This Christmas, as we excitedly prepare hearts and homes for celebrating the birth of Jesus, there are still millions of believers around the world who don’t have one of our most precious gifts to share with their loved ones…
The Christmas story.
Gathering together and listening as a parent or grandparent, beloved aunt or uncle, or child reads from Luke about the coming of the Christ child is a glorious tradition that cements our faith, hope, and joy as Christians.
But there are so many language groups who are still living without God’s Word in a language they can read and understand. For them, there will be no gathering to read the Christmas story.
“Another year gone by and still no Bible in our language!”
Translating God’s Word into a language where it has never existed before is a huge undertaking, and there is no shortage of obstacles to thwart even the most passionate believers from rolling up their sleeves, grabbing a pencil, prayerfully beginning the work…
Poverty, persecution, lack of resources and infrastructure, like electricity and the internet, are often huge factors that disrupt Bible translation.
A Bible translator can’t sit and work on translation if his family is starving. A translation team can’t advance their work when hostile authorities burst through the door, confiscate their work, and throw them into prison. Bible translators living deep in the jungles of a rainforest can lose their work to a deluge or even insects.
God is great and excels at breaking down the obstacles!
Technology exists that turns “can’t” to “can.” Wycliffe Associates has specialized equipment that can help even the most isolated and persecuted believers launch a successful Bible translation project. Each translation kit includes:
- A specialized computer
- Bible translation software
- Secure place for backup and storage
- Access to a library of translation resources
- Dedicated training and support
Technology for National Translators (TNT) is used by Bible translators around the world to bring Scripture to life in languages where it has never existed before. The joy and celebrations as people see each verse, chapter, and book in print for the first time spreads like wildfire, advancing the Gospel among unreached people—and making other language groups hunger to launch their own Bible translation project.
Requests pour into Wycliffe Associates from believers who have heard there is a way around all the obstacles that have kept them from having a Bible in their own language. They write, call, email…and they ask, “Please, can you help us? We want God’s Word in our language to bring transformation to our village, region, and nation.”
What happens when you say “Yes” to a translation project?
The Udmurt people call the lonely, vast, frigid landscape of Siberia home. Like their ancestors before them, these hardy men, women, and children subsist as hunter-gatherers, following the reindeer herds for their survival.
And like their ancestors they largely adhere to pagan, animist religions. But among this people group, a pocket of Christians flourished. Without God’s Word in their language, these believers prayed for a way to reach their people with the hope of the Gospel.
Support from caring Christians like you sent them the specialized tools, training, and technology they needed to launch a Bible translation in the Udmurt language for the very first time. The equipment gave them online access to collaborate and safely store their work.
An astonishing 32 people earnestly began to translate the entire New Testament because of your help! With God’s Word in hand, the Gospel is advancing, strengthening believers, and bringing the unreached to faith.
One of the translators, Linara, shared, “It was fabulous to realize that God entrusted part of His great work on Earth to us, simple people…to become part of God’s plan for the Udmurts!”
Another translation partner shared this poignant imagery with us the day they finally held translated Scripture in their hands, “Several of our translators cried for joy today when they saw the printed version of the Gospel of John, so happy they were.”
Since then, the Udmurt have shared thousands of copies of the printed Gospel of John with their people, and Bible translators have also made huge headway in translating the Old Testament.
But so many language groups still long to have Scripture in the language of their hearts.
Technology makes it possible for believers who live in crushing poverty, or who endure extreme persecution, to begin a Bible translation project that will finally give them God’s Word in their own language.
Your gift will give more language groups the chance to begin and the encouragement to succeed, like the Udmurt people in Siberia.
Just $1,500 provides Technology for National Translators (TNT) for one language group. With so many language groups waiting, hoping, and praying for the opportunity, our goal is to raise an additional $90,000 so we can equip every team who is ready to begin.
Thank you for giving generously now to provide the technology to Bible translators who are waiting, hoping, and praying for the opportunity to translate God’s Word into the language of their hearts, which will strengthen their faith and help bring the unreached to faith in Christ.
