However, growth remains limited without God’s Word.

“What happens in some of these disciple-making movements and church-planting movement networks is that the expansion is quite rapid, but where the Scriptures are not available, some of the strength of that development can be compromised,” Mark Flood of unfoldingWord says.

Equipping church planters for Bible translation

People groups often remain unreached because they’re in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places. When Bible translators are unavailable, church planters take on the task themselves.

“Due to the need, they were endeavoring to do Bible translation with little or no resources,” Flood explains.

unfoldingWord began creating tools for these church planters turned Bible translators in 2018.

“Because we’ve always had a heart to serve and equip the Church wherever it is, we began to look at how we could provide basic-level training to people across the globe who would never have the opportunity to attend a training event,” Flood says.

(Screenshot)

Now, unfoldingWord is building a central hub to make access easier: FoundationsBT.com, which offers a suite of resources for Bible translators working among unreached people groups.

“We created the video series, then this coaching and equipping framework, and then the third component is the BT Servant, which is an AI-assisted chat that helps individuals to access the higher-level content that we have created,” Flood says.

Early results point to stronger discipleship

The work isn’t finished yet, but Gospel workers are already seeing results. “We’re early in the process, but we’re quite encouraged by some of the early impacts and stories,” Flood says.

“Where these translations can happen, you have this strengthening, equipping, bolstering effect. They’ve seen that fuel the disciple-making process and strengthen those disciples that are being made.”

Pray the unfoldingWord team will have wisdom as it completes work on FoundationsBT.com. Ask the Lord to guide and protect believers as they seek to share the Gospel with unreached people groups.

“This work of advancing the Gospel, strengthening the Church, translating Scripture, it’s a difficult one, fraught with a lot of barriers, and there certainly is spiritual opposition as well,” Flood says.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

“They can go where Western missionaries can’t go,” unfoldingWord’s Perry Oakes says.

“A lot of the people using these book packages are in really difficult situations. We know of partners that, you know, bombs are going off while they’re translating the Bible.”

Book packages provide the digital tools translators need to check their work. “We’re putting in their hands what a consultant would do for them,” Oakes says.

“[Book packages contain] a literal translation, a simplified translation, a set of verse-by-verse notes that alert the translator, ‘Okay, here’s some problems that you’re going to encounter in this verse or in this passage,’ and then we also have a dictionary with definitions of difficult words.”

(Photo courtesy unfoldingWord)

Book packages have been completed for 53 of the Bible’s 66 books. Pray for wisdom as unfoldingWord creates software for the remaining 13 books.

“We are getting a lot of feedback from the field on both how useful the book packages are and how they could be delivered better, and so the software that delivers all of these resources is continually being tweaked,” Oakes says.

Ask the Lord to guard Bible translators who are using book packages.

“Pray that they would be protected from governments that don’t want them to be doing this, from wars that are happening around them.”

Consider partnering with unfoldingWord to help the ministry develop additional resources.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

(Photo courtesy unfoldingWord)

Bible translators have brought God’s Word to roughly 4,000 language communities since the first century, yet serious needs remain today.

Perry Oakes of unfoldingWord says, “There are thousands of languages that still need Bibles and only a few hundred Bible translation consultants – most of them around my age and thinking about retirement.”

Discovering a problem

Trained as a Bible translator, Oakes later became a translation consultant. While a translator creates the translation, a consultant reviews it for accuracy, clarity, and faithfulness to the original text.

“I was trained in the traditional way: go to a tribe, learn their language, and translate the Bible,” Oakes says.

“It became pretty clear that this was a very slow process, and probably would not get the job done all over the world if they (language communities) were relying on people like me.”

Oakes says the lack of Western translation consultants creates a bottleneck, stopping progress worldwide. Furthermore, “The people need to do it for themselves, not only because there aren’t enough of us, but also because languages change,” he explains.

“They’re going to want to revise their Bibles in the future, and we’re not going to be around to do that.”

Creating a solution

Software from unfoldingWord called “book packages” allows indigenous translators to check their own work, removing the need for Western consultants and keeping projects on track.

“We’re putting in their hands what a consultant would do for them. These tools not only allow them to translate the Bible, but maintain those translations forever,” Oakes says.

“The core of the book packages is a literal translation – this is what the Greek says, this is what the Hebrew says – and then a simplified translation to go alongside it,” he continues.

“With those two things, a translator has a lot of what he needs to translate the Bible into his language.”

Along with the two translations, book packages contain a set of verse-by-verse notes and dictionary definitions of difficult words.

