REACHING 200 - FIND A PROJECT
Bahlzao Project
The Bahlzao Project in Asia will potentially benefit some half a million people who speak the Bahlzao language. Majority of the Bahlzao people still retain their traditional animistic practices such as spirit worship. As rice farmers, they are dependent on the weather for their livelihood. Christianity arrived in this community only in the last decade and there is now a small group of believers.
The Bahlzao Project is the first known attempt to provide this people group Scriptures in their own language. The project started in 2009 and its goal is to complete the whole Bible over the next 20 years. In addition to the translation work, the project team will also embark on literacy programmes as part of community development.
Bahlzao Project Updates - October 2011
Basera Cluster Project
The people of the Basera Cluster speak three languages: Edo, Ada and Ampiri. Each group is spread out among several villages, but all are subsistence rice farmers and most live without electricity. Christianity came to the Edo and Ada speakers a century ago, but neither group has yet completely given up their animistic traditions. They still fear spirits of the dead, practice black magic and make sacrifices to old spirits or deities.
All three groups have displayed great enthusiasm for the Scriptures in their own language, but not one has a Bible in its heart language yet.
Basera Project Updates - October 2011
Canaan Project
The Canaan Project targets to translate Bible stories for the Su and Du language communities in a mountainous locality of an Asian country. The Du people migrated to the locality some 300 years ago and have since assimilated into the Su community through inter-marriages. The main objective of the project is to translate a set of Bible stories which can be passed on by word of mouth. These stories will be used by local churches currently reaching out to this largely oral community.
Elo Project
The Elo language group covers an estimated population size of 350,000. Located in an agrarian community, most of the Elo people are farmers. As subsistence farmers, they are poor and lowly educated. Mother-tongue literacy is practically non-existent in this people group. Spiritually, the Elo people are in bondage to their animistic beliefs. None of them had heard about Christ before this project started.
The project team has translated 15 books from the Old and New Testament; and is working on the production and distribution of these books. The project team aims to complete the translation of the New Testament by 2014; and thereafter, continue to translate the Old Testament.
Elo Project Updates - October 2011
Himu Project
The Himu Project is located in a picturesque mountainous region with lush natural sceneries and rich cultural heritage. Many minority communities have lived there for centuries, contributing to its distinctive cultural diversity. The Himu people group is a large ethnic group with an estimated population of two millon. This project aims to complete the Old Testament and New Testament by 2018.
Kanayatn Project
Christians comprise the majority among the Kanayatn people. For most, however, that faith has little to do with daily life because God doesn’t speak to their hearts. Why? Because His Word is in a foreign language. Instead, good and evil spirits carry more daily influence, since Kanayatyns speak to them in their mother tongue. This project will bring God into “speaking-distance.” It will offer them His Word in their heart language, through print, audio and film. Scriptures will help change their traditional animistic worldview to a biblical foundation.
Note: The Kanayatn Project Profile is in the process of being updated. Please write to Wycliffe Singapore for more information on this project.
Katuic Cluster Project
Eight language groups form the Katuic Cluster. Among these groups, seven groups do not have a substantial portion of the Scriptures in their languages. The project goals are to complete five full New Testaments and three partial New Testaments. There is also a need for a community education programme to raise the level of literacy in the community.
The six-year-long project commenced in 2009 and is expected to touch the lives of nearly 500,000 people.
Katuic Cluster Project Profile
Katuic Cluster Project Updates - October 2011
Papua GIDI Cluster Project
The small people groups of Papua’s interior have known about the Gospel for decades, but they’ve never had Scripture in their mother tongue. As a result, fear of spirits and taboos still control their activities and relationships. But now concerned partners are helping to reach “the least of these” small people groups with the Word of God in their mother tongue. This storying project includes three sets of oral Bible stories that will help the Yetfa and Fuau people groups truly encounter the powerful, loving creator God and His Son, Jesus Christ, who has delivered believers from darkness and given them all they need for abundant life in Him.
Note: The Papua GIDI Cluster Project Profile is in the progress of being updated. Please write to Wycliffe Singapore for more information on this project.
Southern Thai Story Project
The Southern Thailand language community lives in about 14 provinces and is made up of an estimated 4.5 million speakers. The Southern Thai Story Project is part of a larger cluster story project, in which a group of some five rural language communities will stand to benefit from the translation of Bible story sets into their languages. Supported by Thai Christian leaders in South Thailand, the Southern Thai Story Project Team aims to complete a Bible story set of some 50 stories by 2013, while simultaneously working on the crafting of the other language story sets over the next five years.
Southern Thai Story Project Profile
The Seagull Project
Located in coastal areas of a Southeast Asian country, the Seagull language group is estimated to consist of 25,000 speakers. The Seagull people’s livelihood is dependent on fishing and hillside farming. With their fishing grounds depleted, farmlands affected by soil erosion and social ills such as gambling, they have remained impoverished and many are compelled to look for jobs in big cities.
Some Scriptures have been translated and distributed to believers amongst this community. However, the translation for these materials needs to be revised with the new approved orthography.
Besides the revision of these Scripture portions, the need for translation of the rest of the Bible is crucial as the number of believers is increasing and urgently needs Scriptures in their own language for discipleship, not to mention evangelism.
The Seagull Project Updates - October 2011
Yada-Yada Project
The Yada-Yada is a large ethnic group with an estimated population of 1.5 million people. An agrarian community, the Yada-Yada people live along the valleys and slopes of a mountainous region of an Asian country. The Yada-Yada is relatively unreached due to its remote location and political restrictions. As such, there is no real Yada-Yada church to speak of.
One of the first and most important tasks of the team is to rally Christians around the world to pray for the Yada-Yada people. The team is also now embarking on language survey and learning so as to kick-start the translation of story sets for evangelism and discipleship with the goal of establishing a local church. The latter will be critical for later project phases, which entail the translation of the entire Bible and literacy programmes.