I recently received an email from a team leader in a country which we’ll call MM, where TWFTW is heading up 8 translation projects.

I recently had the privilege of doing some Bible teaching on an Oak Hall trip to one of the most unreached countries in the world, Japan! We spent time in Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, and the Mount Fuji area.

A few weeks ago one of our staff in Myanmar sent us this urgent prayer request: “The country is facing civil war in many areas, along with devastating floods, creating unimaginable suffering for so many people.”

Imagine what it must feel like to qualify for a place at the Olympics, and then to be considered as one of the favourites in your particular sport to win a gold medal. Imagine what it must then be like to have to pull out of your scheduled race after months and even years of training. It must be gutting.

The Guji people have waited 26 years for a full Bible in their language. Meet the Guji community in Ethiopia. This is the story of how in June 2024, they finally received the entire Bible translated in their native language. To celebrate, thousands gathered together to throw a massive party and praise God! But unfortunately, there are 3,000+ other languages that do not have God’s word in their native language.

Imagine what it must be like to wait 25 years for something to happen! That’s how long the Guji translation project has been on the go – but, just two weeks ago, the Guji people of Ethiopia finally received their full Bible.

The reason for this focus of this newsletter is mainly as a result of last month’s newsletter! A friend of mine responded in connection with an Albanian pastor, which led to a visit to Bristol, which in turn led to a visit to the nearby George Muller museum – where I was able to see his well-worn Bible!

Imagine living in a country that is completely closed off from the rest of the world, and where it’s forbidden by law to believe, or even speak about God! Imagine what it’s like to be banned from owning your own house, and to live under a regime that bans and burns Bibles.

It’s all about eggs – or is it!? Over this Easter period it’s estimated that 90 million chocolate eggs will be eaten in the UK – and if you laid them all side by side, they would stretch from the UK to Sri Lanka!

How a family's faith launched Bible translation projects in a poverty-stricken country. The powerful story of Kobus van Aswegen's entry into Bible translation.

Our teams are currently involved in 11 Bible translation projects in a particular south-east Asian country where Christians often count the cost of following Jesus. According to Open Doors this country sits within the top 20 countries in which persecution is hardest.

A Sunday in Slovakia: Sunday 10th December was a date that many Romani Slovak Christians had been waiting a long time for – the launch of their full Bible! It was a weekend of snow and ice, with temperatures well into the minuses, but with over 400 people crammed into the Roma church in Sabinov that afternoon, it was anything but chilly!

In their efforts to produce accurate and understandable translations, our translators often spend a lot of time wrestling with particular words or phrases. I wonder how they go about translating the word ‘selah’ when they come to the Psalms?

This month I want to travel back even further to the end of the 4th century to focus on another translation ‘giant’, who was dedicated to translating the Bible, whilst actually living in the land of the Bible. In fact, it is quite possible he did all of his work within a stones throw of where the New Testament actually began!

Tyndale was used by God back in the sixteenth century in a massive way, helping to bring a spiritual revival to this country with profound consequences. But Tyndale’s impact was only made possible because of the support he received behind the scenes.

Over the past few months, some of our translators have had to deal with very difficult situations; civil wars, cost of living, floods and natural disasters, with some even being closely monitored by unfriendly governments.

A few months ago TWFTW produced a report for 2022, and this was sent out to our monthly donors to help keep them informed of our work.

Did you know that 70%-80% of the world’s population are oral communities? That is about 5.7 billion people! Our vision at TWFTW is to complete first-time translations of the whole Bible in 1000 languages by 2050 and to help other translation agencies in as many other Bible translation projects as we can.

Around the world, people are zealously translating the Bible into their mother tongues. Less than 10% of the world’s languages have a full Bible translation. This number is rapidly changing as more and more translations projects are being developed.

As we dive into a new year full of possibilities and exciting work in the world of heart-language Bible translation, we continue to hold on to God’s Word to us – to love Him with all our hearts, minds and strength, and to love one another.