God Speaks Chikunda

Moses Kaputi is a middle aged man from the Chikunda speaking community of Kanyemba in the Dande Region of Zimbabwe. He is married to Fungai Dumba and they are blessed with four children, two boys and two girls.

Chikunda is spoken in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. There is already a New Testament in Chikunda which has been published and distributed in the Kanyemba area. Moses says that before they had this New Testament in Chikunda, they would just try to guess from the Shona Bible (Shona is also spoken in Zimbabwe) what God was saying to them, but now that they have the Chikunda New Testament it is like God speaks Chikunda, and they can understand Him.

“Now I understand that before everything was, God was,” says Moses, “and all things came into existence through God. Therefore if I find myself in any difficulty, I know that God is all powerful, since nothing existed or exists outside of Him.” 

The Chikunda New Testament has also helped them in the making of the Jesus Film in Chikunda. The Chikunda people were delighted to watch Jesus speaking in their heart language! The elderly people in the community can now also read the Word in their mother tongue, and now they finally know that God is not only for the white people or the Shona people, but is also for the Chikunda people!

Story and photo supplied by Piniel Tawanda Zimbizi.

The Importance of Consultants in Bible Translation

Watch this video to see how crucial the work of consultants are in the work of Bible translation! The Word for the World is passionate about empowering local translators and consultants to translate the Bible efficiently and accurately.

Thank you for your continued support!

Training for the Vision

Translators from several different TWFTW Bible translation projects in Lusaka, Zambia share their recent experiences with us! They had a great time during training for a new edition of Paratext, a computer program that helps to speed the process of Bible translation. All of the translators who work on different projects are rarely in the same place at the same time, and it was also a wonderful blessing to them to spend time with each other in between training sessions.

See how our projects in Zambia are doing.

Spreading the Word

This past week, we had a wonderful time of training and team building with some members of The Word for the World’s Department of Promotions in Lusaka, Zambia. We are the ones behind the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, who bring you all of these stories and testimonies on a regular basis!

The challenges we sometimes face are unlike what most organizations’ marketing teams need to overcome. Lack of reliable internet, less than ideal travel circumstances, and geographical distance from each other can make our work interesting to say the least. Much of this reflects what others in The Word for the World have to deal with as well. However, that always creates an opportunity for innovative and creative problem solving, and makes us all far more reliant on God.

Our time in Lusaka was blessed and precious, and a great time of encouraging each other as well as learning from each other. We covered some further training in photography and videography, as well as solving some problems like internet and travel difficulties. Most importantly, we connected with one another again and were all reminded of why we do what we do: so that every man, woman, and child can have the Word of God in their mother tongue, and know that Jesus speaks their language.

Thank you for your prayers and support! We are excited to continue bringing the Bibleless people of the world closer to your heart.

Veronique Krüger

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I am a Child of God!

Kofi John is a disabled man in the Pogoro-speaking village of Isongo, Tanzania. Although he has been disabled since birth, he has a full life, with a wife, five children, and a variety of livestock. He and his family make their living through farming the land and keeping chickens and ducks. He shares with great excitement about the goodness of God in his life since he read the Word of God in Pogoro.

“It is a great benefit to have a Bible which was written in your mother tongue, because it speaks directly to your heart. God is the owner of all languages. We feel so happy in our hearts when we read the Pogoro Bible because we know that God is speaking to us.”

After the release of the Pogoro New Testament, Kofi was also released from his loneliness. He started meeting regularly with a group of people to discuss the Bible and to pray with them. Now that they have the Word of God in their mother tongue, they are eager to fellowship together and study this Bible that they can now clearly understand.

“The Pogoro Bible made me see that I am very important to God,” Kofi John told us. “I read about Jesus and Peter and John healing cripples, and the love God has for us, and I know now that God did not create me by mistake. It has renewed my mind and I know that I am a child of God.”

What Will Your Legacy Be?

Did you know that over 4,000 language communities have no access to God’s Word? If you’re wondering how you can help fill this need, we have some suggestions!

