What if You Don’t Even Have the Choice….

Hey ya’ll.  Today I wanted to share something with you that has been on my heart for awhile.  It’s also something that I’m joining in a team of other bloggers to promote awareness and opportunities for us all to impact the globe.

Back in October when I went to the Relevant Conference, I met some of the most amazing people!  I also was exposed to some groups and companies that I hadn’t been aware of prior to attending the conference.  One of these groups is called OneVerse.  OneVerse is a program of The Seed Company (a part of Wycliffe Bible Translators) that enables you to support local Bible translators as they make God’s message available in the language of their people.

I learned some really staggering facts from the OneVerse team…and honestly they’re things that bother me.

• Did you know that today, nearly one-third of the world’s language groups representing 340 million people are still waiting for God’s Word in a language that they can understand clearly?
• There are more people without a single verse of Scripture in their language than the entire population of the U.S
• In fact, more people live without a complete Bible in their language than without enough food and clean water combined.

And you know what…I’m not ok with that.

If you’ve come around here for any length of time, you know that my relationship with the Lord is tops on my list of important things.  I don’t talk about it every day with ya’ll here, but it is a part of my daily life.  Reading scripture is a part of my daily life.  In fact, one of my favorite ways to read it is to pull out the Logos app on my husband’s ipad and read the same scripture in multiple translations.  See the way it strikes me differently ya know.  And as I think about my hunger for and enjoyment of multiple translations of God’s word…I’m struck by the thought that there are millions of people….MILLIONS who don’t have even one verse of the Bible in their own language.

Millions of people who can’t even read the word of God for themselves….people who can’t even choose to read it or let it collect dust on a shelf.  Our society is one rich with choices…and whether or not time in God’s word is a choice you make for yourself….you at least have the opportunity to make that choice.  There is literally a crisis of Bible poverty…and it affects one-third of the world.  That’s a lot of people.

So…here’s what you can do if this bothers you too.  I’ve placed a button for OneVerse on the bottom right hand side of my blog that you can click on to support Bible translation.  You can sign up for a monthly sponsorship, you can make one time gifts, and if you’re like me and want to know where your money actually goes and how it’s spent, then rest assured that OneVerse works hard to keep costs low through partnerships, efficiency of scale and organizational capacity. 81% of OneVerse gifts are used for translation projects and activities directly related to the process of Bible translation, with 19% being used for administration, operations and communication.  It takes $26 to translate just one verse of the Bible.

You can go online and pick a group of people, but I’d ask that you join me and the other bloggers on our team to work hard to translate for the Vidunda people of Africa.  The goal really is to unite our resources, our reach of people, and make a difference with a people group by giving them a whole Bible.

Would you consider joining me….and doing what we can to end Bible poverty?

“Right now you have plenty and can help those in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal.” -2 Corinthians 8:14, NLT

If you’d like to get more involved or to hear what some of the other members of our team are saying about this amazing opportunity, you can check out our OneVerse Bloggers page HERE.