International (MNN) — Bible translation in least-reached communities comes with various challenges, often involving complex cultural, linguistic, and logistical hurdles. Despite good intentions, even well-meaning efforts can fall short of long-term impact.
Dane with unfoldingWord says, “There are places in the world where courageous and sacrificial Bible translation missionaries have gone and they’ve translated a Bible for a people. Now, note very carefully how I said that an outsider came in and they translated a Bible for a people group. Because of that, the people group really never took ownership of the Bible, they didn’t feel like it belonged to them.
“We call that a ‘Bible without a village’ because the village didn’t adopt it.”
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
That’s why unfoldingWord emphasizes church-centric Bible translation. Dane explains, “The church-centric Bible translation approach, from the very get-go, says this belongs to you. We’re not here to tell you what to do or to do something and try to sell it to you [or] get you to buy into the idea.
“We’re here to meet a need that you’ve already expressed – that you want God’s Word in your own heart language – and we’re going to equip you to do that.”
UnfoldingWord hosts Bible translation workshops based on community-expressed needs and available donor funding. These workshops foster cross-cultural understanding and spiritual unity among Christians.
As more languages receive Scripture translations, the ones that are left tend to be among the hardest to reach, often located in regions with restrictions or personal dangers. In these situations, it’s both safer and more effective when translation efforts come from within a local Church body or neighboring people group.
Dane says, “That’s one more reason for church-centric Bible translation because these are places where Westerners probably cannot go now and certainly won’t be able to go in the future.”
Pray God opens doors for church-centric Bible translations, especially in restricted countries and least-reached communities.
“A big, big need is to pray for cover, as I’m sure most of your listeners know the surveillance state,” Dane explains. “It doesn’t matter what country you’re talking about. We are all facing the rise of the surveillance state, and it becomes more and more difficult for Christians to avoid governments and cultural entities that would like to persecute them and destroy what they’re doing.”
For local believers leading church-centric Bible translations, Dane asks, “Pray for them to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves and stay out of the crosshairs of people who would stop what they’re doing.”
Learn more about unfoldingWord’s work here.
Header photo courtesy of Aaron Burden/Unsplash.
