In America, we take the Bible for granted. There are churches on almost every block, many with signs out front and billboards along highways. The Bible has been translated into hundreds of English languages. We have the freedom to meet, discuss, and learn more about the Bible in a way that fits our unique culture and various ethnicity.
But in China, you only have permission to read the state-sanctioned Bible translation, meet in the state-sanctioned church, while only speaking the state-sanctioned language (Mandarin). In this vast country, there are over 300 living languages currently being spoken amongst the roughly 1.4 billion population. By comparison, the U.S. population is just over 330 million people.
The population of China is made up of 545 different people groups speaking just over 300 languages. Of those 545 people groups, 442 of them are considered by The Joshua Project as unreached for the Gospel. The population of the 442 is about 147,168,000. Only about 9% of those are considered Christian.
We at Cove Church have a connection with one of these 442 people groups. This small people group (which we can't name here) has a population of over 150,000 people with the vast majority being Islamic. Our church is friends with a family who are among the small handful of Christians in this people group. With help from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, they are over half finished with translation into their mother tongue but have had to move from China to a neighboring country because it became too dangerous to continue working on the translation project while living in China.
But the work continues.
Please take a moment to pray for this family and the Bible Translation Project as they continue to bring the Good News to those who need it around the world. Please pray specifically for safety, finances, and wisdom.