Today is day two of unfoldingWord’s Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, a gathering aimed at strengthening global collaboration in Scripture translation. The event brings 100 leaders from 18 countries and 28 language groups to Nairobi. Read about last year’s CCBT Forum here.

“Some of them work in countries that have religious opposition, all the way up to death threats and assassinations,” Dane* with unfoldingWord says.

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Kenya provides the neutral territory needed to facilitate a meeting of this size. Dane says, “We chose Kenya because it’s a very welcoming country, and it seems much easier for many of our global partners to get visas to Kenya than other parts of the world.”

unfoldingWord supports church-planting work among every people group by equipping believers with open-licensed biblical resources and training to translate God’s Word into their heart language.

“If we tried to do all of this translation work ourselves, we would immediately exceed our capacity. That’s why we are equipping a network of church planters and disciple-making ministries across the world with church-centric Bible translation tools, technology, and training,” Dane says.

“That network continues to expand, and as a result, hundreds and hundreds of new languages are being engaged in a formative process for them, individually and for their people.”

Learn more about unfoldingWord’s approach here.

“We’re not alone”: building a global family

The Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum builds upon unfoldingWord’s global church planting network, connecting believers near and far. The four-day meeting is comprehensive, offering education, training, and opportunities for collaboration and networking.

“Almost half of the people coming are new, and so it will be an introduction to how church-centric Bible translation works,” Dane says.

In addition, “They’ll have testimonies, and breakout sessions on overcoming barriers, security, funding, technology, and all of those kinds of things.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Believers gain more than practical skills at the forum. “What they tell us is, ‘It’s very difficult what we do, but when we meet brothers and sisters from other parts of the world who do this with us, we realize we’re not alone,’” Dane says.

“When they get to meet each other for the first time, face-to-face, it’s like this family that they didn’t know they had.”

Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill all the presenters and breakout leaders. Pray for the work that God is doing and is about to do through church planters and Bible translators.

Believers in Benin tell unfoldingWord, “We see Muslims giving themselves to Christ, imams giving themselves to Christ, kings giving themselves to Christ. Give us more. We want to keep going.”

Consider partnering with unfoldingWord to support this work. A $45,000 matching grant will double every gift made through December 31.

*Name withheld for security purposes. 

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

“Some people had leading roles, others worked backstage, but all of them were catalysts who equipped the Church and empowered it to reach the world,” says Dane with unfoldingWord.

unfoldingWord follows their example, acting as a catalyst for the global Church in today’s context, he adds.

“We want to see the Church go throughout the world, and it was always God’s primary means of reaching the world in the first place – the Church of Jesus Christ,” Dane says.

Breaking down barriers

unfoldingWord collaborates with indigenous churches and church-planting networks to establish a church in every people group and make the Bible available in every language. Learn more about that here.

Along with teaching believers how to do church-centric Bible translation, “We try to catalyze Bible translation organizations to adopt open-licensing strategies for their translation resources and software,” Dane says.

“It’s incredibly important for the global Church to have this (information), especially in the Global South. They don’t have lawyers that can negotiate copyright licenses year after year.”

unfoldingWord partners with the global Church to make Scripture accessible in every language through open licensing, translation, and collaboration.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Removing barriers is part of the ministry’s original purpose. unfoldingWord “has been advocating for open licensing of Bible translation resources since before we were founded in 2017. The people in leadership were doing that way back in 2010,” Dane says.

Today, “we count at least 32 Western organizations that are releasing open-license portions of their content for the global Church.”

Find your place in the story

Partnership is another key catalytic component. At unfoldingWord’s annual Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, “We bring together church planting ministries, disciple-making ministries, [and] Bible societies, for networking, training, and collaboration,” Dane says.

“That benefits the global Church in its mission to translate and proclaim the Gospel.”

This collaborative effort includes you. “We have several ‘Whole Bible, Whole Nation’ projects around the world. If a church is looking for a mission [project] and they care about getting God’s Word out, that’s a great way to do it,” Dane says.

Check out unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” projects and ask the Lord how He’d have you support this work – whether through financial means, prayer, or advocacy.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

As an Illuminations partner, unfoldingWord catalyzes church-centric Bible translation around the world. Dane says unfoldingWord exists to see “the church in every people group and the Bible in every language.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

unfoldingWord partners with church planters and church networks worldwide to fulfill this mammoth purpose. “We don’t make Bible translations; we make Bible translators. We are equipping people to become excellent Bible translators,” Dane says.

