A Bible translation team breaks a huge project into manageable bites

International (MNN) ― Today, nearly 30% of the world's language groups have yet to be introduced to Scripture.
OneVerse is a program of The Seed Company that enables people to support local Bible translators as they make God's message available in the language of their people.

Specifically, says spokesman Michael Courier, "There are currently close to 340 million people who have no access to God's Word whatsoever. They don't have a verse of Scripture in their language. That's the remaining need."

Bible translation costs money and time, and a lot of it! It's tough to get people to participate on an individual level, mostly because when individuals look at the costs associated with the project, they think, "I can't touch that with my measly $30."
That's why OneVerse came into existence five years ago. The idea behind it was to break down the translation cost to more manageable bites, like $26 per verse. One verse at a time? There are just over 31,000 verses in the Bible.

Due to the cluster translation projects, the translation timeline doesn't take as long as it used to. Demand for these Scripture portions has started to rise, and funding was the only thing holding the teams back.

Courier explains, "The greatest value for these translation programs is to have a monthly sponsorship: $26 a month. When you get your receipt and statement, you see the verse that you actually sponsored on there."

The project generates its own energy once people start to own their part. In fact, "We've had some homeschool groups collectively identify a language that they really want to sponsor. Then they get to know about the people group, where they live, who is the translation team, the dedicated local speakers who are doing the work, and they pool their resources and sponsor multiple chapters."

Because kids were getting involved, The Seed Company also launched a program to get them busy connecting with the process not only of translation, but also sharing. It's called "KidsDiscover."Courier explains, "It's focused around teaching your kids how to be storytellers, learning the art of storytelling. It's a free 10-week program. We have ten weeks that cover the Old Testament, and then ten weeks that cover the New Testament collections of stories."

Another point of connection for KidsDiscover participants is that many of the people groups targeted by OneVerse are pre-literate. The kids learn the truth of Scripture the way some of the pre-literate groups do: via oral tradition. "This is a tool to explain the value of storytelling in the context of your family, but also in the context of these language groups who are, very often, pre-literate. They don't read and write, but they do tell stories."

Then, when the Scripture is made available in the written form, there's a deeper connection to the group. Reaching a goal to begin Bible translations in all 2,100 remaining languages by 2025 will take extreme effort from prayer warriors to translators.

There are more ways you can help here.