The Bible Society has announced that one more nation has been able to receive the New Testament in its own native language. More than 300,000 Christians are said to be rejoicing in deep Urals Kreshen after the delivery of the precious new volume.

|TOP|Just one in seven of the world’s languages has the entire New Testament translated, which is just 1,000 of the world’s 6,900 languages, according to the Bible Society.

The Kreshen Christians of Tatarstan, which is a Turkic region speaking a Tatar dialect, have waited 140 years for the arrival of the New Testament as work could not commence on the edition until Communist rule was overturned.

Throughout their history, the small community of Christians in Tatarstan have faced often severe persecution by both the Communist and extremist Muslim leaderships in the country.

However, in December 2005, a nine-year project was finally completed, and hundreds of Kreshen Christians gathered at the Church of Tikhvin Icon of the Holy Virgin in Kazan, Tatarstan, to celebrate.

The Bible Society report that the scenes of joy were immense as people wept at finally being able to read the New Testament in their own language.

Vladimir Leonov of the Bible Society in Russia explained, “The desire of our hearts and prayers is that ordinary Kreshen people will let Holy Scripture be their life coach, allowing its transforming powers to go to work in their lives. We don’t want this momentous event to become simply a historical fact.”

|AD|He continued, “More than 4,500 languages still wait for one book of the Bible to be translated. So it is hard to overestimate the significance of the complete New Testament being translated and published.”

The translation project was a joint venture undertaken by the Bible Society with the Russian Orthodox Church leaders, as well as local writers, scientists and other editors.

Prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917, the gospels, Acts and Psalms were already translated, however, it was not until 2000 that the other books of the Bible – letters from James, Peter, John and Jude were published.

The Bible Society has testified its continuing efforts to tackle “Bible Poverty”. The organization explains its wake-up call to the churches: “The statistics show the staggering scale of this injustice. Just one in seven of the world languages have a translation of the New Testament. Only 3% of the world’s languages have the Bible in audio. Every five seconds someone goes blind, but the Braille Bibles exist in only 30 languages. And Bible poverty is a reality right on our doorstop, where the Bible is no longer shaping our own nation.”

Founded in 1804, Bible Society is part of a world-wide fellowship known as United Bible Societies, which operate in more than 180 countries. Together, this global alliance distributes more than 600 million Scriptures every year in a range of formats, which includes print, audio and Braille.

For a free DVD and other materials to help fight Bible Poverty, visit www.its832.org