We (Shanta Dawson and I) had a chance to sit down with a couple of our missionaries, Andy and Mary Ellen, the other day. So we did a little “round table” discussion concerning their Scripture translation work in Central Asia. Here is what we talked about. 

Give us a brief overview of your work.

We’ve been in Central Asia from 2007 to April of 2009. Our work has centered in translating the Scriptures into one of the local languages. The New Testament was published a while ago, but it is in need of revision. One of my (Andy’s) specific tasks was to go over all the spellings of names in the New Testament, checking them for consistency. More recently I helped a national colleague make a new translation of Galatians and Philippians. We hope to have the whole Bible done in 3-4 years. The greatest challenge then will be publishing and distributing the Scriptures. These are “closed” countries that don’t welcome the idea of their people freely possessing Bibles. The church here is small—only a few thousand in a land of millions. 

How many people groups in Central Asia have their own Scriptures?

Most of the major ones have at least some part of the Scriptures. The Soviets taught the people literacy, so most can read. But there are smaller ethnic groups living without access to any Scripture in their own languages. 

The issue sometimes comes up as to why spend all the energy to translate the Scriptures into each language. Wouldn’t it be easier in bilingual areas to just use a Bible that would be understood, even if it isn’t one’s primary language?

The problem is this—trying to read the Scriptures in a language that isn’t native keeps it at a distance. It is like many of us trying to read the King James version. You may get the “big picture”, but you miss out on so much. In Central Asia, most of the folks read Russian, but they associate Russia with oppression and domination. They aren’t real interested in the God of the oppressors. They could read a Russian Bible, but it wouldn’t be the best.