Montana was EPIC!
I just got back to Washington after spending the past week at the YWAM base in Lakeside, Montana, where I participated in the Engage with Bible Translation Seminar with several other YWAMers from around the world. It was seriously EPIC getting to hear about Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement from some of the leaders of this movement with Wycliffe Bible Translators, SIL, and YWAM. I learned so much in such a short time, and I cannot wait to learn more as I take the next steps to get training in Oral Bible Translation so that I can begin working on Bible Translation projects around the world!
The most exciting thing that I took away from this week is that, “God has a plan, and I matter in that plan, and He will answer any prayer that I pray as long as it gives Him glory!” This was the main message of Jo Shettler (86), a long-term missionary who lived with the Balangao people for 20 years by herself, and completed the translation of the New Testament in their language! Hearing the incredible testimony of how God led her to the Philippines and prepared the way for them to receive the Bible in their mother tongue was truly inspiring, and it sparked something inside of my heart to pursue the possibility of furthering the efforts of Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement around the globe.
Why Bible Translation?
Some of you may know that I have been wrestling with what to do next since I finished the School of Biblical Studies. I have gone back and forth between doing the Titus Project outreach or the Oral Bible Translation school, and this has been weighing pretty heavy on my heart for several months now. Well, I had a feeling that God was going to speak to me and give clarity about what is next when I went to this seminar, and my feeling was right. On my first day at the Lakeside base, I sat down and just waited for God to speak to me, and after a little while I heard very clearly that He is not calling me to do Titus Project this Fall, but He IS calling me to Oral Bible Translation school. I was honestly a bit shocked, but also relieved that all my waiting was over. Finally, I felt peace.
Throughout the rest of the week, I continued to grow in understanding with all of the new information I was hearing about what God is doing in the field of Bible Translation. Apparently, there is nothing more frontline than translating the Bible for the unreached to be able to engage with the Word of God in their own mother tongue. This is an extensively challenging process which requires a team of both missionaries and locals who all have to be trained and then united around the purpose of getting the most clear, accurate, and natural translation of the Word. To get through just the New Testament could take from two to ten years, depending on the people and resources available for that specific project. It is such a big task! Currently, Wycliffe Bible Translators (partners with YWAM) have completed 1,175 languages, there are 2,130 languages in progress, and yet, there are still 1,892 languages without a single word of Scripture, which is about 145,000,000 people worldwide…
(1) The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Luke 10:2, ESV
… There are thousands of missionaries who are already hard at work, translating the Message of Christ for the unreached. Unfortunately, the research shows that 90% of all missionaries are working in 10% of the unreached populations of the world, but Jesus already told us that was the case.1 That leaves 10% of all missionaries with the job of reaching 90% of the unreached populations, not fair! We will need to GO and join them if we want to see the day of Christ in our lifetime, there is no other way that I can see for all the earth to be filled with the glory of the Lord and prepared for the coming of Jesus than to send the Word out to the nations.2 This is a major part of the task that God has set before us, in order that the Great Commission may be fulfilled.3 This is why I am saying YES to the call of God to end Bible poverty in the nations, to join the 10% in serving the unreached for as long as it takes to accomplish the task at hand, because I know that God is calling me to GO, and I am willing to go anywhere and do anything for the sake of the Gospel.
(2) For the earth will be filled
Habakkuk 2:14, ESV
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Here is a video that gives an inside look into an indigenous Alaskan people group who has received the New Testament in their own language, and how this new translation has changed their lives by expanding their understanding of God’s Word:
What’s the next step?
Now I will be spending this next month at home in Aberdeen, raising support and charting the course ahead toward Bible Translation projects among the unreached. Then I will be going back to Kona for the Oral Bible Translation School (OBT) at YWAM Ships campus to get trained in OBT for three months before going on outreach to do an apprenticeship program in the nations, where I will gain some hands-on experience with ongoing Bible translation projects (location TBD). Oral Bible Translation is a pioneering ministry in YWAM that is working within the End Bible Poverty Now ministry (EBPN) to create opportunities for oral cultures to receive Bible translations in an audio format. I am really excited to step into the next phase of the mission that God has called me to, and I would love to partner with you as I prepare to get started. If you would like to learn more about the mission and how you can partner with me financially and/or in prayer, I would love to hear from you at matthewforrest.akre@gmail.com or you can click on one of the links below:
I would also love to share more about what I have been learning about Scripture engagement, but I will have to save some of that for my next post when I will be talking about how the “Disciple Making Course” has been going at Harbor City Church over the past month. I cannot wait to see how God moves in our community through your prayers and the steps of obedience that we are taking to share the Good News. God is good and the Bible repeatedly tells us that His steadfast love endures forever, I pray that you would be touched by the God who loves you today in a very unique way, and that it would be a surprise and a delight to your heart, in Jesus name.
(3) And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20, ESV
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