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To the ends of the earth
Jesus said we must "Go into all the world and make disciples of every nation (or language group.)" The Greek word "ethnos", has commonly been translated as "nation", but in many translations we are using the term "ethnic/language group." The term "tribe" can also mean ethnic or language group, but in SE Asia the term "tribe" also refers to "caste", thus to avoid the non-Biblical term "caste", which is the same word used to describe a type of animal, e.g. tiger or elephant etc, we have chosen the term "language group".
According to the Ethnologue published by SIL, there are 460 languages spoken in 1ndia. Thus 1ndia has 460 people groups with their own unique culture and language.
Jesus said we must make disciples of all language groups. In Rev 7.9 we see John's vision of people from every language before the throne of God dressed in white robes and singing, "Salvation belongs to our God." God does cherish even the smallest tribes in the world and His Word is being made available in each of their heart language.
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The Karan people. TWFTW is translating a Bible for one of the smallest unreached groups in SE Asia
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Please join us in praise for:
- The Yao team of Tanzania (pictured above) has completed the type-setting phase of their New Testament and Godfrey is currently doing the type-setting for the Ngoni team. These NTs will soon be published.
- Twelve new students were trained for four future projects starting in Tanzania in September: the Bena Manga, Bondei, Mbunga and Ndwewe languages.
- A major donor has made funds available for 21 Consultants-in-training to attend a two week workshop in Israel (3-16 march) to improve consultants' skills in doing their work. Barry will also be going to do this hands-on learning and touring around the land of the Bible.
- Praise God we now have 233 graduates from our TWFTW Diploma in Bible Translation, 288 students are currently enrolled and they represent 139 Bibleless people groups.
Please visit our website:
www.twftw.org.uk
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Two more New Testaments for Ethiopia
What a privilege it was to be with the Baiso and Gayil teams in Ethiopia a few weeks ago! I helped to consultant check the last book they needed to have checked in the New Testament, ironically, the Gospel of Matthew. I was recently asked, "Should this not have been the first book to be completed?"
Well, Mark is usually translated and checked first as it is the shortest Gospel. Luke is needed for the Jesus film, so it is often checked next. The church often requests the Gospel of John as it is probably the most published portion of scripture (in booklet form). Matthew has invariably been drafted very early on, but an epistle also needs to be published, and so on.....and then finally Matthew is also consultant checked to ensure every verse has been approved for publishing the entire New Testament. Matthew contains a large number of Old Testament quotes as it was written for a primarily Jewish audience , thus it is a good bridge to starting Old Testament drafting.
It was great to see the joy on the faces of the translators as the final verse was checked in their New Testaments at the end of our consultation session.
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Please pray with us for:
- Regine is planning on 30 different training events this year in 8 countries. Please pray for the required funding and logistics for training venues, lecturers, and for the students who will attend.
- Two new training events will be in DRC in March, which is still unstable due to political unrest. Nigeria will also have training for new translation teams in April.
- Pray for funding for 3 new projects in Sudan (Barta, Ruwa and Tocho). TWFTW Ethiopia is planning to partner with Wycliffe in these largely muslim people groups.
- Gudrun willl be doing consultant checking for 3 months in Tanzania as well as going to Ghana for a 2 week consultant training course.
- Pray for the 21 consultants and consultants in training who are travelling to Israel for training (3-16 March). They are coming from various countries: India (6), Ethiopia and Nigeria (7), Tanzania (2), South Africa (3), Slovakia (1), Finland (1) and UK (1). Pray for safety in travel and a very effective two weeks of learning.
- Pray for Daniel Davies who is coming on board as the part-time CEO for TWFTW UK, possibly in April. He will still work for his company 3 days a week, but will give 2 days a week to serve TWFTW UK.
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