Genesis 11:7
Come, let’s go down and mix up their language there so they won’t understand each other’s language.
Revelation 7:9
After this, I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
Did you know there are over 7,300 languages in the world? One obstacle to the Gospel spreading is language barriers. From the tower of Babel in Genesis, we see humanity divided by language and relationships broken as a consequence of sin. And with over 17,000 people groups identified today, the world is still very much divided. However, we know how this story ends- with every people group and in every language, praising the Lamb of God.
The gospel still needs to be proclaimed and translated into thousands of different languages. Sadly, many unreached people groups lack a full (or, in some cases, partial) translation of the Bible. Even if they did respond in faith to a gospel presentation, they wouldn’t be able to experience the growth that comes from regularly reading God’s word.
Supporting Bible translation and distribution has been a big part of Emmanuel Faith’s outreach endeavors. EFCC missionaries are working on translation projects for a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. Others are involved in paraphrasing passages for ethnic minorities in India. Another assists with mapping the progress of translation around the world.
Let’s pray that the Bible would be translated into every known language and that people groups from every corner of the globe would be able to meditate on and be transformed by the Scriptures.
The Outreach Team