“Maybe there’s some difficult grammar, or some idiomatic phrases, or some metaphors – the notes alert the translator to those things. Then, if the note just isn’t enough, there’s always a link from that note to an article about that issue,” Oakes says.

(Photo courtesy unfoldingWord)

Prayer and partnership

Oakes and his team develop the book packages in English first. Then unfoldingWord teams up with other major networks of believers to translate the resources into Gateway Languages such as Russian or Modern Standard Arabic.

See how unfoldingWord’s Gateway Languages Strategy helps minority language communities receive God’s Word.

unfoldingWord is developing software for each book in the Bible. “We have 13 more book packages to put together, including some of the really big, difficult books of the Old Testament like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel,” Oakes says.

“We will be tackling those this year and putting out at least phase one, but we do want to go back and further refine them as we get feedback from the field and have a little bit more time to go over them.”

Pray for Oakes and his team as they strive to complete the remaining book packages. Pray for clarity and that the completion process will be smooth, with no major obstacles. Consider partnering with unfoldingWord here to help them develop additional resources.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

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.

Dane with unfoldingWord says an ongoing blackout cut them off from Bible translators in Iran.

“With the internet shut down, they’re all just kind of focused on staying out of view,” he explains.

Tehran protests began in late December over inflation. Then, the language quickly morphed into anti-regime rhetoric. The movement gained support early on from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened intervention before the country went dark.

Translators press on

Despite the risk, believers will continue translating the Bible into Iran’s minority languages. Project Director Siroos Torabi tells Dane:

“God has placed it in human nature to seek the truth. This was dangerous, even in Jesus’ time. But the danger could not stop the spread of the good news, and obviously, it’s not going to stop it now.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

In partnership with Transform Iran, “they’re working on translations into 20 ethnic languages,” Dane says. Learn more about the project here.

“Four of those are for complete Bibles, and the rest are other Christian materials, such as unfoldingWord’s Open Bible Stories.”

“Something I could not ignore”

Bible translation is on pause while believers remain in hiding. Even so, the Holy Spirit is still at work in Iran. A Muslim scholar recently came to Christ after reading Scripture in his heart language, Arabic Khuzestani.

“He said, ‘The first chapter of the Gospel of John captivated me,’” Dane shares.

“‘The text was simple, but at the same time, so profound and unique that I either had to accept it as truth or believe it was all a lie. But the feeling that I felt in my heart as I read these words was not something I could ignore.’”

Now, the man boldly proclaims the Gospel truth. “When Muslims come to Christ like this, they put their lives on the line to share it,” Dane says.

How to help

Ask the Lord to protect His followers in Iran and provide for their daily needs.

“Pray that they can manage to get some medium of exchange that is worth something because the Iranian currency is completely devalued now,” Dane requests.

“I pray that the plans of good men and women will prevail, and the plans of evil men and women will collapse upon their heads, and that God would deliver this beautiful country from the thieves that took it over 47 years ago.”

Header image is a representative AI photo generated by ChatGPT depicting protests and prayer in Iran.

Dane with unfoldingWord says 85 people from 18 countries gathered recently in Kenya for the Global Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum. “It was just excellent,” he states.

“The Spirit of God was definitely present, and everybody was encouraged.”

One pastor shared how God was answering 40 years of prayer for the Masalit in his homeland.

Masalit tribal dancers at a 2014 event in Darfur, Sudan.
(Photo courtesy UNAMID via Flickr/CC)

According to Joshua Project, the Masalit are a non-Arab people group living primarily in Sudan and neighboring Chad. Classified as a “frontier” unreached people group, nearly all Masalit identify as Muslim.

By God’s grace, Sudanese Masalit trained by unfoldingWord are using church-centric Bible translation to reach the Masalit in Chad.

“This formerly unreached people group now has more than 150 who have come to Christ out of Islam in Chad,” Dane says.

Shifting paradigms

Testimonies and training sessions filled the forum, along with field reports, networking, and breakout sessions. Participants agree that one training on sustainability introduced a helpful paradigm shift.

Instead of viewing Bible translation as a project, “sustainable church-centric Bible translation takes this on as a mission assignment from God,” Dane says.

“Bible translation becomes a foundational, fundamental part of any growing church network in any part of the world.”

Sustainable church-centric Bible translation requires capacity building, training, local ownership, and leadership. Pray that church networks will achieve these priorities.

“The global Church’s responsibility is to translate the Bible for themselves, not ask outsiders to come and do it for them. It helps them develop really robust theological foundations,” Dane says.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

At unfoldingWord’s annual Global Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, “We announced an AI-assisted tool called BT Servant,” Dane with unfoldingWord says.

