In their own words..

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela 

“When God’s Word is translated into the language that speaks to people’s hearts, it transforms lives. “Swahili words aren’t deep words to us. They don’t go inside us like Zanaki words do!” – Pastor, Tanzania, East Africa

 “…Churches were for old people who only spoke English, and even they didn’t understand it all. Now they read the Bible verses in our language, and the church is growing so much they added a second service. They only have standing room at the first service!” – Jessica, an Aghem (Cameroon) literacy teacher.

“I feel a great satisfaction in Bible translation. I am encouraged and have energy to keep doing the translation because I know my people will be able to read the Word of God in their own mother tongue.” –Bernard Diatta, national translator. Photo by Zeke du Plessis

Bringing God's Voice to the Small - God Speaks Kwatay

In thinking this week about the marginalized people groups of the world, I was reminded of another story, from a missionary couple in Senegal:

"We went to Senegal in 1990. We were expecting that we would be assigned to a large language group, one with hundreds of thousands or perhaps even a million speakers. But when we arrived, we found that the larger languages had either all been taken, or no work on them was currently planned. The top three priorities that SIL gave to us to visit and pray about all had only about 10,000 speakers. During that trip, God seemed to be clearly leading us to work with the Kwatay, a group of only about 5,000 people. I remember walking through the village the night we were there, and I stopped to watch a full moon rise over the point of a grass-roofed hut. A voice seemed to come to me, "Is it really worth giving your whole life to bringing God's Word to just 5,000 people?" I was struggling with that in my flesh - and it wasn't so obvious at the time, as it is now, where that voice was coming from. But then I seemed to hear another voice. It said, "How many churches are there in Weed?" Weed was my home town in California, a small mountain community of about 3,500 people. I started to count and came up with 8. The "voice" then continued, "Eight pastors who are giving

their lives to bring the Lord to that community, isn't it right for the Kwatay to have one?" We never looked back. God went on to impress on us from the Scriptures that he had never chosen the strong or proud or numerous, but he was always concerned with the widow and the orphan and the outcast - those who were small in the world's eyes. The Kwatay New Testament was dedicated in 2000. I think God is especially pleased to hear such a small group of voices gathered around the throne singing, "Úsali Atambatun!" ("We praise you God!")."

Access Equals Empowerment

Yesterday I referenced the incredible fact that English speakers were once also the "Bibleless peoples of the world", that had no access to God's voice in a language they could deeply understand.

As Bob Creson, the current president of Wycliffe USA, put it, "Did you know that John Wycliffe served the marginalized people of his day? He served the peasants -- the English speakers. Royalty spoke French; the Church spoke Latin; the nobodies spoke English. 'Don't cast the pearls of the Gospel before swine.'---That was the attitude of the Church during the time of Wycliffe, but he had a vision, a mission and a passion that English peasants, who spoke an 'inferior' language, should have access to the Scriptures. He said, 'Everyone has a right, even peasants, to hear and understand the Word of God.'"

In this letter that Bob Creson wrote to encourage missionaries, he went on to draw a connection between Access and Empowerment, telling several stories of how receiving access to the Word brings empowerment for change with it. One of those stories involves the Cacua people of Columbia. They are a small people group living in the jungle, that only received a completed Bible several years ago, but the turn-around in their village is beautiful! It shows a people who have been affected by the Word, not just on a behavioral-level, but in a way that has impacted every level: their self-worth, activities, cultural identity, and the treatment they receive from their surrounding villages. Their story is below!