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 I Jan 08 I  

January 2008

Newsletter January 2008

Welcome to IBT’s office in Moscow! After a pleasant walk from the metro station called Vorobyovi Gori (‘Sparrow Hills’ – known in Soviet times as ‘Lenin Hills’) along the Moscow River, we reach a long white building, St Andrew’s Monastery. Entering through the gate, we suddenly find ourselves in a peaceful mona-stery garden. In the spring and summer flowers bloom here shaded by bushes and trees, but now it is January and everything is frozen and covered with snow. In the middle of the garden there is a tall bell tower, the bells of which ring praises to God on church holidays and feast days. The bell-ringer, Pyotr, is one of the best in Moscow, and sometimes he allows us to climb the narrow stairs to the top to watch him ringing the bells with both hands and feet. St Andrew’s Monastery is home to an Orthodox church, a Christian school, the Synodal Library and several smaller offices and organisations. IBT’s office has been located here for the past 10 years, but this former monastery has a much longer history of Bible translation, because monks were working here on the Russian translation of the Bible as early as the 17^th century.

We proceed to the second floor of the building and open the door at the end of a long corridor, where we are welcomed by office manager Lyuba. Our attention is immediately drawn to a bookcase containing beautiful books in different languages – an exhibition of all 13 books printed by IBT Russia/CIS in 2007. We turn the pages of two of the books – the New Testament in Kumyk and Chechen - the first ever for these two Muslim peoples in the Caucasus. Here we also find the Pentateuch in Tatar and Turkmen (the latter in two scripts: Cyrillic and Latin), Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in Crimean-Tatar, Psalms in Adyge, a book with six Psalms in Yakut, and a reprint of Proverbs in Avar. For the Aguls, a small ethnic group in Dagestan, there is a book of four Parables from Luke’s Gospel with illustrations by a native artist. We see the Four Gospels for the Khakas in southern Siberia and Gospel reprints for the Dargins and Ingush in the Caucasus. Finally there is the reprint of ‘Stories about Jesus Christ’ in Crimean-Tatar.  We learn that IBT Russia/CIS was actively involved in 45 translation projects in 2007, and that more than 42,000 books in 34 languages were distributed directly and by distribution partners.

At four o’clock we are invited to tea and get a chance to chat with some of the 25 staff members – involved in information, finance, fundraising, administration, coordination of translation projects, publishing and distribution.  What are their main needs for this New Year? “Several translation projects are stuck because they lack exegetical advisors,” they say. “Our main prayer concern for 2008 is to find exegetes who are willing to live in Siberia, the Caucasus, the Volga-Urals area, or in Central Asia in order to work with the translators.”

Please support Bible translation in Russia/CIS with your prayers and gifts in 2008!

 Here you can sign for the IBT Russia/CIS monthly English Newsletter

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