It is a great day when a language community first receives Scriptures. Having the Bible in your own language changes the way you think about yourself, and the way you know God. But, for many people, these celebrations have no impact – because half the world’s population are illiterate.
Faith Comes by Hearing work with Wycliffe Bible Translators and other Bible organisations by sharing the message of God’s love in the language that people think and feel in, which for many people is oral. Their work means that, now, more than 5 billion people, speaking over 500 languages can access Audio Scripture recordings.
In order that people can listen to these Scriptures, Faith Comes by Hearing make and distribute Proclaimers, solar-powered digital players which have Bible passages stored on it. In March, the first Proclaimer was placed in the home of a Tolpan family.
Tolpan is spoken by just 350 people in Honduras. The New Testament has been available in Tolpan since 1993, but because of low literacy rates, it has been difficult to access. Only between five and ten percent of Tolpan speakers are literate in their mother-tongue, and less than fifteen percent are literate in a second language. So having the Bible in their language means having it in audio format.
At the end of May, a full distribution of New Testament Proclaimers is being made in the Tolpan community. But over half the world’s language communities still don’t have a New Testament in a language they can understand. Give the Story.
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