“It’s the primary way God has called us to participate in the Great Commission. We catalyze and equip church networks so that they are empowered and successful in reaching the least-reached.”

Translation testimonies

On a practical level, unfoldingWord supplies tools, technology, and training to help church planters translate God’s Word into minority languages. More about that here.

“We see what we do as kind of ‘turbo-charging’ church planting ministries around the world,” Dane says. “They are already trying to do Bible translation because they need it; they can’t wait.

“It takes too long to get a Western missionary to go. They need the Bible like, yesterday, in the heart languages of the people groups where they are.”

For example, Benin has more than 50 indigenous languages. Many still lack Scripture, and the most recent New Testament took 20 years to publish. One church planting partner there recently told Dane, “When I first got involved in this and I heard how long that would take, [I] said, ‘How are we ever going to do this? How are we ever going to get the Bible in all these languages?”

Believers shared the following after receiving Bible translation tools and training from unfoldingWord:

“Our encounter with unfoldingWord completely changed our perspective. Now we know that Bible translation can be done in a more inclusive, effective, and efficient way than ever before. We’re proud to be involved, and we’re ready to make a sacrifice to make this dream a reality.”

Consider supporting unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” projects through financial partnership.

Most importantly, pray. Ask the Lord to bless unfoldingWord’s global work in Bible translation and church planting. You can also become an ongoing prayer partner here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash.

First, technology enables believers to complete work they would otherwise struggle to do.

“They’ve taken technology tools that our folks created, most notably the one called translationCore, and they have turbocharged it,” Dane with unfoldingWord says. “It serves as a checking tool, which is essential in Bible translation, [and] an initial drafting tool as well.”

Secondly, tech tools from unfoldingWord help believers work efficiently, completing more work in less time. “They’ve translated the New Testament faster than anybody we’ve partnered with,” Dane says.

“They have completed 10 New Testaments, text versions. They have completed one New Testament in audio, and two more audio New Testaments are underway for 2025. They also have 10 Old Testaments underway; those would be text versions.”

When God’s Word speaks your language, it speaks to your heart. This is why unfoldingWord equips local believers to translate the Bible into the languages they know best.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Finally, technology fosters key connections. Team members collaborate on projects using digital means, and some believers discover the Lord’s leading through technology.

“One of the brothers, a key leader, shared how God called him into ministry, not through a pulpit,” Dane says.

“Pastors preach sermons, and God calls people to ministry in a church. This guy came to his call to ministry through technology.”

However, the authorities are also highly skilled with technology, so pray for believers to have wisdom and discernment.

The government’s “surveillance apparatus is really powerful,” Dane notes. “They are concerned that the translation of the Bible and the truths that it teaches might foment a rebellion.”

Help unreached people groups receive Scripture in their heart languages here.

“We’re equipping our partners and aiding them in any way we can so they can translate the Bible into all of the languages represented there, especially the ones that are unreached,” Dane says.

“This country has [several dozen] unreached people groups out of a total of 119, so that is over 9 million people.”

Header image is a representative photo courtesy of fancycrave1/Pixabay.

A recent Pew Research study shows that the technology usage gap between Americans under 30 and those over 65 has significantly narrowed over the past decade. However, within the Bible translation community, a digital divide still exists.

Dane, a spokesperson with unfoldingWord, a ministry dedicated to enabling church-centric Bible translation, says traditional translation methods often require high-tech infrastructure, formal training, and external oversight. This creates barriers for many language communities that need God’s Word in their heart language.

One of the biggest challenges, Dane explains, stems from a common misconception: “The question goes like this: ‘I thought only experts with PhDs could translate the Bible. How can we know church-based Bible translations are trustworthy?”

This perception and a global decline in the number of qualified Bible translation consultants created a bottleneck. “It drove the creation of unfoldingWord’s software toolset that we call translationCore,” Dane says.

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

translationCore is a suite of open-access digital tools designed to empower local churches and translation teams with quality control, accuracy checks, and collaboration support. More about that here.

The impact is already visible. “This team [in Myanmar] is working on a translation that will reach over 600,000 people who have never heard the story of Jesus in their language,” Dane shares.

By streamlining the translation checking process, translationCore drastically increases efficiency.

“They tell us, ‘When we have to check a Bible translation by hand, manually, we can get through maybe 10 verses a day. When using translationCore, we can check 100 verses a day,’” Dane reports.

unfoldingWord provides these tools free of charge to the global Body of Christ, but continued development depends on support. “We share these tools… without charge, but they aren’t free,” Dane notes.

