Bible

infocentre

January-February 2010

A true-life story about how Pentateuch in the mother
tongue impacted the life of a young Central Asian man...

Two years ago the Pentateuch was published in one of the Turkic languages of Central Asia. Because of the difficult situation in the main country where this language is spoken the books are being distributed slowly. Therefore it was a special joy to receive the following report from a co-worker living in a neighbouring country, where there are also large numbers from this people group.

“Last week a young man came to my house. We went into the dining room and while we were talking he looked at the table and saw my daughter’s Children’s Bible. He opened it and saw a picture of Moses parting the Red Sea. He said 'I know this story!' As it happened, that morning I had been reading in the Tawrat (Pentateuch) and it was lying next to the Children’s Bible on the table. I opened Exodus and asked him if he could read it. He was shocked to see that it was in his language and replied 'Yes, yes I can read this.' He began to read very poorly at first and said 'I haven’t read in my mother tongue for 10 years.' As he continued to read I could see that he understood the passage. He said 'I can understand this, it is in my language!' He read on further and about an hour into his reading he paused and said, 'My girlfriend used to read the Bible in Russian, but then she heard that she could go to prison for that and so she stopped. Now that I can read it, I can see why she was so interested, this is the most interesting book I have ever read. This book is in my language and it speaks to my heart and soul, I can’t get enough of it!'

“When he got to the end of the story of Moses crossing the Red Sea I told him: 'You are one of maybe a handful who has ever read from this book in your language!' He replied 'We all need to have access to this book.' I told him that he really needed to read a bit from the beginning of the story for it to make sense and so I took him back to the Passover. He read the passage of the Passover lamb and the death angel passing over those that had applied the blood to the door posts. I told him that this is a picture of Jesus and his sacrifice for us. It was exciting to watch as God’s Holy Word was doing its work in his heart. The words hit him hard and tears began to form in his eyes. At this point he jumped up, said good bye and ran out of the house.

“The next four nights he came over, and each night he would state, 'I couldn’t wait to come back and read more from this Holy Book in my language.' At the end of the week, this young man made a decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your hard work in translating the Tawrat. Your labor is not in vain.”

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