“This promises to be a highly effective tool; everybody that heard about it was excited.”

Attended by 85 translators and associated partners, the fourth CCBT Forum presented workshops, testimonies, and networking opportunities. More about that here.

“We ended up with about 85 people, including 21 ministry partners, 28 languages, and 18 countries represented,” Dane says.

“It was just excellent. The Spirit of God was definitely present and everybody was encouraged.”

BT Servant: AI support in disconnected places

(Graphic courtesy unfoldingWord)

unfoldingWord partners with church planting networks all around the world. These believers translate God’s Word into their heart languages using tools and training from unfoldingWord. More about that here.

The newly announced BT Servant app helps translators check their work. “You can ask it any question you want about Bible translation,” Dane says.

Through WhatsApp, “it will take you NOT to resources all over the world, but [to] our very specific, tightly controlled library of resources that help church-centric Bible translators solve problems as they are drafting or checking their brand-new translations,” he explains.

Typically, highly trained consultants review translation work and answer questions. However, “we’re not creating PhD-level Bible translation consultants fast enough anymore,” Dane says.

“The traditional systems of Bible translation just cannot meet the demand.”

BT Servant’s integration with the popular messaging application WhatsApp makes it ideal for Bible translators in underdeveloped or hard-to-reach locations.

“In many places of the world, their internet service is intermittent. They can’t get online or stay online for lengthy periods of time. The offline software is great but sometimes they don’t even have access to a laptop,” Dane says.

However, “almost everybody has one of these phones, and you can go pretty much anywhere in the world through WhatsApp,” he continues.

“BT Servant is a big, big deal, and I think it’s going to get bigger as time goes by. Everybody was excited to hear about it.”

(Graphic courtesy of Progress.Bible)

How to support Church-Centric Bible Translation

According to Progress.Bible, 541 languages are still waiting for Bible translation work to begin. The scale of the task highlights a critical gap that ministries cannot bridge alone. You can help by partnering with unfoldingWord.

“unfoldingWord does not make Bible translations. We make Bible translators,” Dane says.

“We need people who can capture that vision, see the exponential power of it, and join us as financial partners.”

Most importantly, pray. Pray that BT Servant will help expedite the drafting and checking process for hundreds of church-centric Bible translations currently underway.

Sign up to receive unfoldingWord’s monthly prayer calendar here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Brett Jordan/Unsplash. 

Today is day two of unfoldingWord’s Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, a gathering aimed at strengthening global collaboration in Scripture translation. The event brings together nearly 100 leaders from 18 countries and 28 language groups in Nairobi. Read about last year’s CCBT Forum here.

“Some of them work in countries that have religious opposition, all the way up to death threats and assassinations,” Dane* with unfoldingWord says.

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Kenya provides the neutral territory needed to facilitate a meeting of this size. Dane says, “We chose Kenya because it’s a very welcoming country, and it seems much easier for many of our global partners to get visas to Kenya than other parts of the world.”

unfoldingWord supports church-planting work among every people group by equipping believers with open-licensed biblical resources and training to translate God’s Word into their heart language.

“If we tried to do all of this translation work ourselves, we would immediately exceed our capacity. That’s why we are equipping an [independent] network of church planters and disciple-making ministries across the world with church-centric Bible translation tools, technology, and training,” Dane says.

“That network continues to expand, and as a result, hundreds and hundreds of new languages are being engaged in a formative process for them, individually and for their people.”

Learn more about unfoldingWord’s approach here.

“We’re not alone”: building a global family

The Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum builds upon unfoldingWord’s global church planting network, connecting believers near and far. The four-day meeting is comprehensive, offering education, training, and opportunities for collaboration and networking.

“Almost half of the people coming are new, and so it will be an introduction to how church-centric Bible translation works,” Dane says.

In addition, “They’ll have testimonies, and breakout sessions on overcoming barriers, security, funding, technology, and all of those kinds of things.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Believers gain more than practical skills at the forum. “What they tell us is, ‘It’s very difficult what we do, but when we meet brothers and sisters from other parts of the world who do this with us, we realize we’re not alone,’” Dane says.

“When they get to meet each other for the first time, face-to-face, it’s like this family that they didn’t know they had.”

Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill all the presenters and breakout leaders. Pray for the work that God is doing and is about to do through church planters and Bible translators.

Believers in Benin tell unfoldingWord, “We see Muslims giving themselves to Christ, imams giving themselves to Christ, kings giving themselves to Christ. Give us more. We want to keep going.”

