People groups all over the world are working diligently to translate God’s Word into the languages of their hearts, while others are praying and hoping for the tools and training to launch their own translation project.
These passionate believers tell us why their most fervent prayer is to have Scripture they can read and understand in their own language—
“So that even when life is hard, I can hear God speak to me.”
“It’s so much easier to know God when I can read His words in my language.”
“For the first time in my life, I know God speaks my language, and everyone in my community needs to know that.”
But there are 12 other language groups who have worked to complete their translation projects, even as they face crippling challenges—poverty, persecution, political and religious violence, hardship from the lingering pandemic, and more . . . only to find that they are unable to see, hold, and share their translated Scriptures because they have no way to print them.
Throughout much of the world, people don’t have access to electricity, much less smart phones, tablets, or computers. For those who are living in poverty, a printed Bible is the way to reach them with the hope of the gospel. Plus, a printed copy of God’s Word can be passed from person to person, tribe to tribe, spreading the peace and love of the gospel everywhere!
So Close, But Still Waiting . . .
For these 12 language groups who can’t print their translated Scriptures, we can help them. We can equip them to share God’s Word with loved ones, other believers, the unreached. Their churches could share verses, chapters, and books of the Bible in the language of their congregations!
These language groups are asking for help to print the Scriptures so their people can finally read God’s Word for themselves . . . so they can share it and bring others to faith . . . so they can witness the transformation that will sweep their village and entire region when people see God’s Word in their heart language for the very first time.
One Problem, Many Solutions
For more than 50 years, Wycliffe Associates has been assisting churches and translation teams with specialized tools and technology to translate God’s Word where it has never existed before—in addition to the specialized help they need to print those Scriptures.
In some areas, we can provide Print on Demand (POD) equipment. But for other language groups, we must get creative to find ways for these Christians to produce their own copies of God’s Word . . . quietly, even secretly, or lives could be at stake.
God Breaks Down Obstacles
Wycliffe Associates is committed to helping our brothers and sisters in Christ see their translation projects through to the finish line so God’s Word can be shared and lives, entire regions, can be transformed. Through faithful prayers and support from many caring friends, we endeavor to do whatever it takes to meet the need.
And God is ever faithful in eliminating obstacles to reaching the unreached with the gospel. Many times, our POD equipment has been held up at customs; we’ve even seen our staff and partners endure questioning from hostile authorities. But most often, it’s lack of funding that keeps language groups from having a newly translated Bible in the language of their hearts.
Next Steps for Stalled Translation Teams
It will take $30,000 to help 12 Bible translation teams to the finish line so they can realize their translation work in print, ending long centuries of delay and finally seeing the power of God’s Word move among their people!
One of our translation partners in Africa had this to say about the power of printed Scripture:
We [once] thought God could not speak in our mother tongue, but now that we have our own Bible, it’s easier for the people of the community to know more about God. Foreign languages, we find that people don’t understand; they read but they don’t understand. But now that [the Bible] is translated in Leya, people understand what God wants them to do.
And one of the pastors had these heartfelt words of thanks to donors who helped bring their Scriptures to print:
Even though you cannot reach physically, the Word of God can reach. Even though you cannot speak here, the Word of God speaks. It has raised our spiritual status. Just to imagine that faraway, across the oceans, there are people who have a heart for you; it’s very touching. I believe we may not be able to say thank you enough, but eternity will say thank you on our behalf. It’s a very great investment. Investing in souls—those who are perishing, those who are dying in their sins—it is the love of God.
Please give as you are able today, and please also share this pressing need with other believers who understand the transformative power God’s Word will have among the world’s unreached nations and hearts.
Thank you for partnering with us now to do whatever it takes to put Scripture in the hands of people who hunger deeply for it.
