The Word for the least, the last and the lost

From The Joyful Shepherd by Cyncie Smith.

The number of languages with none of God’s Word dropped to 1,976 in October. Though much work remains, this number shows good progress.

The progress comes little by little. Also in October, six languages in NW Cameroon received God’s Word for the first time, a collaboration of mother-tongue and SIL translators, with two other organizations. Bob Creson, the president of Wycliffe Bible Translators shared the story.

He said the people in the Misaje language cluster can now read  the parable of “the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. In both of these, Jesus illustrates the heart of the Father and the extent to which He will go for one person--God extending His grace and love to the least, the last and the lost.” What perfect first parables to hear.

Paul Kom, a mother-tongue translator, reflected, "Indeed, the world allows the more important issues of life to go unnoticed... If it were an important government official coming into the village, the whole village would be mobilized. But here comes the Word of God (Jesus Christ)… and He comes relatively in the midst of oblivion. But God is using ‘the foolish things of the world to shame the wise’ and ‘the weak things to shame the strong’ (1 Corinthians 1:27)."