1. Learn. Awareness, and helping to spread awareness, is key! Spend some time reading the testimonies and stories here on our blog, and sign up for our e-newsletter. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

2. Pray. Prayer is essential to the success of Bible translation. Our translators and consultants constantly need wisdom and discernment, and all the members of The Word for the World face opposition for the work we do. Your prayers are invaluable and necessary. To get prayer and praise updates so that you can pray more effectively, sign up here.

3. Give. Your financial contributions are like the fuel that keeps the car running: you can have the biggest, fanciest car in the world, with the ability to go anywhere and do almost anything, but if there’s no fuel, it’s not going anywhere. To contribute and help bring God’s Word to all in their language, click here.

4. Volunteer. Are you interested in doing more than helping from afar? Consider volunteering with The Word for the World! We need people to train translators, train consultants, handle IT concerns, and much more. If you feel called to the work of Bible translation, please contact us and we will get in touch with you.

What will your legacy be?

Connect with The Word For The World

Excellence and Perseverance

In November of last year, 49 students representing 16 translation projects attending a training event in Lusaka, Zambia. During the month that the training took place, 9 different subjects were taught, including Principles of Bible Translation, New Testament Exegesis, Hebrew, and Textual Criticism.

Despite the intensity of the subjects being taught, all the students who attended completed their courses and received their credits at the end. Not only that, but 20 students from Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe graduated with their Diploma in Bible Translation on November 23rd!

We are thankful for the successful training and congratulate those students who graduated! To keep up with our training events, take a look at our Training Calendar.

Please, I Need Jesus

The Word of God continues to penetrate the hearts of many people when they hear or read it in their mother tongue, and they are changed by it.

In December, I took a trip with the Pogoro project leader, John Kahonga, to visit the Pogoro people in some of the villages of Tanzania. We ended up speaking with some of the youth in one particular village, telling them about God and answering their questions (some of which were very difficult!).

Then I told John to read them the Bible in Pogoro. Before we read to them, I showed them the Bible and said, “This is Jesus for you. When you read this today, you will see Him.”

John started reading. The Pogoro language has a very sweet, genuine sound. As they heard the words, the young people said, “What you said isn’t a joke, this is real!” One of them stood up and was almost crying.

“Please,” he said, “I need Jesus.” I asked him what had happened to make him say this, and he replied, “I don’t know, it is difficult to say. In my heart I know I need Jesus.” Five others also stood up and said, “What we have heard from you today has touched our hearts. Please help us to follow Jesus.”

We prayed with them and they all gave their hearts to Christ. Since we left, they have been keeping in contact with the Pogoro translators and have been going to church regularly.

Glory be to God!

Story and photos supplied by George Chombo.

A Longing for The Word

The Kharam people have been longing for the Word of God in their own language, and now a Kharam translation project is being facilitated by The Word for the World! They recently received the Gospel of John and we expect the New Testament to be ready for print by the end of 2019.

Become part of the vision to bring God's Word to all people in their heart language by 2050! Commit to give.

38 Years Into the Dream!

When The Word for the World was born on January 9, 1981, all we had was a dream… God’s Word for every person in the language God gave them, and to empower indigenous people to translate the Bible into their own language.

Why go through the demanding exercise of translating the Bible into all the languages on the face of the earth? Why not just teach everyone to understand one of the larger languages, and concentrate on making the Bible available in those languages?

As Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” We believe that God desires to speak to every person in their heart language, and that vision drives us to do what we do.

Thank you for working with us through these 38 years to help bring God’s Word to people in a language they can understand. You are helping people to know the Lord, to study his Word, and to know that God loves them and speaks their language.

We are already involved in first-time translations of the Bible in more than 110 languages. With your help and God’s continued blessing, we are confident we can achieve our Vision 2050: completing translation of the entire Bible in 500 languages by 2050.

We invite you to join us on this journey! Here’s to the next 38 years, and many more.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Véroni Krüger