Tessema Wachemo and his team in Ethiopia juggle all thirteen translation projects – some doing drafting, team checking, field testing and yet others being consulted on - all of it simultaneously.

TWFTW thanks everyone for the diligent prayers and financial contributions as the Gamo, Gofa and Dawro New Testaments have finally been type-set by The Seed Company (TSC) in the USA. The teams are currently doing final proof reading after which the manuscripts  will be returned to TSC to be sent to the printers. TSC and the Bible League USA (who partners with TWFTW) will take care of the publication.

Scripture portions in seven languages were dedicated and distributed to the local people. For some of them, such as the Sheko and Shenasha, this was the first written material ever in their languages. The people responded with great self-confidence and pride to have such wonderful resources “in their hands and hearts”. People from government, the community and churches attended the ceremony, which afforded everyone a chance to mingle with each language group.

Interpretation by the AFM Atteridgeville of Ps. 150



Antoinette van der Meulen, a consultant from TWFTW, went to Ethiopia to check TWFTW’s translations. Following is an excerpt from a personal letter...

"One day, long ago, when I met a Bible translator for the first time, I asked her so many questions that she eventually said, “You don’t trust me”. Now I have to ask myself the same questions. It is an art to be able on the one hand, to translate the Bible so flexibly that it sounds natural in the target language and on the other hand, to convey the meaning honestly and accurately. Fortunately the translators have the necessary combination of respect and creativity to overcome this tension. It is refreshing to read the Bible through their eyes. Interesting idioms arise and they are touchingly glad about their redemption. Photos that I took in Israel in 2007 helped to illustrate places and objects. It is also amazing to see what photos and information one can find on the internet. So often the reaction was, “This is amazing!” Here and there words or names simply had to be changed. For example, Bethesda which means, in Amharic, “a kick on the head” J. This was replaced with the Hebrew (as quoted in Greek) “Beethzatha”, which completely satisfied the translators. Some difficult concepts for translation were “grapes”, “altar”, and “silver” which are unknown to this specific group. But time and again a solution was found. Ebenhaeser.

Prayer request:

That the Lord will call people to do consultations. I don’t understand the extreme shortage of consultants. There are, after all, people in the world who have a good knowledge of Greek and/or Hebrew who could help.

Click here for the complete letter from Antoinette van der Meulen.