Readathon : Members of Korean Church Recite Bible, From Beginning to End, to Usher in 1988

The last stretch of the marathon took everything Steve Pai had. In the way of voice power, that is.

Pai, a Newbury Park resident, and other Korean Seventh-day Adventists began reading the entire Bible aloud on New Year’s Eve to bring in the new year. Sunday afternoon, after only five hours of sleep in 72 hours, a somewhat weary Pai was still celebrating at the fellowship hall of Valley Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canoga Park.

“We’re trying to encourage our membership and all people to read the entire Bible by holding a marathon,” Pai said during a break from reading aloud in Korean.

Pai, a 57-year-old production engineer for the church’s media center, proposed the marathon after hearing the Bible read aloud on the radio. He estimated that at the rate of three minutes per page, it would take about 85 hours, or until about 5:30 a.m. Monday, for readers to make their way from the Book of Genesis to the end of Revelation.

But church members and parishioners from 11 churches in Los Angeles and Orange counties read faster. They read around the clock, except for a few hours when taped excerpts sent by about 40 congregations in North America and Canada replaced live readings, he said.

So, the estimate was changed to shortly after midnight Sunday morning. Pai’s eyes shone with tears Sunday as he expounded on the final selection, the last two chapters of Revelation.

Pai said he was not sure if the marathon would become an annual event, despite its emotional impact. Koreans traditionally pay homage to their elders on New Year’s Day, play special games, eat rice cakes and help their children build kites, said Dan Park of Los Angeles.

“The point of the marathon is to show that if it only takes three days or so to read the Bible nonstop, you only have to read four minutes a day and you would be finished in a year,” Park said.