text: We believe that the ultimate purpose of Bible translation is to equip the Church for the ministry of the Word in their own language and, as their vision for God and missions expands, into the languages of others as well to the glory of God.
  We are excited to be part of unfoldingWord and to contribute to their ministry of equipping the churches and networks of churches to translate the Scriptures into their own language.
  Equipping to translate is not new. As the director of the Tyndale Center for Bible Translation at The Master’s Seminary, my ministry was largely one of equipping. For three years, I had the privilege of preparing seminarians for the ministry of Bible translation.
  Yet now I have moved out of the seminary classroom and into the church. The focus is now on training those that local churches set apart from among their own ranks for the task of Bible translation.
  Furthermore, it seems that in God’s timing, now is the moment to turn our focus on the church! In many corners of the world, churches that have never had the Scriptures are taking the step of translating for themselves.
  In a small church in northern India, a pastor taught and preached in Hindi for several years. However, Hindi wasn’t his own language, nor his flock’s language.
  During this time, this pastor gradually became discouraged and started to question his ministry. For security reasons, I can’t give you his name nor the exact location of his church.
  However, before he got to the point of giving up, he was asked to serve as a translator on the committee translating the New Testament into his own language. He worked diligently at this new task, praying earnestly for the Lord’s help. When he found the task beyond him, he would remember his flock and all those without Scripture for motivation.
  This pastor recently shared that because of his involvement in translation, he now has a deeper understanding of the Word and greater commitment to preaching the Gospel.
  His passion for Christ and Scripture has grown. He feels that he preaches with much more conviction and clarity, especially since he better understands passages which were previously unclear to him in Hindi.
  When we reflect on this pastor’s experience and the blessing it was to him and his church, why would we not want to equip the church for Bible translation?
  As the news of what is happening in India spreads to other parts of the world, the interest in putting the church at the center of Bible translation is growing.
  From India to Vietnam, from Colombia to Iran, churches are contacting unfoldingWord!
  In fact, there are more churches and church networks asking to be involved in church-centric Bible translation than there is capacity to engage them.
  We are excited to be part of unfoldingWord at this strategic time.
  We invite you to join us as we respond in faith and obedience, giving our fullest to make Christ known among the nations through equipping the church to translate the word!