“Your feet are so beautiful with good news”
Approximately 80 million people with hearing impairment worldwide use more than 380 sign languages, but only 2% of them have heard the gospel in their sign language. More than 95 organisations and churches, including the International Mission Board (IMB) and the Wycliffe Bible Translators, are working together to improve this situation.
According to Christian Index, Andy Keener, Senior Director of Global Partnerships at Wycliffe, said that after the April 2023 meeting, which brought together more than 170 leaders with hearing impairment from 49 countries in the Eurasian region, IMB and Wycliffe missionaries worked with other organisations to begin translating Bible stories into more than 75 new sign languages.
Out of this new work, Biblical stories are now accessible in more than 100 sign languages worldwide. Keener said, “The Bible has more than 31,000 verses. Our ultimate goal is delivering the word of God, the counsel of God, in every language needed in the world. We are looking for partners to join us on this journey.”
In addition to actively preaching the gospel through missionaries with hearing impairment in the field, IMB also participates in translation ministries. For over a decade, IMB has recognised the importance of ‘sign routes’, the visual-spatial foundation of sign language, and has seen the potential to accelerate Bible translation into more than 300 sign languages that don’t have the Bible.
In 2020, through a partnership with Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, the church and the organisation established Deaf Pathways and accelerated translation work. Thanks to this partnership, 189 Bible story passages were translated into 20 different sign languages, including 26 in Mexican sign languages and 30 in Czech sign language, in the Deaf Pathways Bible App.
Keener said, “In most parts of the world, people with hearing impairment do not read and write in their language. Despite the progress made in hearing impairment education in the United States, many still have difficulty reading and writing English.”
Leaders who attended the Eurasia meeting closed the meeting with a goal to start a Bible story translation in every language represented within the next three years, by mid-2026, which would still only be the beginning of the work.
Keener compared it to the New York City marathon. “It takes 20 or 3 0 minutes to get the last person to cross the start line. As a mass of people trying to run a marathon, it takes a while just to get to the start line. After everybody crosses the start line, only then all is in the marathon.”(Source: Gospel Prayer News)
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)
God, thank You for the blessing of Good News in sign language to deaf people where most of them cannot read and write in their own languages. May You pour Your faithfulness and wisdom into the organisations and churches that serve this work and add beautiful hands to unite with them. Pray that through the words translated into sign languages, the gospel of the Lord will be spread powerfully and there will be amazing revivals as they encounter Christ. Just as we have been saved through the obedience of Jesus Christ, through one who obeys with the Lord’s heart, may the completion of the mission come to pass.
Prayer 24·365
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