October 2008

“For 40 years my mother prayed to God that the Bible would be translated into Khakas”

On 5 September, when we were gathered with guests from several countries for IBT Russia’s annual Open Day, we had a visit by Galina, a Khakas woman. Just a few days earlier we had received the Khakas Children’s Bible from the printing house, and we were happy to give the first copy to Galina.

“My mother was a devout Christian and went regularly to church in the village where we lived, but she always came home very disappointed,” Galina recalled. “With a deep sigh she used to say ‘How I would like to understand what the priest says in church, and how I would like to read the Bible in my language!’ My mother knew only Khakas and very little Russian. I was a teenager at that time, and I felt so sorry for her. She used to come to me with her Russian Bible and I tried to help her translate passages from it into Khakas. For 40 years my mother prayed to God that the Bible would be translated into Khakas.

“One day we heard that some foreigners had come to our village intending to translate the Bible into Khakas,” Galina continued. “When my mother heard this she said: ‘God’s people have come to help me’. The foreigners lived for a while in our home. We got to know them and the people from IBT, and I was also involved in the translation work for a while.

“My mother was still alive when the first Gospels were published – Mark in 1995 and Luke and Acts in 1999. She read and said: ‘It is so good, so clear! God speaks to me in Khakas!’ Her prayers had been answered and her joy was complete. My mother was 82 years old when she died in 2001.

“This is a time when the Khakas are returning to the faith of their forefathers, to shamanism,” Galina said. ” But the Bible will bring light to our people. We are so grateful that you care about us and that you are translating the Bible into our language. We are looking forward to receiving the New Testament next year.

“The Children’s Bible will also be very useful, for it will be used in schools and be given to libraries. It is very important to give this message to children while they are still young.”

On 23 October there will be an official presentation of the Children’s Bible in Abakan, the capital of Khakasia, arranged by IBT together with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Khakas Republic. The first part of the presentation will be with children of a Khakas boarding school, while the second part will be a roundtable discussion with writers, teachers and other representatives of Khakas society.

Thank you for your support of IBT’s translation work!

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Contact
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PO Box 6481 COLCHESTER Essex CO4 3AF UK
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