After decades of diligent Bible translation work, a great project has come to fruition.

Linda Krieg is rejoicing. This summer, the Lord willing, she will see a day she has long worked for and one she has looked forward to with great anticipation. This summer, nearly 200 completed Siawi Bibles will have safely arrived in the hands of Siawi believers in Papua New Guinea.

It has been quite a journey. A journey fraught with delays and discouragements. A journey God’s grace has kept alive for decades for His glory.

Linda arrived in the Siawi tribe in February of 1987 and in the years since then, much of her time has been devoted to Bible translation. Since she also worked assisting other missionaries with linguistics and translation, and because there were always pressing tribal needs to demand her time and attention, it was a long, drawn-out, arduous task.

This paperback edition includes about half the book of Genesis and all of the New Testament. Before this, these Scripture portions have been spread between 15-20 books. “It will be such a blessing to have them all under one cover!” Linda writes.

Through the years, Linda says there were 14 Siawi coworkers who worked faithfully side by side with her contributing to this project.

“The Siawi elders, along with the other Siawi believers, have a strong desire to have God’s Word available in one book, and they are excited to see this done,” Linda writes. “They have been committed, through the last few years of the translation process … because of the strong desire to have it. I know they will be thrilled and delighted!”

Linda plans to travel to Papua New Guinea in July for the dedication of the Siawi Bible. I asked her about her personal anticipation of this momentous event. “My anticipation? My greatest anticipation was to hold the completed, printed Bible in my hands! Now that I have, I am really looking forward to watching the faces of the Siawi elders and other believers as they receive these Bibles.”

“More than anything, though,” Linda says, “I am looking forward to seeing how God’s Word shapes the lives of the Siawi people in the coming years.”

This work of transformation, Linda knows, is the incomparable power of the Word of God. And it’s exactly why she is rejoicing.

You can help more people get Bible translations in their own language. Each $35 pays for not only one verse of Scripture, but for the materials to teach people to read and understand it.