Story number 4 for 3 Feb 1999

Throughout Africa, thousands of Christians are still without a Bible in their own language. Many are forced to rely on their memories after hearing the Gospel on the radio or through an evangelist. That situation has many mission groups actively working toward remedying the problem. SIM’s Mitch Mittower is in Benin, West Africa with a team of Bible translators. He says their work is involved and sometimes long in coming. “Nowadays, if everything can fall in place, we’re saying seven years-the language is pretty simple to break down and get into written form…and then from there, to be able to get all the phrases matched up.” Mittower says it is at this point where the process gets complex. “If someone has never heard of snow, you have to find an equivalent for it. In Benin, they would use something as white as cotton or something like that…but the process of just checking and re-checking is what takes the most amount of time.”