More people now have more of the Bible in the language they know best than ever before. In 2020, for the first time, speakers of over 700 languages had access to the complete Bible in their language.

This tremendously exciting progress shows the acceleration in the work of Bible translation around the world.

It is happening because God is working through growing numbers of people like you praying and giving. That is facilitating more local translators to be trained; the growing use of computers and generators to provide reliable energy supplies; as well as more specialist software to be developed that enables translators to compare translations side-by-side.

The Ellomwe people in Malawi celebrate the launch of their Bible The Ellomwe people in Malawi celebrate the launch of their Bible

Transformative progress has also been made in the number of new Bible translation projects beginning. There are currently over 2,899 active projects around the world in the global Bible translation movement.

This means we are on the brink of historic change. With your help, within the next 10–15 years we could see:

  • 95% of people having the Bible in their language (currently 80%)
  • 99% of people with the New Testament in their language (currently 90%)
  • 100% of people having access to some Scripture in a language that speaks to them effectively (currently 255 million people have no Scripture)

This will represent a key milestone in world history – one that your praying and giving will play an essential part in achieving.

A graph shows how the progress of Bible translation is accelerating

The Ellomwe people in Malawi were one of the communities to celebrate receiving the Bible in their language. Hundreds of people danced and sang to celebrate the launch of the Bible.

Senior Chief Nazombe, who received a copy of the new Bible on behalf of the Ellomwe community, said: ‘I am grateful to God that I can witness this in my lifetime.’

In the coming years, the prayer of everyone involved in the Bible translation movement is that many, many more people will be able to say they are grateful to God for seeing their people have the Bible in their language during their lifetime.

1 in 5 people are still waiting

With your help, 95% of people could have the whole Bible in the language they understand best in just 10–15 years.

Story by: Alfred Thompson

Date: 28/08/2022

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