It was amazing: representatives of significant Christian organisations all gathered together to talk about Bible translation. For the last few days, a couple of us from Wycliffe UK have had the amazing privilege of sitting in meetings in Ouagadougou, where Christian leaders from a number of organisations were planning how to translate the Bible into the remaining languages of Burkina Faso.
There are a number of things which really stood out for me as the group worked through what they wanted to achieve and what actions they would need to take in order to get there:
The aim is not simply to translate Bibles; the different ministries represented in the room were concerned that the Scriptures would be used in written and aural form. The way in which the translation is started, carried out and finished must take this need for long term impact into account.
The group were also concerned for a holistic ministry. Bible translation, literacy work and language development provide an opportunity for socio-economic development and this is a part of the overall plan.
I was also struck by the importance of minority language work to all sorts of Christian ministry in Burkina Faso. There is lots of work in the field of HIV-Aids awareness, but this only has a limited effect because the materials are only available in the larger languages. The broad plan for Bible translation takes into account the need to make these materials available in all of the languages of the country. The Director of GBU, the main student ministry (a sister of UCCF in the UK) insisted that although university students read French well, they still need access to the Bible in their own language so that they can be witnesses to their families.
It was a huge encouragement to see the dedication and Godly ambition of our Burkinabé colleagues.
We were in Burkina researching a project that can be sponsored by BibleFresh in the UK. You will be able to read more about this on the BibleFresh site over the coming months.
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Tags: Africa, Burkina Faso
[...] planning to translated the Scriptures for the remaining languages in Burkina Faso (read about them here). During the meetings, I found myself musing on the issue of how long it will take to actually do [...]
[...] reading: Tim describes the purpose of the trip Tim’s report on the trip in full Eddie and Phil’s visit to Burkina Faso Back to blog homepage.Go to main Wycliffe UK site.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sadness and joy on a [...]