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

The Bible in Our Heart Language

“It is the right time for God's Word to shine into the hearts of Pogoro people,” says Barnabas Sigwasa, the pastor of Pentecost Church in Tanzania. “When my wife and I started our church, we had five members. But then some people brought the gospel of John in Pogoro into our village and started reading it, and I brought it to use in my church.

“It was a miracle! At the first Sunday service where we read the Bible in Pogoro, 6 people accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. The next Sunday, 8 more people came to believe in God. I can see that there is great power in reading the Bible in our own language. Nowadays, people come from far away just to hear us read the Bible in Pogoro, and now our church has 22 members because of it.

“My wife and I rejoice and thank God for the miracle of the Pogoro Bible. To read the Bible in our own language will save many lives.”

Story and photos supplied by George Chombo.

Immanuel, Glorious Light!

Two thousand years ago, God came to our world in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true Word of God, who brought light into the darkness - the truth about God, salvation for all who believe in Him, and access to the power of God to overcome every obstacle we face. At this time of the year we celebrate his birth with great joy. We sing with enthusiasm “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”

By God’s grace we have a permanent record of the dealings of God with and on behalf of people, in the Bible. Although the Bible is not the Word of God in the same manner as Jesus Christ is, we nevertheless experience God speaking to us through Scripture. Someone said ”Jesus Christ comes to me from the pages of the Bible.”

As we celebrate Jesus Christ during this season, He is ready to meet each one of us where we are. May we recognise Him and may our love for Him grow.

Véroni Krüger

International President

Music in Our Heart Language

The people in Mukumbura, Zimbabwe speak Kore Kore, which falls under the Shona group of languages. The Word for the World is currently working on the Kore Kore translation project.

Nisbert Chagoka, who lives in Mukumbura, accepted Christ earlier this year and is still learning about the Bible. The joy of salvation is still fresh and burning inside him. 

"I'm feeling very happy that the Kore Kore Bible will soon be here,” he said. “It will help us if there is a Bible in Kore Kore so that we can understand it even better.” He has a passion for music and he has several Christian which he has composed himself in Kore Kore, and he hopes to one day record them.

When the Kore Kore Bible becomes available, it is not only going to be beneficial for reading in church or at home but it will also enable young people like Nisbert Chagoka to be able to compose songs in their own Kore Kore language for the benefit and edification of the Kore Kore people. Many Christian songs and music have been penned, composed or derived from the Bible. Music forms an integral part of Christian life and there is no better source for this music than the Word of God itself, in the language that we understand the most, our heart language!

Story and photos supplied by Piniel Tawanda Zimbizi.

Serving Bernatus

Bernatus Kachelewa is 83 years old and lives alone in his Pogoro-speaking village in Tanzania. He cannot work due to his age and the fact that he suffers from leprosy. Because of this, he relies on his neighbours for food and his other needs. His neighbour’s son came to visit him every day and read the gospel of John in Pogoro to him. He says that hearing the Word of God in his language touched his heart and hearing the Bible in his mother tongue brought peace to his spirit. He gave his life to Christ after hearing the gospel in his own language!

I went to visit him along with John Kahonga, the Pogoro project leader. We cleaned his house for him and brought him food, drinks, and clothing. We shared with him more about the love of God, and as we were reading the Bible with him, some of his other neighbours came to join us. After hearing us read the Bible in their heart language and seeing how we had served Bernatus by cleaning his house and bringing him food, they also decided to give their hearts to Christ!

“Jesus brought love into my life,” Bernatus said. “People who were in darkness can now see the light because they see the love of God completely when they hear the Bible in their language.”

Story and photos supplied by George Chombo.