
Our philosophy is based on free
web distribution rather than a typical commercial stockphoto model.
Users often become involved in different ways to share the vision and
provide the resources to make it happen. Although we are all from an
evangelical background, we merely give users the Bible reference so that
users can construct their own message – we do not introduce any
denominational or theological bias. However, we provide a Story Planner
showing thumbnails of the images, a description of what is happening in
each scene, and space for them to write their own notes.”
Choose your graphics at FreeBibleimages.org
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