Ria* could tell you in painful detail. She lives in a tiny village on an island in Southeast Asia. Progress with a Bible translation project without internet is very slow and very uncertain.
Her friends who were involved in the translation had to be secretive so no one discovered and took offense at their activities. They could only work in the wee hours, once they were free from their jobs. And they had to be careful not to lose a single verse of the Scripture they labored over, which is complicated because sometimes computers crash and, without internet, they had no way to save their work to the cloud, no way to back up the files from the laptop.
Lack of internet access is no accident in Ria’s community.
In fact, it’s just another sneaky, crippling form of persecution of Christians.
To back up their work, Ria had to make the trek on foot, at night, to a bigger town where there is a kiosk to plug her laptop into.
It could take 5 hours of standing there, waiting, in the dark, to get a stable connection. And then it could take another 3 hours to upload a translated book of Scripture. This routine left Ria exhausted and discouraged because translating the entire Bible through such a painstaking process would take—who knows how long?
But what choice did they have? Wait another generation to have a Bible that’s not in a foreign language? Many translation teams in this situation become frustrated and give up. But Ria and her team kept working to translate God’s Word because they knew they needed to read, study, and share Scripture in the only language they fully understand…
And as they worked, these believers prayed for God to break down the obstacles that kept them from having a Bible in their heart language.
BIBLE TRANSLATION ACCELERATION KIT: EVERYTHING CHANGES
Christians around the world are facing huge obstacles, from persecution to poverty, that make it seemingly impossible to translate God’s Word into a language where it has never existed before. Seeing the challenges, Wycliffe Associates developed a Bible Translation Acceleration Kit, or BTAK.
This technology connects by satellite to churches and believers who live in inaccessible areas with poor infrastructure or no internet. This means Christians in “impossible” places can participate fully in training and Bible translation!
For national Bible translators in difficult regions of Southeast Asia and Indonesia—like Ria—the BTAK provides a seemingly miraculous array of helps:
- Access to a complete digital library of Bible translation resources
- Online collaboration with other national Bible translators for accurate, efficient work
- Immediate upload and storage of translation work, avoiding confiscation by hostile authorities or destruction of handwritten documents by the elements
- Connection with fellow Christians for encouragement, prayer, and worship
A simple, heartfelt gift delivered a miraculous blessing to Ria and her language group: a BTAK, which included all the technology they needed to translate God’s Word into their own heart language quickly, efficiently, and safely. No more years of waiting, trekking to another town, waiting in the dark, and hoping to connect to the internet!
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD
There was once a language group in Southeast Asia that had never had a Bible. But caring and generous friends helped Wycliffe Associates provide the BTAK and the training for eight believers to begin translating the Scriptures.
Soon, they had completed translating 13 books of the Bible! Overjoyed, they invited an official from the provincial government to their commemorative ceremony. He was thrilled by their accomplishment—but he saw another huge need...
The newly translated language was not the official’s heart language. He shared that his language group also had no Bible and asked if they might receive training, too, so his people could also experience God’s Word in their own heart language.
We can rejoice at how God is at work when even an Indonesian government official can see and feel the power, the glory, and the undeniable need for God’s Word in one’s own language!
SO MANY CHRISTIANS ARE STILL WAITING, LIVING WITHOUT GOD’S WORD IN THEIR HEART LANGUAGE
Christians in another 12 language groups across Southeast Asia are asking for a BTAK to break down the obstacles to realizing a Bible in their own language.
Some are in rugged, remote areas. Others are in places where Christianity is so hated, authorities have cut off internet access—or it’s so dangerous that believers can only meet in secret. Bottom line, for many of these language groups, a BTAK may be their only hope for translating God’s Word for their people.
Each BTAK includes a computer, special translation software, a satellite connection, router, and a modem so national Bible translators can access online resources, collaborate with other national Bible translators for maximum accuracy, and safely store their work in the cloud, keeping it safe from hostile authorities, weather disasters, and more!
Thank you for giving, for praying, and for spreading the word to others about the need to equip national Bible translators in difficult, dangerous parts of Southeast Asia.
*Name and photo changed for security reasons
