International (MNN) — Most Christians will recognize the term “Bible translation” when it comes up in conversation. However, few people understand the time, energy, funding, and processes required to translate any amount of Scripture from beginning to end.
For example, did you know that before any translation work begins, you must first survey the language needs of a community?
“There are different kinds of surveys,” says Dan* with DOOR International, explaining how sign language survey works in Deaf communities.
“Some are what we call ‘rapid appraisal’ where you go to a country and figure out how many languages are here, where Deaf people congregate; are two languages similar enough that we can make one Bible translation?”
(Photo courtesy of DOOR International)
DOOR is among the few Deaf-led Christian groups doing sign language survey work globally, and the needs are overwhelming.
“We have a small body of staff doing this [throughout the entire] Bible translation movement. There are at most 15 people qualified to do this kind of work,” Dan says.
“We are 40 or 50 years away from having the bandwidth to do frontline research in minority sign languages. We have to work our way down several hundred languages in this list [first.]”
Less than two percent of the world’s 70 million Deaf people know Christ. More about that here. Pray the Lord will connect DOOR with qualified helpers.
“We need workers for the harvest. It’s a specialized field, and it’s a tough position to fill,” Dan says.
*Name withheld for security purposes.
Header and story images courtesy of DOOR International.
