God speaks through His Word to communicate His character, His promises, and His invitation to love and know and serve Him.
But how can people know Him when they can’t clearly understand the words they hear or read—or worse, when they have no Scripture available to them at all?
More than 2,200 language communities still do not have true access to even one verse of Scripture. They need to experience God’s Word in their heart language.
It’s true that some minority language groups are bilingual, and they can read the Bible in their second or even third language, but it’s hard to connect with the message when it’s not in their mother tongue. It’s like trying to eat soup with a fork, or trying to read by moonlight. It might be possible, but not very effective, and certainly not very inviting.
Bible translation in the heart language invites people to truly encounter God’s truth.
Some communities have never heard about Jesus at all. They have absolutely no access to God’s Word.
For them, Bible translation can mean the difference between eternity with God and eternity without Him.
Bible translation is foundational to every part of Christian ministry. It leads to evangelism, discipleship and church planting. It leads to transformed lives as people learn to become passionate followers of Jesus Christ.
The work of Bible translation flows out of the identity of the participants as followers of Jesus. The belief they share provides them with the motivation for their ministry.
Wycliffe's vision is "God's Word, accessible to all people in the language of their heart", and their Mission is to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by 2025.
Each person who participates in Bible translation has been created by God, gifted by God and called by God. While they are a diverse community, they are driven by a single passion: The glory of God through the translation of the Word for every person on earth in the language they understand best.
I Had No Idea
This is one of the most common responses we hear from people hearing about Bible translation for the first time.
Christians who study the Bible are familiar with Christ's command to be involved in discipleship and world missions. However, many of those Christians do not realise that not all people groups have a Bible written in their “mother-tongue.” These people groups are “Bibleless.”
If you are among those who are hearing about “Bibleless” peoples and “mother-tongue translation” for the first time, you are not alone.
Penetrating Power:
In any language, God’s Word can change hearts.
Following is a story from the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, written by Nard Pugyao:
"When I read the Bible for the first time in my native language, God penetrated my heart with the message of salvation through Jesus Christ."
That’s the power of God’s Word when it is given to people in the language they understand best. It’s what Bible translation is all about—taking the Gospel into all the world.
Some 380 million people still can’t read about the saving power of Christ in their heart language. I was one of them, until someone obeyed the command to go into all the world.
In March 1956, when I was about 6, a tall, pale white man stumbled into my home village of Dibagat in the northern jungles of the Philippine island of Luzon. The man didn’t speak our language, so our elders asked him the best they knew how, “Why are you here?”
“I’ve come to learn your language,” he said. “I’d like to write it down and then give you God’s Word in your language.”
“Who is your God?” the elders asked.
“He’s the God of heaven and earth,” the man answered. “He’s the Creator of the universe. He created you, too.”
“Is He powerful?” the elders probed. “More powerful than the spirits that have controlled our lives from the beginning of time? Is He more powerful than our ancestors, the headhunters?”
“Yes, He’s more powerful.”
Hopeful, we started teaching this man, Dick Roe, our language. Maybe his God could free us from the spirits.
I talked to Dick often. He told us about his exciting God: “He has a Son named Jesus. He came down to earth from heaven and was nailed to a cross.”
He tried to explain the concept of God’s grace, but our lives revolved around the revenge killings of our headhunter ancestors. Grace didn’t make sense.
When I was about 13, Dick had to return to the United States to raise support for his ministry. But before he went back, he translated the Gospel of Mark and gave me a copy.
While he was gone I started reading the Bible for the first time, beginning with the Easter story and continuing through chapter 16.
Sitting on top of a rock, I read the Gospel of Mark in my heart language. It felt like I was actually there, seeing the characters.
But the further I read, the more distressed I felt. A mob of people came to get Jesus out of the Garden of Gethsemane. What did He do wrong?
I read as fast as I could. They accused Him of all kinds of false things. They mocked Him, spat on Him, beat Him and took Him before Pilate. Then the scourge and the crown of thorns.
It was excruciating to read that they forced Him to carry a wooden cross and then nailed Him to it.
Deep in my heart a hatred of God swelled. I shook my fist and shouted, “I hate You, God, for being so powerless! Why should I believe in a powerless God like You?”
With all my strength I threw the Gospel of Mark down to the rocks and started walking home.
I couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t protect His own Son. Our headhunters defended us to the death. Because of them, no one could touch us. I wanted a god like that, someone who would protect me from the spirits that demanded that we sacrifice our cows, chickens, pigs and dogs. This God didn’t even save His own Son.
Suddenly God reached down into my heart. “Nard, don’t you understand?” I heard Him say. “That’s how much I love you. I gave my Son on your behalf.”
For the first time I understood grace. I understood how much God loved me.
“God, if You love me that much,” I prayed, “I want to give You my life, my heart. It’s all Yours.”
I went back and picked up my Gospel, brushed it off and sat back on that rock to see what happened next. It was an incredible moment as I read that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Nobody in all of Dibagat, nobody from among the Isnag people, had ever risen from the grave. The resurrection story changed my life.
Dick came back to the Philippines in 1964, and I told him I had met Jesus. He was overjoyed. However, he had news for me, too.
“I’m excited about Bible translation work in your language,” he said, “but I have to go to Mindanao [in the southern Philippines] for the next four years.”
Disappointment filled my heart. I was hoping that he would help me grow in my faith in Christ.
But he continued, “How would you like to go with me? I’ll help you go to school if you help me finish translating the Bible into Isnag.”
So at about age 14, I left Dibagat. It was my first flight, and I clutched Dick’s leg and screamed as we took off. Terror filled me for the next 55 minutes. I decided that flying was meant only for birds.
But God didn’t agree. We arrived at the translation center and got to work. In the coming years, the missionary pilots became my heroes and I developed an interest in flying. Although I found it hard to believe that God wanted me to become a pilot, that’s exactly what happened.
After high school, I went to several aviation-training programs in the United States. I met and married Sandy, a missionary’s daughter, and we joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1977.
In 1979, Wycliffe assigned us to the Philippines, where I served as pilot and mechanic, flying missionaries, government officials and nationals to remote locations. I served with some of the same missionaries who had an impact on me as a young man.
On June 24, 1982, we experienced the greatest moment of our ministry. Sandy and I, along with our eldest son, Steve, packed 500 copies of the newly completed Isnag New Testament into a plane and flew to Dibagat to deliver them to my people.
As I loaded the plane, I wondered what would have become of me, and so many others in our village, if Dick Roe had ignored God’s call to bring the Bible to the Isnag people.
When we landed in Dibagat, my relatives came out to greet us. They helped us unload the boxes but didn’t know what was inside.
“Hey,” I said to my eldest sister as she lifted a box onto her head, “do you know what that is?”
“It’s just a box,” she answered.
“With New Testaments in our language,” I added. A sparkle lit her eyes. She lowered the box and hugged it.
“Are you serious? I’m going to have my very own copy of the New Testament in our language?”
My heart was about to burst as I realised again the penetrating power of the Bible and what it means to read God’s Word in your heart language.
©2006 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Wings As Eagles
Posted 18Jul09
Updated 19May11