In 1995, many of us were just barely thinking about getting our first desktop computer. Some were perhaps already fluid in word processing. And the more youthful of us were on the cusp of discovering Paint, and to our parents’ dismay, the color printer.

But Richard Wilson, having seen the potential of his computer to help with language learning and Bible study, had just released the first version of La Parola, an Italian Bible study software. Little did he know how God would use this humble idea to serve the church throughout Italy.

La Parola (originally named Bibbia) began by overcoming incredible memory challenges: The Bible alone needed 4 megabytes; DOS had only 640 kilobytes available. For the technologically challenged among us: The Bible required more than four times the memory, not to mention the programming and indexes needed to run such a program.

Today, after 30 years of additions, rewrites and updates, La Parola mobile apps serve 40,000 people every month! Everyday, 15,000 unique users access the site with 50,000 page views. The programs and apps include searchable Italian Bible translations, dictionaries and commentaries. 

What a blessing such a tool (actually many tools in one!) is to Christians and church leaders today. To be able to have the Word of God in one’s own language and in Greek or to be able to get quick help in understanding tricky passages right in our pocket can easily be taken for granted these days.

But if you were to ask Richard Wilson, he could tell you how much effort, patience and grace was needed to make such technology available. Praise God for giving him the skills and diligence to maintain this software in a rapidly changing world.

Thank God for these 30 years of ministry behind the computer screen, bringing the Word of God into the hands, heads and hearts of thousands. Let’s pray that La Parola continues to develop according to ever-changing technological advances and that it grows in service to the Italian church.