Middle East (MNN) — A recent gathering in the Middle East brought together Church-Centric Bible translators from around the world.
Christian leaders representing 16 different nations gathered to learn from each other and develop strategies. “We had 11 different church network entities there [from] places like Russia, Ukraine, and Iran,” unfoldingWord’s David Reeves says.
unfoldingWord comes alongside church-planting networks as they translate Scripture into minority languages. More about that here. Each network focuses on the unreached people groups in its region, making the work dangerous and difficult by nature.
“Almost every one of them [faces] huge obstacles: pressure from their government, Communism, Islam, Hinduism – there’s always some issue they’re facing,” Reeves says.
“But, in the midst of it all, they continue to press ahead because they love their people deeply.”
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
Connecting in person instead of over Zoom allowed the translators to deepen relationships. “They got to share ideas [about] processes, what they’re doing in Church-Centric Bible Translation, information about their software tools,” Reeves says.
During one of the event’s breakout sessions, team leaders from Eurasia and South America collaborated to teach the entire group about highly technical topics.
One event overseer, unnamed for security purposes, spoke of “a tremendous victory to hand off the microphone and see our partners train each other!”
Believers also created ministry plans during the conference, which they are implementing today. Pray that global collaboration will continue and grow.
“We’re seeing a phenomenal sense of unity across these networks. They have a common cause, and they realize they need each other. No one of them can do this by themselves,” Reeves says.
Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord.
