As we approach the end of April, it's kind of hard to believe we've been working from home for more than a month now. I know many of you are probably as anxious as I am to get beyond the virtual world and back out into the real world, and be able to see each other again and reconnect. But we’re grateful at the same time to have this kind of opportunity to stay connected electronically and just stay in touch with you and with what's going on Bible translation around the world.
Video Transcript:
As we approach the end of April, it's kind of hard to believe we've been working from home for more than a month now. I know many of you are probably as anxious as I am to get beyond the virtual world and back out into the real world, and be able to see each other again and reconnect. But we’re grateful at the same time to have this kind of opportunity to stay connected electronically and just stay in touch with you and with what's going on Bible translation around the world.
One of the big things I want to give you an update on is the progress that we've seen just this past week in the funding for Bible Translation Acceleration Kits to bring internet connections to our teams in Indonesia that have been cut off by geography, by isolation, even by the COVID virus. We had a goal of raising enough money to fund 50 of these internet connections for Indonesia and so far you’ve funded 62, so we've overshot, which is great because we can definitely use those. We just are excited that we were able to meet the goal that we had initially, and we're going to connect with our Indonesia team to get those deployed as quickly as possible so that those isolated teams can reconnect and keep making good progress on their Bible translations.
The other thing I haven't done for a couple weeks is give you an update on our staff. I had mentioned earlier that we had two staff members that we are aware of that had COVID virus and were recovering at home in France. And again the latest news we have is that they're doing well and no long-term ill-effects from it. And we're grateful that we don't have more people that are affected around the world. We also had about eight staff members who were stuck across from borders and weren’t able to get back to their home areas. I'm glad to say that six of those have already now found ways to get home. We still have two that are stranded but the other six have made it back to their home countries and back to their families, so thank you for praying for that. We know that it's stressful to be away from home during a difficult season like this.
Other great news that I really want to update you on is that I was looking in our database just today and realized that during the first six months of this fiscal year, from October through the end of March, we've actually seen 108 languages complete their New Testaments just in the last six months. That is an amazing pace of progress and an exciting breakthrough for these 108 languages to now have that full New Testament in their language. I know that many of them are going on to do their Old Testament as well.
Also during that same season of time almost 200 languages have started their translations. So still great progress going on, still exciting things that are happening in the world of Bible translation, and you are the ones who are helping to make all that possible.
Guess the last thing I want to update you on is that as we come to the end of April, this is the month that we would have normally would have had about 150 community level events across the United States to introduce Bible translation to people, to give people updates directly face to face in their communities. But all those had to be canceled because of the virus.
So as we close in on the end of April we're realizing actually what a hit we’re taking financially because of not making those connections. And so just keep us in prayer. We’re trusting in God’s provision. We're grateful for the generosity of everyone who has participated in this campaign to connect these teams in Indonesia. And we trust that God’s going to continue laying the path forward.
So just wanted to give you that update. let you know how things are going.
I'm personally very excited to get out of my office and back onto the road, back into your communities and into your homes, and be able to hear what God is doing in your lives, give you a personal update about what's going on in Bible translation. We're just so grateful for your partnership. Thank you for staying in touch during these days.
