An Ordinary Weekend

Around 2,000 years ago, history was forever changed. Heaven broke open and released all of God’s love, mercy, power, freedom, and grace. The veil that hid His face from us was torn, and since then we have lived in close communion with the King of Kings, where before only a select few could be in His presence or hear His voice.

When history was changed, so were our stories. Jesus’s resurrection day was our resurrection day, too.

But there are many who may as well be living 2,000 years ago. The Light of Christ has not broken through into their hearts and lives - not because they’ve heard the Gospel and rejected it, but because they don’t know that this man called Jesus has broken their chains. They’ve never read his words or felt his love transform their entire being.

For them, this is just an ordinary weekend.

But you can help to change their stories, just as your story has been changed. You can help to bring the Light into their darkness. You can help them to know: Jesus loves you and he speaks your language.

Will you help make history?

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Veronique Krüger

Connect with The Word For The World

Transformation From Generation to Generation

“What I find incredible and what really touched my heart is that this work that we are doing will be going from generation to generation; it will never end,” said Tago, one of the Basketo translators in Ethiopia. He and his team members, Abate and Tezera, recently completed the final consultation of 1 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah with the help of TWFTW consultant Nel Claassen. This means that these books are almost ready to go to print and is an exciting milestone for the team.

The Basketo translation of the Old Testament is 28% complete. Since the project started, the impact on the community has been incredible. “Before, there was a resistance to the gospel, and even violence because of it. But because of Bible translation, the door for sharing the gospel is open. People are now asking for it,” said Tezera. “There is a pride that has developed because of Bible translation, because they recognise that they are important enough for God to have His Word in their language.”

Abate also said that a Basketo education program has even started because of the project. “This has given them an opportunity for a dictionary in their own language, something they’ve never had before. It is only because of Bible translation that this could happen. It makes the language precious, and it makes the people extremely happy.”

The impact that Bible translation is having on the Basketo people and the transformation that is happening in every sphere of their society is truly amazing. Your partnership with us is changing history, one people group at a time.

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Church Building in Tanzania

This church building-in-progress will soon house a congregation of 38 members and counting in a remote village in Tanzania.

George Chombo, one of the members of TWFTW’s Department of Promotions, visited this Nguu-speaking village at the end of last year and distributed recently printed New Testaments to the people. For the first time, these people were able to read the Bible and the words of Jesus Christ in their mother tongue!

At the time, the church only had 9 members, but in only 4 months it has grown now that the people have been reading the Word of God in their own language. Praise God for the faithfulness of the Nguu translators and of this pastor and his family who are building the church!

The Nguu Old Testament translation is currently 34% complete. Help the Nguu people to receive the complete Bible in their heart language!

Story and photos supplied by George Chombo.

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

Connect with The Word For The World

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?

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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.