By LINN ANN HUNTINGTON
Hays
Jeewan Rai is passionate about Bible translation.
Rai is project manager for Wycliffe Associates’ Bible translation programs in Nepal. He will be the keynote speaker at a Wycliffe banquet at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 29, in the Black and Gold Room of the Fort Hays State University Memorial Union.
Rai explained that Bible translation when he was a boy was the “family business,” a business that he is determined to carry on.
“Father was a Bible translator,” Rai said. “He was also a poor man, receiving $10 to $12 per month to feed my mother, me and my brother. I often wondered about his passion for Bible translation. I knew how hard it was for him.
“He would often walk for days in difficult mountainous terrain to teach from the translated Word of God. I now know his passion was a result of God loving him first, and I saw the impact of having scriptures in his own language.”
That same passion has been carried down as Rai works with local churches in Nepal to start new Bible translation projects.
Wycliffe Associates, which began in 1967, is a ministry that works to accelerate the work of Bible translation around the world.
The ministry does that in three ways, according to information provided by Shelly Waterson, Wycliffe’s director of marketing and communications.
First, Wycliffe works with national Bible translators in each country to provide God’s Word in their own “heart language.” Secondly, it partners with the local church to guide translation work, Waterson said. Lastly, Wycliffe engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training and support for Bible translation.
Currently, Wycliffe is at work in 76 countries and in 2016 mobilized more than 7,000 volunteers and staff members.
There are 7,097 different languages spoken in the world; 3,771 of those still do not have a Bible. And, 2,000 of those languages are oral-only because they have no written alphabet. For those oral-only languages, Wycliffe is providing spoken translations of the scriptures, said Noel Davis, Wycliffe’s South Central area director in the U.S.
Wycliffe’s goal is to have a Bible completed in every language in the world by 2025, Davis said.
One of the new strategies that Rai will be discussing is Wycliffe’s Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation (MAST) Workshops. Under this method of Bible translation, local translators working in teams of 10-12 translate several passages in the same book of the Bible simultaneously and then check each other’s work.
This new method has speeded up Bible translation tremendously, Davis said. Rather than sending in people to totally learn a new language and then translate the Bible into that language, MAST utilizes local believers who already know the language. Translations that used to take years are now possible in just a few weeks.
The MAST concept had its trial run in Nepal in 2014. Working 12 hours a day, local translators were able to translate the four Gospels and I and II Timothy in just two weeks, Davis said.
Nepal is primarily a Hindu country, so Bible translators often face ostracism from neighbors and family members who are upset with them for abandoning the traditional religion. Some Christians in Nepal have even been physically threatened by Hindu extremist groups.
Rai said, “It brings me tears of joy to see a local church so united for His Word.”
Those local churches include those in his home country of Nepal, but also the churches in Hays. Rai said he is looking forward to sharing with the Hays community how God is opening the hearts of Nepali nationals to help expedite Bible translation—all for the sake of those still waiting to read the scriptures in their native tongue.
There is no cost to attend the banquet April 29, but tickets are required. Those complimentary tickets are available by calling (785) 650-2342 or by e-mailing Linn Ann Huntington, the local coordinator, at [email protected]/. Reservation deadline is April 20.
Huntington said, “In Matthew, Chapter 24, Jesus talked about what would happen in the ‘last days’ to signal his return to earth. One of the things Jesus said was that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come,’ Matthew 24:14 (NKJV).
“It is incredible to see that prophecy being fulfilled in our own time, that the gospel is truly going to every language group on this earth. I hope people in Hays will turn out to hear Mr. Rai and learn about the work Wycliffe is doing.”