“The life that is described in the book of Jonah – it closely relates to how people relate to each other in our community.”

This is Frackson from Zambia. He is studying Biblical Hebrew and translation at the Whole Word Institute, so that he can be part of translating God’s Word into his people’s native language, Senga. 

One of the first courses our students take is the Jonah Course – it takes them deeper into the poetry of the Hebrew text so they can accurately translate and convey the meaning to the people groups they’re serving. 

Frackson has already seen a huge impact in his people group as they hear Old Testament stories in their own words for the first time. He says:

“When the Sengas heard the story of Jonah and Nineveh in a foreign language, they never understood it. But now that they hear it in their own mother tongue, I can assure you they feel like God is really talking to them. A lot of Senga people are giving their lives to Jesus because the Old Testament stories really relate to our communities’ way of living.”

It’s interesting to hear Frackson talk about his community and how they can relate better to the cultures of the Old Testament. They appreciate the New Testament, but when they hear God’s whole story, Jesus’ message makes much more sense to them. They suddenly see how people like them can know and walk with God.

Will you pray for the Senga people this week? And thank you for supporting people like Frackson. Our goal for 2024 is to share the whole story of the Bible in 400 more languages. To do that, we aim to train 127 more native speakers like Frackson as full Bible translators. 

If you’d like to help, you can give a gift today.