Churches are translating the Bible for themselves around the globe, in different languages, in different ways, but to help you understand these various developments, we've woven the highlights into a representative account using fictitious characters. In this story, there is an established church in the minority language group but no one trained enough to do trustworthy Bible translation on their own. This story illustrates how a Strategic Language church with a heart for missions can come alongside minority language groups and help them grow and translate the Word of God.
Denpo is a fisherman who lives on an island off the coast of Myanmar. He belongs to the Tavoyan people group, and he faithfully attends the only church in his village.
Denpo’s pastor, Silas, preaches in Tavoyan, but he reads from the Burmese Bible. When Denpo reads his own Burmese Bible, he doesn’t really understand what it says. He longs to read the words of God in Tavoyan.
One day, Denpo tells Pastor Silas, “I wish we had a Bible in Tavoyan!” When Silas went to the village school, they had a Burmese speaking teacher who taught them Burmese. As a result, Silas can speak and read Burmese well which is why he can use the Burmese Bible. When he was in Bible college in Yangon, he spent much of his first year learning English because most of the textbooks were in that language. He knew exactly how his people felt when they tried to read the Bible in Burmese.
Silas couldn’t stop thinking about how he might be able to help his friend and the others in his village. He had attempted to do a Tavoyan translation himself, but soon gave up. The only translation tools available were in English and were difficult for him to use. Although he studied English, he wonders, “What if I translated these English tools into Burmese so his church could use them to translate the Bible into Tavoyan?”
The idea of Bible translation work excited Silas. He met with an old friend from seminary who introduced him to an American, named John. John was part of organization that helps churches create Bible translation tools in many languages. He explained that Burmese is a Strategic or Resource Language meaning that there are many people who understand both Burmese and their native languages like Tavoyan. If Silas and others could put English Bible translation resources into Burmese, this will give minority language speakers in Myanmar the resources and tools they need in a language they know. Then they can do Bible translation in their own language.
Later, Silas and John met with a group of Burmese church leaders to set project goals and identify needs. John began training Silas and other church leaders how to translate the translation resources, checking tools and training materials from English into Burmese.
<aside> 💡 You can read the story of how they create the translation resources **here.**
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After the team is confident that they have refined the resources to the best of their ability, John helps upload them to a free and open software tool for Bible translation. After several months of work, the team has not yet translated a single book of the Bible into Tavoyan, but they have accomplished something much more important. They have created a set of tools that any translator who knows Burmese can use to translate the Bible into their language! Not only that, they now have the ability to use the processes and tools they’ve created to repeat this for every other book in the Bible.
Silas returns to his village with his Burmese translation tools and invites people in his church and other churches to help draft a Tavoyan Bible. He trains them on how to use the translation tools in Burmese. In a short while, this team of translators has translated their first book of the Bible – Titus – into Tavoyan. They take this draft to church leaders and others and have them check the translation to make sure it is clear, accurate, and natural sounding. The whole church becomes involved in the translation process and even unbelievers are excited to hear something in their own language and give suggestions of how to improve it. When the church leaders have a version of Titus they are satisfied with, they make it available to everyone who knows Tavoyan.
One Sunday, Pastor Silas, opens his copy of Titus in Tavoyan and preaches from it. He can barely contain his excitement as he watches Denpo’s face light up as he reads it. After the meeting Denpo rushes up to Silas and asks how he can get a copy of the Bible in Tavoyan for himself. Silas explains that the Bible isn’t complete yet, but the translation team is in the process of translating it one book at a time. Denpo frowns in disappointment, but before he can leave, Silas says, “I have a copy of Titus that I can download to your phone right now.” With a little help from his son, Denpo loads the book of Titus in Tavoyan to his phone. Now, when he is done fishing for the day, he opens his phone and reads the word of God in Tavoyan.
Meanwhile in other villages, the same thing is happening as native language translators use the Burmese tools to translate the book of Titus into Shan, Karen, Kachin, Mon and many other languages thanks to the work of Silas and the Burmese Bible translation resource team.
Church-Centric Bible Translation: How it Works - a video version of this story