Scripture for All Languages

Here is a big picture look at progress in Bible translation world wide... and a magnifying glass look at Bible translation down this dirt road in Mpanda, Tanzania. The following text is from a recent SIL prayer email.

Two hundred thirty miles northwest of Mbeya as the crow flies (much further by road) is the town of Mpanda where Wycliffe/SIL is beginning Bible translation projects in four languages. This is an area of Tanzania reputed to be deeply affected by traditional beliefs and witchcraft. In 2011 we had four families heading that way to pioneer the work. But the teams have en-countered many difficulties.

On 16th August 2010, there was a meeting of church leaders from 8 denominations at which the churches, with much enthusiasm, agreed to work together with SIL in starting a Bible translation and language development project to include Bende, Tongwe, Pimbwe, Rungwa and possibly some other languages in the area... It seems to me that almost as soon as families started to move to Mpanda, the spiritual attack started... The spiritual battle continued and now two years later, due to health and other factors, we only have one out of the original 5 SIL families based in Mpanda. We have a strong church partnership, which is very committed to the project and we know that God has a plan for the Katavi languages, but we are struggling to staff the project. Humanly it seems we are stuck, but I know God can do the impossible, so I’m asking us all to pray that God will show us His way... Prayer is our spiritual weapon, let’s use it!