Missions Giving and Bible Translating

[JD731]

How do Baptists who post on this board give to missions and missionaries and how are you involved in translating the scriptures into non English languages?

 

[xlsdraw]

We have our own mission fund and missions coordinator. The missions coordinator is currently the vice president of our college and he spent 25+ years as a missionary in Romania.

We've been around or a little over 500k per year in missions giving. We have several of our own mission plants around the world as well as many others that we have taken on.

We're also involved with both Bible translations and Bible distribution.

 

[Deacon]

I moved away about a year ago but my previous church (Crossing Community Church) supported a translation team involved with a translating the scriptures into an east India dialect.

Much of their missions budget supports indigenous Christians working to educate and support local pastors. Coincidentally, the mission is called Crossing Cultures International

Rob

 

[JD731]

Excellent. We just finished our annual faith promise missions conference where we saw our missions pledges increase about 20% over last year to something over 225K. We support 85 missionaries currently, both foreign and domestic but very heavy on the foreign side. We have at least two families that are are now or have been, involved in translation into the languages they serve. We have great missionaries.

 

[xlsdraw]

Excellent. We just finished our annual faith promise missions conference where we saw our missions pledges increase about 20% over last year to something over 225K. We support 85 missionaries currently, both foreign and domestic but very heavy on the foreign side. We have at least two families that are are now or have been, involved in translation into the languages they serve. We have great missionaries.

Are y'all IFB?

 

[Marooncat79]

I am not involved in translation per se. i have given in the past for that. Not opposed to ot

Its a great thing

 

[John of Japan]

Bible translation is my bread and butter--literally! As a missionary to Japan I led the translation of a new Japanese NT, and now the team is working on an OT. Our NT is the first ever in modern colloquial Japanese from the TR. There was a previous NT from the TR in 1928, but it was in classical Japanese. You can access our work at our final editor's website: Lifeline Translation Japanese New Testament | 名寄インマヌエル聖書バプテスト教会

After coming back here to the US to teach in a Bible college and seminary, I helped institute one of the very few MA degrees in Bible Translation to be found. In the program I teach "Bible Translation Theory and Practice," and team teach "Translation Issues in Hebrew and Greek" with my son. I've had the privilege of lecturing on the subject in Indiana, and training African translators who are now working on a Pidgin translation of the NT.

In case you haven't figured it out, missionary Bible translation is my passion and my favorite academic subject. And the wife and I give monthly to missions. Our church supports several Bible translators.

And yes, I am unashamedly IFB.

 

[Tea]

According to this Wikipedia article, the full Protestant Bible has been translated into 776 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,798 languages, and smaller portions have been translated into 1,433 other languages. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 4,007 languages, out of a total of 7,396 known languages (including sign languages).

 

[David Lamb]

How do Baptists who post on this board give to missions and missionaries and how are you involved in translating the scriptures into non English languages?

Here in the UK we have Grace Baptist Mission, which is not a missionary society in the traditional sense, but exists to help local church send their own missionaries, and to support missionaries sent by other churches. Their website is here: Grace Baptist Mission – Helping Churches Support Their Missionaries Worldwide

As far as translating the Scriptures is concerned, there is an organisation called the Wycliffe Bible Translators, website here: Home - Wycliffe Bible Translators

 

[John of Japan]

Here in the UK we have Grace Baptist Mission, which is not a missionary society in the traditional sense, but exists to help local church send their own missionaries, and to support missionaries sent by other churches. Their website is here: Grace Baptist Mission – Helping Churches Support Their Missionaries Worldwide

I checked it out. Praise the Lord for them!

As far as translating the Scriptures is concerned, there is an organisation called the Wycliffe Bible Translators, website here: Home - Wycliffe Bible Translators

While I greatly respect Wycliffe and its translators, and have read several of their translators' biographies, they have several faults. The main one to me is that their translators are not trained in the original Hebrew and Greek. This means their translations are somewhat inaccurate, and I have heard of missionaries deciding to retranslate because of that. The reason I know this is that our linguistics professor has her MA under the auspices of Wycliff's partner, the Summer Institute of Linguistics at the U. of North Dakota, and she did not have courses in the Biblical languages. Also, their usual philosophy of translation is dynamic/functional equivalence, to which I object.

Another problem is that some of them use the Good News Bible as their source text, and it is a poor English translation. The original translator was Robert Bratcher, a liberal Baptist. His translation drew widespread approbation by translating haima (ἁιμα, blood) as "death" in a number of passages. He told a friend of mine that he did that because he objected to a bloody religion. The outcry was so great they changed it in the 2nd edition.

We have an unofficial connection with WorldView Ministries, which sponsors missionary translations around the world, including efforts by our graduates: Home | Worldview Ministries

 

[John of Japan]

According to this Wikipedia article, the full Protestant Bible has been translated into 776 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,798 languages, and smaller portions have been translated into 1,433 other languages. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 4,007 languages, out of a total of 7,396 known languages (including sign languages).

Which means there are still over 3000 languages with not a verse of the Word of God in their languages. Baptists must wake up to this sad and shameful reality.

 

[John of Japan]

Speaking of Bible translation biographies, a fascinating one by Margaret Stringer, an IFB translator is: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Led-Me-All-Way/dp/1498403034/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YA7DS05NQ5F6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kI3sbKX0ZqmtNve_Hi8Wqg.GlCpOofK9y3PsYECVQB9bNWHw_08YO-ag59hisfs9dI&dib_tag=se&keywords=Stringer,+Margaret.+Jesus+Led+Me+All+the+Way&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1764430984&s=books&sprefix=stringer,+margaret.+jesus+led+me+all+the+way,stripbooks,106&sr=1-1

Margaret Stringer translated the Bible in PNG, and has some exciting stories. I've met her and heard her speak.

 

[JD731]

Are y'all IFB?

We are IFB.