VALPARAISO | A new, improved Braille printing press at a local church is helping bring the Bible to blind readers from Indiana to India.

The press, which is much easier for the elderly volunteer printers to operate, is the result of a collaboration between Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Valparaiso University's engineering college.

The church has printed Braille versions of the Old Testament books of Judges and Ruth for five years as a member center of the national Lutheran Braille Workers. As with the 200 or so other printing centers around the country, the church has relied on a homemade press to create its books.

"The Frankenstein machine" is what volunteer director Linda Kavalunas calls the old press made from a wooden box, an old ringer roller, some foam and some carpeting.

Church member Robert Steinglass, a VU alumnus, turned to engineering college professor Scott Duncan and his students for help in creating a safer and more convenient press.

The result is an aluminum-framed prototype that allows workers to slide the heavy plates and plate jackets from the preparation area to the roller intake rather than lifting them. The new machine is safer, with a finger guard and an emergency off switch.

The 20 volunteer printers create one double-sided page at a time and can make a Judges/Ruth volume bound with a plastic clasp in about 15 minutes. The church produces about 70 each month.

The Prince of Peace center also prints Portuguese Braille versions of the New Testament book of John, producing about five a month.

Lutheran Braille Workers Inc. was founded in 1943 to meet the spiritual needs of people with visual impairments. Nationally, the organization produces about 250,000 Braille Bibles annually but faces a backlog of nearly three times that number.

The operation runs on donations and volunteer work, Kavalunas said. Whereas a commercially produced Braille Bible would cost about $2,700, Lutheran Braille Workers can produce a Bible for $1,200. And they are given away for free.

On Tuesday, Kavalunas packed up boxes headed for a library in Malawi and a school in India.

"It's an easy job for us," she said. "We're passing the word of God on."

The press workers have been testing the prototype and will share it with the center at St. John Lutheran Church in Lansing. Suggestions for improvements will go back to VU, and the hope is to mass produce a safe, easy-to-use machine that other centers can use.