The Setting

The recent Bible translation workshop brought together men and women from five different tribes in Africa’s Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The tension was so high you could feel the hostility in the air. Distrust, resentment, anger. They were ordinary people scarred by the decades of war and violence. Each one had suffered extreme losses. Generations of tribal violence—civil war, rape, murder. People hunted like animals. Torture, mutilation, kidnapping, executions. Fear and anger and utter, total despair. They wonder every day—will anything ever be different?

Could they work together? When they could hardly shake hands or share meals? It soon became evident that the Holy Spirit was also present. As the national Bible translators began working their way through Scriptures, passage by passage, God’s Word began to take hold in their hearts.

The translators encountered God’s Word in the language of their hearts for the very first time. They came together in joy, unified by a common purpose: to translate God’s Word and glorify Him. Together they celebrated Jesus. If this can happen in a single room, in a single week—just imagine what God’s Word can do when it’s unleashed across the nation, in tribe after tribe after tribe!

The Crisis

This is the harsh reality of the DRC: the Congolese have no other hope. For years, we have tried. Bible translators from the outside have done their best. But the environment is so volatile, so dangerous, so chaotic, progress has been painfully slow.

The Need

The spiritual need of the DRC is not only that lost people need Christ. There are multitudes of Christians in the DRC who have never been able to truly understand the Scriptures—because they don’t have God’s Word in their heart language. They want to know what the Bible says. They want to know how to live for Christ.

The Opportunity

But today, we have a new kind of opportunity. The local churches are taking the reins. They are organizing Bible translation teams. They are willing to hazard everything, pay any price—they will risk their very lives, if that’s what it takes—to share God’s Word with their people. The only thing they need is the tools. The technology. The training. They need the computer laptops. The software. The digital links. They need the resources that will enable them to do the work.

They’ve asked us for help. With the local Congolese churches taking ownership of translation projects, we will finally be able to reach parts of this country that are impossible for outsiders to reach. Even in places we can’t physically travel to—because of the dangers, because of tribal warfare, or simply because local people are so suspicious of outsiders—local believers are ready and willing to take on the challenge of Bible translation.

They want to translate God’s Word for their own people—their family, their friends, their brothers and sisters. Pastors are actually pleading for us to train them, so they can lead Bible translation workshops themselves.

This, in fact, is the only safe, sustainable way forward—because this region is so dangerous and unpredictable for outsiders.

The Cost

God has given Wycliffe Associates the strategy. God has set the stage. Workers are available, right now. National Bible translators are ready and waiting to begin! The work can go forward faster than it ever could have before . . . IF we can provide the training and technology.

All it takes is $19,500 to launch a Bible translation—and once the translators begin, the MAST* strategy will enable Bible translators to accelerate their work.

Please help share God’s Word with the people of DRC—to set them free from vicious tribal conflict and violence. He is a mighty God and will use your heartfelt gift to calm angry hearts and save many lives.

*Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation (MAST) is a translation strategy where multiple teams of national translators work side by side to accurately translate books of the Bible simultaneously.

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