With the New Testament completed, missionaries are working with believers to translate portions of the Old Testament.

Larry Richardson, a missionary experienced in translation and equipped to help other missionaries translate the Bible into their languages, recently visited the missionaries who work among the Guanano people group.

Missionaries Barry Spor and Lindy Drake had some Old Testament passages ready for Larry to check. Four Guanano men gathered to listen as the missionaries read the Scriptures aloud in the Guanano language and to report how clearly they understood what was read. With Larry and the Guanano men listening, Barry and Lindy read aloud passages from 1 and 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles along with the book of Jonah. Barry and Lindy read the passages aloud, asked the men what they understood and told Larry what the men reported they understood. For a week, they read eight hours a day. Larry then carefully checked what the men said against the English Scripture.

Barry and Lindy had spent many years preparing the translation for the Guananos. They had done drafts, revisions, and content and comprehension checks. The New Testament was completed years ago and revised in 2007. Now the missionaries want to provide additional Scriptures for the Guanano people to use in Bible teaching.

After a week of reading and checking and re-checking, Larry decided that comprehension was excellent and told the missionaries that they could go ahead and publish those Scriptures.

Now the long process of formatting the Scriptures and preparing them for a final printing begins.

“We feel like we just graduated from seminary and are throwing our hats in the air,” wrote Barry.

Pray for the missionaries ministering to the Guananos as they continue to translate Bible portions and help the people prepare to teach the Bible more clearly.

You can help provide not only a Bible translation for unreached people, but tools so they can learn to read and write it, and to understand it. Each $35 pays for a verse.