You can enable safe and reliable transport for translation teams

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa, armor-plated crocodiles slide through the Congo River, river otters wrestle along its banks, and manatees coast through its tributaries. These animals share the water with several different language groups, many of whom thirst for God’s life-giving Word.

Members of a local church who came out to listen to the portion of Bobangi Scripture read

Many of these people speak the Bobangi language. A team of dedicated millennials who long to see their people have complete access to God’s Word, known as the Bobangi Bible Translation Committee, is translating the Bible into Bobangi. They have completed the Gospel of Luke, and Genesis is in the final checking stage.

To raise community awareness and test the translations, they must regularly consult churches, the first users of the Bobangi Bible. But reaching Bobangi language communities spread out over a wide expanse is difficult.

The translation team currently travels first by boat via the Congo River. The trip often lasts several days under an open sky, exposing the translators to beating sun or battling winds and waves under battering rain. The team then rents motorcycles or bikes to travel to the outlying villages.

Besides being dangerous, the river and roadways leave the translators exhausted, in no condition to throw themselves into testing Scripture.

Hiring boats or motorcycles, a large expense, subjects the translators to the whims of drivers, sometimes delaying the team for several days. Possessing their own vehicles and boats would save precious time and enable them to be much more effective in giving the language communities a voice in the Bible translation process.

 

The translation team attempting to get across a river

Due to these considerations, JAARS hopes to provide the Bobangi Bible translation team with two motorcycles, four bicycles, and two boats so this team can safely and efficiently reach those who crave the Word of Life.

According to Pastor Stanislas Nzita Nsafu, “These vehicles will have a major impact on the translation. [They] will facilitate river transport from one territory to another for translation teams during the testing.”

 

OPPORTUNITY $50,000

You can provide the transportation the Bobangi people and others need to complete their Bible translations by giving to Land Transportation.