The Task

Can you imagine not having a Bible to read? Think about all you have learned from your Bible and how its message has transformed your life.

Since you are reading this in English, you are one of the very blessed! I mean, you have the choice of reading the Bible in over one hundred different English versions. The English Bible can be read from your computer, your phone, your E-reader or from a book. You can have a pocket Bible, a large print Bible, a study Bible, or a parallel Bible.

You can even listen to your Bible on the go. Think about the scores of Bible study helps written in the English language. You really are among the blessed of the world.

So imagine not having a Bible to read. I don’t mean you just haven’t purchased a Bible, No! I mean the Bible has not even been translated into the language you speak.

What would your life be like with no Bible to read, no Bible to listen to, and no Bible helps to explain or give understanding?

This is a reality for millions of people today.

Approximately 7360 languages are spoken or in use in the world today. Less than 10% of those languages have the entire Bible.

Many language groups have portions of the Bible, but no Scripture has ever been published in over 2160 languages.

This means that 250 million people cannot read or hear the Bible in their own language.

Since “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” how will these people hear and believe the message?

How can they become disciples of One whom they do not know?


Read the following article to learn more about the importance of translating the Scriptures.

“God Speaks My Language!”

Does God know English? We may not stop to think about it, but yes, He does! Even though the Bible was primarily written in Hebrew and Greek, we understand that God can still speak to us through His Word translated into English. We pray to God in English, and He speaks to our hearts in return.

Many people do not know that God speaks their language. To them, God feels distant, a foreigner to their culture. When Scripture is first translated into a new language, native speakers often express what they truly grasp for the first time: “God speaks my language!” A God who communicates in their heart language no longer seems like a foreigner, but is someone they can learn to know and trust.

Heart Language

Most people in the world, including many who speak minority languages without the Scriptures, speak a second language. For instance, many of the Mixtec people of Mexico also speak some Spanish. So why invest years in a Mixtec translation when they can read a Spanish Bible?

In reality, although many of the Mixtec can speak Spanish, Spanish is not their heart language. Heart language, or mother tongue, is the language we grow up speaking in our homes, and in which we most naturally think, dream, and build relationships.

Consider what it would be like if God's communication with you through His Word came through a second language. What if you could never read the Bible in English? What if your God was a God of another language? How would this affect your relationship with and understanding of Him?

The Scripture in Their Heart Language

English speakers have been able to read the Bible in their heart language for five hundred years. We may hardly realize the blessing we have because of the toil of men who gave their lives to translating the Bible into English.

But shouldn't God's Word be made available in the heart language of every person? We know that God speaks every language. If nearly eighteen hundred language groups have not even one verse of Scripture, what would He have us do?

All-Nations Bible Translation has been established as an answer to that question, an opportunity for Anabaptist people to participate in responding to this need.

Join us in praying that the Lord will send laborers to these fields, and that millions more will know the God who speaks their language.


  • “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
  • “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witness of these things.” Luke 24:47, 48
  • “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” Matthew 28:19
  • “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
  • “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the Gospel.” Ephesians 3:6
  • “That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:21
  • “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’?” Mark 11:17
  • “Ask of me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance.” Psalm 2:8
  • “Behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes.” Revelation 7:9
  • “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1
  • “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16
  • “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
  • “As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.” Proverbs 25:25
  • “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Psalm 19:10
  • “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.” Psalm 22:27
  • “Truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” Numbers 14:21
  • “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.” Psalm 96:3, 4
  • “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14
  • “That all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.” 1 Kings 8:60
  • “For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations.” Malachi 1:11
  • “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name.” Psalm 86:9
  • “For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” Isaiah 61:11
  • "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10
  • "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3, 4
  • "You are worthy. . .; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God." Revelation 5:9, 10