“Every gift helps get them fully developed and out to the people that need them most.”

You can find your place in this unfolding story — and be part of accelerating Scripture access for the world’s least-reached — by supporting unfoldingWord here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of John/Unsplash.

“We have profound respect for the accomplishment of our brothers and sisters in the traditional Bible translation world,” Dane with unfoldingWord says.

“Several of our founders spent 30 or 40 years in that movement. We couldn’t do what we do without their shoulders to stand on.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

While traditional methods have made a significant impact, they simply can’t keep up with the growing global demand for Scripture in more languages. That’s where unfoldingWord comes in.

unfoldingWord’s innovative software, translationCore, is transforming how translation happens – putting powerful tools directly into the hands of the global Church.

“It is our goal to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end Bible translation tool chain that’s self-service,” Dane says. “It provides self-service capabilities for drafting, checking accuracy, and even publishing translations.”

The impact has been dramatic. According to partners working with unfoldingWord, “‘When we have to check a Bible translation by hand, we can get through maybe 10 verses a day. When using translationCore, we can check 100 verses a day,’” Dane shares.

“They have all the tools right there. They don’t have to be a PhD consultant to do this.”

As the global Church increasingly takes the lead in translating Scripture for their communities, tools like translationCore are essential. However, developing this kind of technology takes resources. You can help by giving.

“It costs several hundred thousand dollars per year to develop these tools,” Dane notes. “We really need people to step up and help us to equip the global Church to translate the Bible for themselves.”

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

“The traditional means of translation that we’ve employed for decades has reached its limit in accomplishing the goal of having Bibles in all the world languages,” John* with unfoldingWord says.

“Most of the ones remaining are smaller language groups, and they’re in difficult-to-reach circumstances.”

unfoldingWord comes alongside church planting networks to begin Church-Centric Bible Translation. More about that here.

“The strategy here is to equip the local church to produce translations that no one else would be able to do anytime soon,” John says.

There are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world. Around 3,589 have little to no Scripture.
(Photo, caption courtesy of unfoldingWord)

The result is indigenous Bible translation, not unfoldingWord projects. Communities welcome the Scripture their members worked on; it wasn’t handed to them by an outside group.

“The (global) Church itself has gotten far ahead of Bible translation,” John says.

“As we go into these places and fully equip, invest, and teach them everything they need to know, their own energy and passion for having it in their mother tongue takes over.”

Sign up for a free prayer calendar on unfoldingWord’s profile page.

John says, “Difficult geographical circumstances in some of these locations are combined with heavy spiritual opposition, so prayer is of utmost importance as we try to progress in these areas.”

*Pseudonym

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

Collaboration is key to accelerated Bible translation. Dane* with unfoldingWord says, “We’re trying to bring all these people together and energize them about this work [because] if we try to do all this work ourselves, we would exceed our capacity. But the network is very powerful.”

He’s referring to a global network of churches and church planters that is focused on translating Scripture into minority languages. Learn more about unfoldingWord’s approach here.

unfoldingWord collaborates with church networks to create biblical content, technology tools, and translation training.
(Photo, caption courtesy of unfoldingWord)

“We just finished our global Church-Centric Bible Translation forum [with] about 60 leaders representing 24 nationalities involved in church-centric Bible translation,” Dane says.

“We gathered in Kenya to share the vision, inspire new initiatives, celebrate groundbreaking achievements, [and] to encourage relationships directly between the church networks.”

One translator from South Sudan met the team who created the tools he used. “He said, ‘The translation made it possible for us to translate God’s Word into my people’s language for the first time,’” Dane recounts.

“He’s thanking him [profusely], and the Jordanian guy is weeping because he finally met somebody face-to-face who was using this work outside of Jordan.”

Another church leader, this time from Indonesia, left the forum with action in mind.

“He was new to church-centric Bible translation, but he was so energized by it. He said, ‘I’m going home to mobilize my whole church network for church-centric Bible translation,’” Dane says.

Pray for this and other new translation efforts started at the forum. Request a monthly prayer calendar from unfoldingWord here.

“Not only are people being equipped to do Bible translation, they are also equipped to go deeper into God’s word than they’ve ever been able to before,” Dane says.

“We are utterly and totally dependent on God and on prayer to energize and empower this mission. Without it, we are hopeless.”

*Name withheld for security purposes.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord.

