Scripture Gift Mission (SGM) was founded in 1888 by a printer named William Walters, who believed the Bible should be accessible to all. His two main innovations were to make the Bible available free of charge, and to dispatch two painters (
James Clark and Henry Andrew Harper) to
Palestine to produce illustrations. Both of these were controversial at the time, as it was felt that they devalued the scriptures. SGM produced Bible materials for troops in the
Boer War in 1899, and the supply of military items was to become an important part of the mission's work, particularly during the two
World Wars. In 1945, the society distributed hundreds of thousands of
New Testaments according to the text of the
Miniature Bible by
Franz Eugen Schlachter to German
POWs in English prisons. In the post-war years, SGM continued to expand, starting offices in
Australia,
South Africa,
Poland and
India, among others. Translation work was an important feature of the mission, and SGM published its 1000th language in 2002, according to their
Interact magazine. Following changes in the nature of their work, and a desire to move into new fields, SGM rebranded in 2005 and became SGM Lifewords (since 2017 - Lifewords). The organisation celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2013. ==Current work==