Those of us with multiple Bibles in our homes don’t often think about Bible poverty throughout the world. While some can easily open their Bibles and drink deeply of God’s truth without any barriers, many believers cannot. The reality for millions of Bibleless Christians across the globe is that they don’t read and write in their culture; so even if they had the Bible in their language, they still could not engage with it personally.
But, God….
He has heard their cries and their prayers, and He has called other parts of the body of Christ into action to train heart-language speakers to record the Bible as Oral Bible Translations. Praise God that He makes a way! Oral Bible Translation (OBT) is taking the world by storm, and new projects are blossoming quickly. The Bible translation landscape is shifting; the work is speeding up because OBT is comparatively more expedient than the written Bible translation process.
This month marks the one-year anniversary of TWFTW’s start in OBT. We are excited, expectant, and grateful that God has produced good fruit in the Reli tribe of Uganda’s Oral Bible Translation Project, and we will be celebrating the completion of the book of Luke in their language as an oral translation around mid-year (2023). What a joy! Our gratitude is to God for His providential leadership in the collaboration and partnership with Faith Comes by Hearing, who has been a key partner in establishing this project.
This OBT project has created great joy among the Reli people. The whole community feels excited that their language is saved for posterity by the sacred recording of Scripture. They have a willingness and enthusiasm to get involved during the community check session where men, women and children come to listen to the Word of God in their heart language. Already, in such a short time, the identity of the Reli community is being revived. With their language being used in the Word of God, the Reli people are happy that God has come to them, seen them, heard their prayers and provided for them in many ways. Janet is one of the translators who has been directly impacted. She says, “I have been with my family on rent for many years and I had been trusting God for open doors, and when this opportunity to work as a translator showed up, I knew this was an opportunity for me. I bless the Lord for this provision”. She has now been able to purchase a piece of land. Praise God!
What has been witnessed by those working in OBT is that God uses the provision of His Word to them to empower and lift the people up. His ways are so much higher than our ways, and His arm is not too short to save. We thank God for this celebration coming up next month, and we rejoice with the Reli people that God loves them and has come to them. Please pray for the Reli translation team that they will remain strong, united, and committed to the work – strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, please pray that there will be provision of reliable transportation to ensure movement of the teams to far and near locations for community testing and mobilization.
In addition to prayer, another way to help is to follow us, like and share our posts on Facebook and Instagram to see more updates and info on OBT and the Reli people in the lead-up to the launch of the Gospel of Luke.
