Nations where the Bible is currently being translated:
Australia
Bahamas
Benin
France
Ghana
Guatemala
Liberia
Uganda
Azerbaijan
India
Israel
Myanmar
Nepal
Nigeria
Why Translate The Bible?
by Rev. H. Syvelle Phillips
"Unless and until we give the Word of God to every one in his native tongue the world can not be evangelized." -- Dr. Oswald J. Smith
The prophecies of Joel and Peter have been fulfilled in these last days. Much of the world has experienced a great spiritual visitation. Tens of thousands have been swept into the Kingdom of God and Christ is building His Church. In many dark corners of the earth, "the Light of the world" is pushing back heathen darkness.
Many years ago, David DuPlessis said, "No single man knows the full extent of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit." Many spiritual leaders agree this is just the beginning of the last mighty visitation of God.
Thousands of new believers have never read the Bible - not even a word. There is no Bible for them to read. Many of these people wait for someone to develop a written form of their language. This must be done before they can have the Scriptures in their own language and then they must be taught to read.
Dr. George Cowan, former President of Wycliffe Bible Translators, has said in his book, "The Word That Kindles":
"The history of missions since Christ bears testimony to the importance of translating the Bible into the mother tongue. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, 'The story of missions the whole wide world over shows that the success or failure of... missions has always been dependent on whether those brought to Christ had the Scriptures in their own language or not.' Steward of Lovedale said, '...no record exists, as far as I know, of any mission, whatever be its method or history, making much real progress and becoming permanent among any people, if the Bible had not been given to them in their own vernacular.' Indeed history records no single example of a sound, long-lived, indigenous church without vernacular Scriptures."
I am sure you will agree that for new Christians to become strong spiritually and for the church to be stable and fulfill its destiny, the Word of God must be available in the mother tongue - the language of the heart.
This is why God has called Evangel Bible Translators into existence. We who honor the Holy Spirit and love what the Spirit of God is doing in the world today must become more involved. There are yet thousands who wait for their first copy of God's Word in their own language.
Evangel Bible Translators was founded in 1976 at the encouragement of "Uncle" Cameron Townsend, the revered founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators and is a member of the Forum of Bible Translation Agencies. Evangel Bible Translators has a strong commitment to giving the Word of God to language groups that have no Scriptures in their mother tongue.
Links
God Loves Kids
Love The Unloved
World Reach
ColorEnlargement.com
Art For Missions
Facts:
At least some part of Scripture has been translated into 2,212 of the world's 6,500 languages
- 366 languages have the entire Bible
- 928 other languages have the New Testament
- Individual books (such as the Gospel of John) are available in 918 additional languages
- 80 percent of the world's people have access to at least some portion of the Bible in a language they can understand.