The Ngoni Bible translation team in Tanzania is continuing their faithful work on the Ngoni Bible translation. Despite only having two translators (most TWFTW Bible translation projects have three), the team has made very good progress. The translators--Casper Chawala (Project Leader) and Festus Komba--have translated a third of the New Testament and gotten about half of that work consultant checked. The Ngoni speakers (located in southeast Tanzania) are 90% Christian (mostly Roman Catholic), but only 17% are evangelical. This will be the first Bible translated for the approximately 340,000 Ngoni. Please pray for the Ngoni translators as they faithfully continue to translate the Bible into the language God gave them.

Manie and Lettie v.d.Heever with their children.

Over the past 10 months Manie v.d.Heever has checked the outstanding books of the New Testament, viz. Hebrews, Revelation, James, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, and 1, 2 and 3 John, with six translation teams (Zigua, Kwere, Ndamba, Pogoro, Nguu, and Lughuru). It is wonderful to know that these six language groups will soon be able to read the New Testament in their heart language!

In addition, he checked the Gospel of Luke with another five teams (Yao, Mwera, Zaramo, Ma- konde, and Nguu) and conducted four workshops for exegetes and translators. He will also be teaching at the annual training event for Bible translators in September.

The Word for the World and Pioneer Bible Translators are partnering in Bible translation projects in Tanzania. During November, Dr Barry Funnell, a consultant of The Word for the World, checked the translation of 1 and 2 Corinthians in eight languages in Morogoro, Tanzania. The languages were: Lughuru, Kwere, Kutu, Vidunda, Nguu, Zigua, Pogolo and Ndamba, all from East Africa. Group consultation is an innovative approach to consultation that saves money and time, because one consultant’s services benefit more than one translation team simultaneously.

This video explains how such a group consultation works.



Funding for the projects comes from The Seed Company, as well as a foundation in the United States and private donors. Prayer support is through intercessor networks. TWFTW thanks God for all who contributed in so many different ways to make this possible.