Brazil (MNN) ― It has taken 12 years, but there's good news for a tribal project WordWinds International has been supporting in Brazil. Wordwind's Jarrette Allen: "They will actually be taking the Gospel of Luke to the Tembe people this month. This means the Gospel in printed form will reach the Tembe people for the first time ever. They're excited with that news because by the end of the year, they're on track to actually send to the printer the entire New Testament."
The people group, according to Wordwinds, is divided into six tribes and speaks the Tembé language, of the Tupi language family. Their population is estimated at 860 people.
Wordwinds says the New Testament translations are aimed at reaching people groups like this one for the first time with the Gospel. Allen says they just kicked off 'Operation 22' to finish raising funds for the Tembe project. WordWinds cooperates with their Brazilian partner, Missao ALEM, to provide roughly $175,000 worth of funding towards a single New Testament translation.
"We roughly run $22 a verse, so we're asking people to support a single verse for $22, or a chapter for 31 months of $22." Hence, Operation 22. The initiative is dedicated to recruiting members to fund the translation of a single verse (or chapter). These members in turn recruit more members, who in turn do the same. The end goal: the complete translation of the New Testament in a previously unrecorded language.
The window is closing both literally and figuratively. Allen says, "We have a very generous donor who has offered to match up to a thousand dollars all the funds that we receive by midnight on Thursday."
Pray that the Lord will provide the funding for the Tembe
project. Pray too that God will begin moving in the hearts and minds of
Christians and Churches around the United States to see the dire need
for funding Bible translations by national missionaries around the world. Click here if you can help.
