Most of us can speak a couple words from a few different languages. I grew up taking only a couple years of French classes, and I can still remember some words or phrases (and no, I’m not going to write them here :D). My kids are thrilled their uncles are teaching them a bit of Polish, and they’ve picked up a bit of Dutch (thanks to my grandparents!) and Spanish words. That piddly little bit that we know barely even touches on the vast amount of languages that are in the world right now.
That’s a whole lot of people without access to God’s word. A whole lot of people that YOU can help.
I’m partnered with The Seed Company and OneVerse to help spread the word on spreading THE WORD of God into the most far-reaching parts of the world. Places where they’ve never even heard the name of God spoken, or the redemption story of Jesus Christ, or known who created the heavens and the earth.
It’s so easy to take it for granted – these stacks of bibles and easy access we have to the Scriptures. So easy to push off the memorization and study of God’s holy words when we figure we can get to it later. Many of these people don’t have later. All they will have is this exact moment where God’s word is being brought to them from the hands of a translator. One moment where God will totally and completely transform the life of a man, woman, child who would never have heard The Truth otherwise.
We should never take God’s word for granted. Though we live now in a country that is free and we are allowed to worship the Lord, this may not always be the case. We don’t know what the future holds, and while we shouldn’t live in fear of man, I certainly do not want us to neglect the opportunity to hide God’s word in our hearts. He has used it to bless, challenge and encourage in moments where we may not have remembered the verses, had we not been studying through them already.
Last fall, I read an idea on The Poor Organic on inspiring our kids to memorize scripture (I can’t find it now!). Between Awana, school and our own personal memorization, it’s easy to get lazy and disinterested, taking for granted the word of God always at our fingertips. I had tried to come up with some incentives (stickers worked for a while) and motivation to keep us on track. Something would work for a while, then we’d peter out once again.
Our homeschool co-op group was working through Psalm 103 together last spring, and the challenge was to memorize it over the summer. I knew it was something I wanted to do, and though we didn’t complete it until December, it was such a blessing and thrill to hear our children speaking God’s word from memory.
We decided that for each verse they memorized, we would put $1 in a jar. Once we reached $26, we would go online to OneVerse.org and pick a language project to contribute to. Why $26? Because $26 is how much it costs to fund the translation of one bible verse. Where does the money go?
- Produce a first draft of Scripture portion after careful analysis of what the passage says.
- Perform a team check of the first draft to make sure it is clear and accurate.
- Test the new draft within the community to make sure it sounds natural and clearly communicates its intent.
- Check the quality of the draft by making a literal ‘back translation’ of the draft into English or another major language.
- Have professional translation consultants check the translation for faithfulness to the original languages.
- A final careful proofread of the translation prior to publication.
How can you help? Go online to OneVerse.org. Choose the area, then a region and language for the bible to be translated into. Read a testimony about what is going on in the culture. Choose to donate. Give so others can receive the Gospel message.
Join too in the #WritetheWord movement. Understand the commitment, love, joy that goes into the translations. The idea came from Traci, in order to inspire others to be passionate about God’s word and help to end a poverty of the spiritual and most important kind – Bible poverty.
Become a prayer partner – you’ll receive updates on a region you choose, along with information about the language, translators and people there.
Become a financial partner – commit to giving to sponsor One Verse.
We’d love for you to get your whole family involved in this. So I have a little giveaway of some of our favourite Bible resources, to inspire you to hide God’s word in your heart, be in awe of his Truth, and share it with others. We’re giving away a copy of Seeds Family Worship The Character of God, Hidden in My Heart (A Lullaby Journey through Scripture) and The Answers Book for Kids Volume 1.
Help us spread the Word of God and end Bible poverty!
