Here is our April release on Bible translation in areas where Christianity is being forced out.
Donn Hallman – 714-379-6999
https://www.wycliffeassociates.org/who-we-are/for-the-press/press-release/654
Wycliffe Associates Scriptures for New Frontiers Fund Assists Indigenous Bible Translators Threatened by Extreme Persecution, Hostility
(Orlando, Florida, USA)—Wycliffe Associates, a ministry that accelerates the work of Bible translation around the world, has scheduled the first Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation (MAST) training session for Bible translators who live in regions where Christians are specifically targeted for persecution and even death.
The session will be held in close proximity to locations where Bible translation isn't possible due to widespread, ongoing persecution of Christians. Indigenous Bible translators are meeting in a secure location to work on 40 languages in this region, where vast areas are under terrorist control, Christians are being routed out, and most have never seen a Bible or heard any of its words.
"There is no place on Earth where God's Word is more urgently needed," says Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates. "This is a place of terror, oppression, violence, death, and heartache. To be a Christian is to be a target. Yet the few Christians living there are pleading for Bibles to share secretly with the many, many people around them who are hungry for the truth."
MAST rapidly accelerates the process of Bible translation using new training and translation strategies, making it possible for mother-tongue translators to draft significant portions of the Scriptures in weeks or months rather than years.
In addition to facilitating MAST workshops, Wycliffe Associates Scriptures for New Frontiers Fund will provide computer tablets with software, other technology and equipment, shelter, meals, and basic day-to-day support for translators as they work in these hostile regions.
"God's Word will be placed in the hands—and the hearts—of people in multiple nations, nations I can't name because the risk is so great," says Smith. "Our response to the terror and tragedy is to flood the area with God's Word, in the language of the local people."
Wycliffe Associates hopes to facilitate MAST teams in starting translation projects in at least 500 additional languages this year.
Since Wycliffe Associates started facilitating MAST workshops around the world, 170 translations have been started in new languages.
"It is astonishing to think of our brothers and sisters living in countries where Christians are facing persecution, even death, for translating God's Word for their people," Smith says. "And yet they continue."
About Wycliffe Associates
Organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators, Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God's Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God's Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.
Because millions of people around the world still wait to read the Scriptures in the language of their heart, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God's Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Last year, 6,279 Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers worked to speed Bible translations in 75 countries.
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