It is 4:30 a.m. and the prayer call rings out on loudspeakers. One hundred Christian seminary students use that as their cue to assemble in their chapel to worship Jesus. This day a team member from Pioneer Bible Translators is their guest. He shares that in their country, where we have just begun working, 450 language groups do not have even one book of the Bible in their language. When he asks the students how many speak a minority language, virtually every hand goes up. By the end of his message, fifty-five students express a keen interest in becoming a Bible translator! Friends, you have enabled that via prayer and financial partnership! Thank you!
God is bringing amazing growth! The above is the latest story through which we see Him accelerating Bible translation. Did you know that by His grace we have grown from translating the Bible in 35 languages to 58 languages and from 185 to 356 teammates in the last six years? Did you know we currently have enough recruits in the pipeline to double our current number of overseas missionaries? I write first and foremost because I want you to be fully aware of this growth and to thank you for all you are doing to make this happen. God is at work. Your investment will not return void! Bible translation is fundamental to fulfilling the Great Commission – guaranteed by God to produce results till Jesus returns.
As you consider your year-end giving, will you make Bible translation a high priority? Would you share so the spiritually impoverished can feast on God’s Word? Will you equip the Bible translators who are investing their lives in Bible translation? As we come to the close of 2012, we need to raise $141,500 to fund our highest priority needs, including translation, printing equipment, distribution, two vehicles to be shared by the missionaries in their regions, and opportunities in the Islamic nation where more than 55 seminary students are interested in becoming Bible translators.
Praise God, we have a matching grant for the first $50,000 of the above needs. We can accomplish this if a few who are in a position to do so can give sacrificially at the $10,000 or $5,000 level, the majority can give $1,000, and the rest can give $50 to $500 so together we can complete these needs.
That all may hear,
Greg Pruett
President, Pioneer Bible Translators
