12/22/2008: Three Million to Have Scriptures in Their Own Language for the First Time
(Orlando, Florida)--Wycliffe Associates is helping fund a program that is translating ten languages at one time in the highlands of Tanzania. Three million people who live in the southern and rugged part of Tanzania, called Mbeya, will have the opportunity for the first time to have stories from the Bible in their own language.
Though about 78 percent of the population is literate, they can only read Swahili as a means to function in society. The Mbeya Cluster project is an ambitious effort to combine ten language translation projects into one that will expand literacy in the languages of Bena, Bungu, Kinga, Malila, Ndali, Nyakyusa, Nyiha, Safwa, Sangu, and Wanji. Hoping to preserve these languages, Bible translators will ensure their survival as the Scriptures will now be translated.
“This has a huge and positive impact on a culture, both spiritually and intellectually,” said Bruce Smith, president and CEO of Wycliffe Associates. “When a larger and nationalized language like Swahili is bearing down on a people group with a different language and identity, that group tends to have its importance in society diminished; and subsequently, their spiritual journey stunted,” he stated.
In some parts of the world, including this part of Tanzania, various distinct languages have enough common characteristics that it’s possible to translate multiple languages simultaneously. In Tanzania, the Mbeya Cluster project will be done by translation teams made up of missionaries and nationals.
A group of national translators, working in a common space with a translation adviser, are able to translate quicker because they are able work out the nuances of the various similar languages they’ve been speaking since childhood.
Not all language groups can be pulled together into a project like this, and of course, cluster translation can’t happen everywhere. Many languages stand apart so distinctly that the Bible can only be translated by a long, painstaking, dedicated solo effort.
The Mbeya Cluster project in Tanzania is already under way, with some 30 full-time workers and another 50 or so part-timers. By the grace of God, Wycliffe Associates partners will help fund the entire project through the end of September 2009.
In one remote area, 2,500 meters up in the mountains and 120 kilometers from Mbeya, the people heard the Word of God for the very first time in the same language they had spoken all their lives. For years they had struggled to understand the Scriptures in Swahili or, even more difficult, English. One local man said, in simple gratitude, “This is so good.”
During 2008, some 1,693 Wycliffe Associates volunteers served in 35 countries as part of the worldwide Bible translation team. Wycliffe Associates plans to send more than 2,000 volunteers to 41 different countries this year to build and renovate facilities, construct roads and airstrips, teach Vacation Bible School, help with language development and office work, oversee projects, use their computer skills, and much more. For more information, visit www.wycliffeassociates.org or call 1-800-THE WORD (1-800-843-9673).
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