An Important Tool

Being able to read the Bible in one’s heart language has always been an intense desire for many. There was a time when the Church deemed that commoners who had no theological training likely should not read the Bible since they would not understand it! Thankfully that era passed and we now not only have Bibles in our heart language, but we also have versions of the Bible we can actually understand. Not only so but we now also have multiple study Bibles and Bible study aids available to us such as concordances, Bible Dictionaries and commentaries.  And whether we use these ourselves or not, for the most part we have the privilege of hearing regular preaching and teaching by those who have access to these tools.

For almost all of those leaders and pastors we are training in Mozambique, a translation of the Bible in their own heart language is simply not available! Although there may be a Bible in another dialect close to that they speak, there are always significant differences and many times the translation is very old making understanding that much harder. This lack results in a very poor understanding of God’s word and spiritual growth. 

As part of our training program we are doing our best to provide at least one study Bible in a translation of Portuguese simple enough to be easily read and understood. Besides the simplicity of the translation, the other study aids these Bibles incorporate means these Bibles become incredibly valuable tools for these men and women. Thank you for those who have helped us through the Unique Christmas Gifts to enable us to purchase 36 study Bibles this past year. Those receiving these Bibles either have to be a trainer in our program, or have graduated from our program, meaning that they have worked hard to get one and as a result they are highly valued. There is a possibility that one of our team will be travelling to Brazil again this year, and we hope to be able to purchase more since they are not available in Mozambique yet.