Thanks to the collaboration of multiple translation organizations, and to computer software developed by unfoldingWord, Church-Centric Bible Translation work is becoming increasingly possible all over the globe.

*Dane of unfoldingWord says, “What unfoldingWord has done is developed open license content to be able to just hand over and train on how to use it. Hand it over and train the local churches how to use this open license content so that they can do the Bible translation themselves.”

Translation tools

To protect the integrity of the translation work, unfoldingWord trains local groups how to use the software. They have a growing library of resources built on a long history of Bible translation.

“It’s called the Bible Aquifer,” Dane explains, “Think of this underground stream of all this open license, Bible translation content. And then local translators can use an app that’s called the Bible Well. It was developed by Biblio Nexus, and they can go down there and draw this information up and use it wherever they need it.”

Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord.

Many organizations, including unfoldingWord, have uploaded the translation knowledge they have to offer.

While this enables the layperson to translate, Dane says they need traditional scholars to help develop the resources being offered. This is particularly true for unfoldingWord’s Book Packages.

“A Book Package contains pretty much everything somebody needs—a church group needs—to translate the Bible for themselves,” Dane explains.

Each Book Package covers one book of the Bible. It includes:

• A literal translation built on the technical Greek or Hebrew
• A simplified translation that gets the meaning across similar to a paraphrase style
• A verse-by-verse translation guide
• A lexicon to discover key words and definitions in the Bible
• Short articles discussing difficult Bible translation issues

All of these tools in the Book Packages help people to translate the work. Then, they can backcheck it to the original Greek or Hebrew.

Impact on the ground

“I’m so excited about this because I was a pastor for 32 years. And seeing this happen for people just thrills me. Because our brothers and sisters around the world need this information— these tools. And it’s exciting to be able to provide them with these tools.”

The impact of these translation materials is incredible. Dane points to a training that recently took place in West Africa where a group of people were introduced to this for the first time.

Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord.

He quotes a report from the field: ‘For us this was a revolution for the missionary work we do. […] The Bible Well has made our job much easier. Many people who don’t have a high level of deduction can now easily embark on translation work because you have simplified the entire task, making the Bible easy to understand. And we can attest to the accuracy of the content and the resources you have provided.’

To learn more about how you can partner with unfoldingWord, and to check out their resources, click here.

Header photo courtesy of unfoldingWord.

Church Centric Bible Translation

unfoldingWord is a catalyst for Church Centric Bible Translation (we’ve written more about that, here). The ministry trains local Christians how to use software tools to keep translation work theologically sound and locally relevant.

(Photo, courtesy of unfoldingWord)

This has exponentially increased the number of people who can contribute legitimate Bible translation work to the pot. Dane*of unfoldingWord says that when humans are given the tools and the knowledge to do something for themselves—and they succeed— they tend to value the work even more. It’s no different with Bible Translation.

“When a people group starts to translate the Bible for themselves, they get really excited about it. And so you have a little bitty house church, or you have a network of house churches and they get real excited about ‘wow, this is God’s word, we can actually do it ourselves, it’s in our language.’ So they own it, it’s not something that’s been brought in from the outside. And they just spontaneously share it with their friends.”

Gospel moving in Iran

Not long ago, Dane interviewed an Iranian Christian woman, Grace*. This woman started her translation work in unfoldingWord’s Open Bible Stories (see here).

Photo courtesy of Mohsina881018 via Wikimedia Commons.

“She got so excited when she heard the name Jesus. She said ‘Joy came in my heart the first time I heard Jesus.’ Islam had never done that for her. And so, she became a Christian a little over a year ago. And in that time, she’s gone out twice a day and shares the Gospel with her Iranian friends and family members. She’s shared the Gospel with over 600 people, and she’s led over 80 of them to Christ.

“And that is the power of Church-centric Bible translation. When they’re translating it for themselves, and they’re hearing God speak their language for the very first time, they get so fired up they can’t help but share it. And the people around them see the change, and they want to know more.”

In countries like Iran, Christians risk their lives every time they talk about their faith. The fact that they still do is an amazing testimony to the hope and new life they’ve found in Jesus. And, they are confident that God will make a difference through them.

Partner in prayer

There are many ways you can support this amazing work happening all over the globe. To begin with, you can pray. unfoldingWord updates their prayer requests, here, weekly. You can also sign up for their monthly prayer calendar, here.

If you want to learn more about their work, head to their website here for some helpful publications.

*Name withheld for security reasons

Header Photo by Iman Soleimany via Unsplash.