Benin (MNN) — According to Wycliffe Global Alliance, just over 50 percent of all languages worldwide have at least some portions of the Bible.
“The great goal is to get the Gospel in every tribe and every tongue,” Dane with unfoldingWord says, but translation organizations face significant challenges in finishing the task. This shortfall requires a change in tactics.
“It’s not unfoldingWord that’s going to do this. It’s the Church.”
unfoldingWord equips church networks around the world to translate God’s Word for themselves. More about that here. “When the local people do the work, Scripture engagement happens much more rapidly because they own it from the very beginning,” Dane says.
“They take it home and show it to their friends and family. It’s like, ‘Look what we did.’ Automatically, there’s a high level of interest, which is just not there when an outsider comes in and does it for you.”
Whole Bible, Whole Nation: Benin
This year, unfoldingWord and its partners are undertaking ‘Whole Bible, Whole Nation’ projects in six strategic locations: Benin, Chad, Iran, the Islands of Southern Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sudan.
“The [Whole Bible, Whole Nation] strategy equips local church networks to evangelize the unreached, establish the Church on solid doctrinal foundations, and then entrust the next generation with the tools and the training they need for excellence in Bible translation,” Dane says.
Obstacles threaten to hinder the work in Benin. “The Church is under great pressure because the government decided that voodoo will be the national religion,” Dane says.
“There’s a lot of Islamic pressure coming in from the north and, even though some 30-odd percent of Benin is considered Christian, Scripture engagement is really poor.”
Praise God for the five training events that have taken place in Benin so far, and pray for progress in the 11 language groups that began translation work. Believers want to do more, but funding restraints have caused a slowdown.
Support unfoldingWord’s efforts financially here.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
“People are so excited to hear about the creation, the fall, the flood, and the story of redemption in their own language,” Dane says.
“Most of them have never heard anything like this before.”
Work began in late 2023, and it’s already opening doors for the Gospel. Last year, “they did their first Open Bible Stories translation and shared it with a group on the border of another country,” Dane says.
“This was during Ramadan [and] during Ramadan, Muslims are not supposed to listen to anything other than Islamic preaching because they might miss what’s called their ‘night of destiny,’” he continues.
“But the translation broke through that tradition, so [approximately] 30 people gathered near the border with another country to listen to Open Bible Stories in their language. That’s a first in Benin, and in listening sessions like we’ve seen the Church in Africa successfully lead Muslims to Christ.”
Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Kenza Loussouarn/Pexels.
