Middle East/North Africa (MENA) – In the Middle East/North Africa region, also called the MENA, following Jesus often means walking a dangerous road.
Governments monitor Christian activity. Believers risk rejection, arrest, and worse. And yet, the Gospel is not bound. Dane of unfoldingWord says partners are bridging the gap for minority-language communities.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
“In partnership with the Bible Society of Jordan, unfoldingWord is trying to equip church networks with free and open Scripture text, translation tools, [and] translation training materials,” Dane says, “to meet the Scripture and discipleship needs of all the minority communities in the Middle East and in North Africa.”
Although the Bible is available in Modern Standard Arabic, most people in the MENA speak either a variant, a dialect, or a completely different language. In other words, a majority of MENA communities do not have the Bible in their mother tongue.
Thanks to unfoldingWord, MENA church networks are gaining the tools needed to translate Scripture into unreached languages.
“unfoldingWord has 27 ‘book packages’ for the New Testament in English,” Dane says.
“We hand them off to people like the Bible Society of Jordan, [who translate] them into gateway or strategic languages of the world. That’s what makes Bible translation wisdom, skill, and knowledge available to church networks translating the Bible for their own people.”
Visit unfoldingWord’s website to learn more.
Each of the 27 “book packages” contains “a literal translation of the Bible, a simplified translation of the Bible, a verse-by-verse translator guide, definitions of key terms, [and] short articles about handling Bible translation issues,” Dane explains.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord via Facebook)
“They’re all linked to the words in context. and the original languages, in a software package.”
Pray for receptive hearts across the MENA to encounter the truth of Jesus. Pray for wisdom and discernment as the unfoldingWord team strives to complete more book packages.
“Our team finished all of the book packages for the New Testament, but they’re still working very hard on the Old Testament. I think they’re about halfway through,” Dane says.
Header photo courtesy of unfoldingWord.
