Ready to reap a great harvest

By Andrea Bryant  |  Wycliffe Today Winter 2024 Edition

Vanuatu is a highly multilingual country, with lots of small language communities. People often question whether Bible translation work is really needed for these communities. Recently the answer to this question was answered by one chief we were interviewing during a survey trip. The chief said that their community would really like to see Bible translation done. The chief felt that if the Bible was in his language it would be like God himself was now speaking his language. And if God spoke his language that would mean that he was from that place and could really be his ‘Papa’, and not a foreign God.

With all of the language needs in Vanuatu, this also means that there are lots of needs for ‘workers for the harvest’. We would love to see God raise up more people to come and serve alongside these 50 language communities. We would also love to have some staff to support the work in the country. We have an urgent need for someone to oversee our centre and grounds as well as someone for personnel and finance work. The previous centre and office manager have now retired and replacement workers are needed.

Of Vanuatu’s over 100 languages:

• 6 languages have full Bibles (2 were done in 1879 and 1928)
• 20 languages have New Testaments (5 done in the early 1900’s, others mostly done in the last 10 years)
• 9 language communities have active translation projects
• 5 languages have revision work happening
• around 50 language communities are waiting for Scripture translation to begin!