The publishing department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church launched an app this year that allows users to to easily send inspirational books and excerpts to anyone via email or social media. The Sharing Hope App, highlighted during the 2015 Annual Council Session, offers a library of Adventist publications, including outreach literature and popular books by Ellen G. White, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, free of cost.  

This is just the start, said Willmar Hirle, associate director of the publishing department for the Adventist world church. Hirle foresees future versions of the app filled with Adventist newspapers, magazines, daily devotionals and mission material from all divisions of the Church.  

“During the last ten years we have produced several missionary books that have been translated to many languages. Hundreds of millions of books have been printed and [distributed] all over the world,” he said. There are areas, however, where these paper publications cannot thrive.

“Some years ago I was planning to visit one country where we have no more than 200 Adventists,” Hirle said. He was denied a travel visa and instead started sending literature to the Adventist community there. Police intercepted this material and arrested more than 20 Adventists.

“I cannot go to that country. I cannot send books to them. I cannot even print books in that country. But the language of that country is already here in the app,” he said. “And now the Adventists in that country are receiving our books.”

The purpose of Sharing Hope is to give users the ability to reach every culture in all parts of the globe, said Viviene Martinelli, project manager for the app. If a user wants to minister to someone who speaks a foreign language, the user can easily grab a book in that language and share it. Content is currently available in Arabic, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian, she said. And this app has only scratched the surface of it’s language expansion goals.

Before the end of next year, Hirle hopes the app will reach 100 languages. “By the end of the quinquennium, we would like to have all the languages of the world” he said.

The Sharing Hope App is available on iTunes and Google Play.