An Oklahoma City businessman who reads his Bible every morning wants to help others around the world do the same by helping them connect to God's holy word in their own language.
Mart Green, ministry investment officer at Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby, is helping to promote an ambitious Bible translation campaign that aims to make the Bible accessible in every "heart language" around the globe by 2033.
Green is sharing information about illumiNations, an alliance of leading Bible translation organizations, that has begun the "I Want to Know" Bible translation campaign. It's goal is to reach 1 billion people with little or no access to scripture.
The new campaign was fittingly launched in the days surrounding the Easter holiday in early April. Green said he has made it his mission to be a part of such efforts ever since he attended a touching ceremony where a man was surprised with a Bible that had been translated in a language he could read and comprehend.
Green said it typically takes about seven years for a New Testament to be translated, but it had taken 40 years for the man of the hour's New Testament translation to be completed.
Green saw firsthand how important it is to have a Bible translated into an individual's "heart language," a language that a person's speaks and understands more than any other language.
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"I went to a Bible dedication and saw a man weep over a Bible he waited 40 years to get. It just impacted me, and I realized that I'd taken God's word for granted," he said.
"The next day, I made a vow to the Lord that I'd get up first thing every day and read God's word for the rest of my life. I've done that every day since 1998."
Green said he learned at the Bible dedication that there were many more people around the world who don't have Bibles they can easily read and comprehend.
"In that exact moment I went from 'Why are we doing this?' to 'How are we going to make sure that everybody on planet Earth at least has access to the Bible?'"
The business leader has financially supported efforts like the new Bible translation campaign over the years, and he knows there are people in the community who want to help do the same.
The “I Want to Know” campaign gives people the opportunity to sponsor the translation of one or more Bible verses. In this way, they can aid in the translation of one of the 3,800 language communities worldwide that don't have a complete Bible. According to illumiNations, more than 2,000 of those languages don’t have a single verse of Scripture yet.
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The partnering agencies that make up illumiNations are: American Bible Society, Biblica, Deaf Bible Society, Lutheran Bible Translators, Pioneer Bible Translators, Seed Company, SIL International, United Bible Societies, The Word for the World and Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.
Green said by partnering together, the organizations can get the translations done much more quickly than if they were working separately.
"What we're doing is we're collaborating all together. They did the research, and it was going to be the year 2150 before the last translation got started, and that's just unacceptable. So we thought what if we came together," Green said.
"We're going to cut about 120 years off. Instead of the year 2150, our goal, an ambitious goal, is that by 2033, everybody on planet Earth will at least have some scripture."
He said one of the campaign's challenges is that all of the easiest languages to translate were translated first. This leaves translators to work on translations for small people groups living in remote areas of the world which can be challenging but not impossible.
Green said coming up with the finances for the translation projects can also be challenging, but he thinks this isn't insurmountable.
He said the campaign's first line of business was prayer because the project's participants believe in the power of prayer. He said a special prayer has been created for the campaign.
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Meanwhile, Green said the rewards outweigh the difficulties of such a major Bible translation effort.
The gratefulness expressed by those who receive newly translated Bibles is reward enough.
From a donor's point of view, he said most people don't know that there are many languages that have yet to be targeted for Bible translation.
Green said people interested in being part of the project, may pray the prayer created for the campaign. They also may sign up to help financially sponsor a verse of scripture or do more to sponsor the Bible translation effort.
He said the campaign has garnered positive responses.
"People are excited. They want to be a part of history.
"We want 95 percent of the world to have a full Bible."
To learn more
For more information and to see illumiNations "I Want to Know video vignettes, go to https://ift.tt/3eboSCp
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