Indonesia (MNN) — Over 700 languages are spoken throughout the islands of Indonesia. Now, Wycliffe Associates plans to translate the Bible into 30 of these languages.
Interim President Tim Neu talks about the scale of the work to be done. “Visualize the nation of Indonesia. If you were to overlay it on the map of the continental US, as far as the East to the West, the Indonesian islands would stretch beyond the borders of the US. So there’s quite an opportunity.”
Challenges
Wycliffe works with Indonesian Christians, enabling them to do the translation themselves. But on many islands, Christians must conduct this work with secrecy. Neu says, “We’ve had friends and family members who have been forced out of their places of work. They’ve been forced out of their homes, and their earthly possessions have been burned in front of their eyes. And some have actually lost their lives, making the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.”
The speakers of these 30 languages live in remote areas. Wycliffe Associates needs help reaching them with the necessary equipment. “We have Bible translation acceleration kits, which include solar panels and satellite modems. We would love to see our friends and partners join with us and providing these types of tools for the remote locations.”
You can support this work by donating to Wycliffe Associates here.
The header photo is a map of Indonesia by ethnic groups. (Gunawan Kartapranata, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
