Chad (MNN) — More than two million people in 100 language groups remain unreached in Chad, but the Open Bible Stories translation project is breaking through those barriers.
According to unfoldingWord,
Chad has many Christian missions, but they have never successfully engaged these unreached people groups. Mission workers report that this is the first time that any ministry has established effective connections with them.
unfoldingWord began teaching church planters how to do Bible translation a few years ago, starting with the Open Bible Stories. More about that here.
unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories is developed by unfoldingWord® and the Door43 World Missions Community. The illustrations are © Sweet Publishing and the entire project—text and illustrations—is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
(Logo, caption courtesy of unfoldingWord)
“The Open Bible Stories is a set of 50 stories from God’s point of view: what He did to create the world and how He’s saving people, to the endpoint of Christ’s return,” Arne* with unfoldingWord says.
“It is a great way to introduce a group of people to the overall narrative of Scripture.”
Chadian believers finished drafts of the Open Bible Stories in eight languages. Then, they brought the drafts to unreached communities for testing. “The Bible stories are ideal for basic evangelism efforts,” Arne says.
“You can carry a fair amount of early discipleship on the back of the Open Bible Stories. They’re theologically sound, and it appeals to children and adults alike.”
The Holy Spirit moved powerfully as people heard the Gospel in their heart language. One chieftain used to combine Islam and the occult, but then he met Jesus. Three churches were started in his village as a result. The Sultan came to Christ in another location, and new believers were baptized.
You can help Chadian church planters start a new project here.
“They (unfoldingWord’s partners) are preparing now to start a second group of at least another eight languages, and that effort is primarily geared towards engaging Muslims,” Arne says.
“It worked so well with the first eight languages that they want to do it again.”
Using the 50 Open Bible Stories completed last year, Chadian believers will now try initiating the Church-Centric Bible Translation process.
“We use it (Open Bible Stories) as a basis for training [believers] in all the things they need to know to translate well and organize their translation efforts. This sets the base for future translation expertise and capacity in the network,” Arne says.
“No matter where we go, we start with Open Bible Stories as the foundation. Typically, it will take six months or so to get through that series, and then the new network will have an introduction to everything it needs to know to make further translation efforts interdependently.”
*Pseudonym
Header image courtesy of unfoldingWord.
