Bibles

How many Bibles do you own? How about if you add in those of your spouse and children? We have a lot - different versions and sizes, with commentaries and without. Last week I read a little children's book written by David Hazell and was, again, reminded how special it is to own even one. The Hazell family has been involved with Bible translation for a long time and David's book - God Speaks Numanggang - is the story of Bible translators and how one family worked for over thirty years to translate the New Testament into Numanggang. And how this family is still working on translating the Old Testament. It also stresses how important it is to have the Bible in everyones heart language.

Did you know that there are 6,909 languages in the world? Interesting, isn't it? But what about this: Only 438 have a complete Bible. Only 438 out of 6,909! That is not interesting; that is sad and downright shameful. But let us keep going. Only 1,168 have a New Testament. Yes, that is better than 438 but let's not pat ourselves on the back yet. 2,393 do not have a completed Bible, a New Testament or any sort of Bible translation in process! 2,393. 2,393 languages include bajillions of people and those people have no way of reading God's Word or learning about Jesus Christ.

Next time you pick up your Bible say a prayer for those who don't have the Scriptures in their language and ask the Lord to raise up people willing to devote their lives to Bible translation so that one day all people will have His Word in their heart language.

Statistics from Wycliffe Bible Translators and God's Word for the Nations