Consider partnering with unfoldingWord to support this work. A $45,000 matching grant will double every gift made through December 31.

*Name withheld for security purposes. 

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

Joshua Project estimates there are 483 unreached people groups in the area, while The International Mission Board (IMB) reports 739. Regardless of which figure you use, both represent millions of people who do not know or follow Christ.

The Bible is available in Modern Standard Arabic – a dominant trade language for the MENA region – but Dane with unfoldingWord says, “Many have a tribal language or a heart language which is not Arabic, and millions of people do not have their own translation of the Bible.”

Now, unfoldingWord is working to change this disparity by helping believers in the MENA region translate God’s Word for themselves. Learn about unfoldingWord’s strategy here.

“All of our Bible translation tools need to be translated into Modern Standard Arabic, and from Modern Standard Arabic, they can then go into all of the languages that cover the Middle East and North Africa,” Dane explains.

Modern Standard Arabic: A gateway for the region

Modern Standard Arabic is the “gateway” language for 20 to 24 countries, many of which lack their own Bible translations.

unfoldingWord’s Middle Eastern translation partners “are experts in Modern Standard Arabic, and they are deeply committed to sharing God’s love with the whole Arabic-speaking world,” Dane says.

He adds, “They are translating unfoldingWord’s book packages into Modern Standard Arabic. From Modern Standard Arabic, you can then translate the Bible and unfoldingWord’s Open Bible Stories into other languages that are connected to Modern Standard Arabic.”

In places like the Middle East, Christians strive to draw closer to God, yet regularly worship with precious few Bible stories and verses available in languages they understand.
(Photo, caption courtesy of unfoldingWord)

unfoldingWord’s “book packages” are software tools containing everything needed to translate an entire book of the Bible — including “a literal translation, a simplified translation, a verse-by-verse translator’s guide, definitions of key terms, short articles about handling Bible translation issues, and they’re all linked to the words in the original languages,” Dane says.

The ministry’s partner “is translating book by book so that you could have a book package of Mark, a book package of Matthew, a book package of Ephesians, and things like that.”

Translating hope

While restrictions abound in the MENA region, the hunger for God’s truth is unparalleled. Help believers translate Scripture for their people by supporting this work through unfoldingWord.

This massive project, only a few years old, is already having a tremendous impact. Dane says in December 2024, a young man from Sudan shared the following with the Middle Eastern staff:

“Thank you for the book packages that you translated. We have, for the very first time, translated God’s Word into [the language of] my people group. My people group has never had this before. People are coming to Christ. We’re planting churches in Sudan and South Sudan because of your work.”

Millions across the MENA region are still waiting to hear God’s Word in their own language. unfoldingWord and its partners are making that possible — one translation at a time.

Learn more about unfoldingWord here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Ben White/Unsplash.

As an Illuminations partner, unfoldingWord catalyzes church-centric Bible translation around the world. Dane says unfoldingWord exists to see “the church in every people group and the Bible in every language.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

unfoldingWord partners with church planters and church networks worldwide to fulfill this mammoth purpose. “We don’t make Bible translations; we make Bible translators. We are equipping people to become excellent Bible translators,” Dane says.

“It’s the primary way God has called us to participate in the Great Commission. We catalyze and equip church networks so that they are empowered and successful in reaching the least-reached.”

Translation testimonies

On a practical level, unfoldingWord supplies tools, technology, and training to help church planters translate God’s Word into minority languages. More about that here.

“We see what we do as kind of ‘turbo-charging’ church planting ministries around the world,” Dane says. “They are already trying to do Bible translation because they need it; they can’t wait.

“It takes too long to get a Western missionary to go. They need the Bible like, yesterday, in the heart languages of the people groups where they are.”

For example, Benin has more than 50 indigenous languages. Many still lack Scripture, and the most recent New Testament took 20 years to publish. One church planting partner there recently told Dane, “When I first got involved in this and I heard how long that would take, [I] said, ‘How are we ever going to do this? How are we ever going to get the Bible in all these languages?”

Believers shared the following after receiving Bible translation tools and training from unfoldingWord:

“Our encounter with unfoldingWord completely changed our perspective. Now we know that Bible translation can be done in a more inclusive, effective, and efficient way than ever before. We’re proud to be involved, and we’re ready to make a sacrifice to make this dream a reality.”

Consider supporting unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” projects through financial partnership.

Most importantly, pray. Ask the Lord to bless unfoldingWord’s global work in Bible translation and church planting. You can also become an ongoing prayer partner here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash.