Arabic and Farsi Bibles to Sarajevo

Following a career in IT, Michael Strand responded to a call from God and since 2019 has been working with the Christian & Missionary Alliance (CMA) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Michael’s role with the CMA in Sarajevo is to support the evangelical church that exists there by providing mentoring, leadership training and helping with church planting.  Another essential dimension of the work of the church is with migrants arriving from the Middle East and North Africa.

In the Spring of 2020 a young man, from the Middle East, who Michael describes as a “natural evangelist” visited the church in Sarajevo. He didn’t have Bibles in the languages that he needed, and so to support his work Michael engaged with Biblica to get a number of copies of Farsi and Arabic Bibles. These Bibles have now been distributed, and recently Michael ordered some more for the young man as he continues to work in a migrant camp.

 

Farsi Bibles
Farsi Bibles

Recognising the difficulties of getting into some countries, Michael is acutely aware of the opportunity that has arisen for the church in Sarajevo as the Lord brings to their doorstep people with physical and spiritual needs, to whom they can share the love of God and provide the hope of the gospel.

To find out more about Biblica’s translation work, visit Translation & Access – Biblica Europe – Transforming lives through God’s Word

 

Did you know…..

Arabic is spoken by over 200 million people in 28 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Arabic script reads from right to left with an alphabet containing 28 consonants.

English words of Arabic origin include “algebra”, “cotton”, “magazine”, “tariff” and “zero”

Farsi is spoken today primarily in Iran and Afghanistan with over 30 million Farsi speakers

English words of Farsi origin include “bazaar”, “checkmate”, “pyjama”, “kiosk” and “caravan”.

To find out more about Biblica’s translation work, click here.

A first in Ukrainian!

Ukraine is a country that has a history of invasion, occupation, repression and revolution, and as one of the largest countries in Europe, with a population of 44 million, it does not have a contemporary translation of the Bible in the heart language of the people. Under the oppression of the Soviet Regime, Russian became the common language in Ukraine. In 1996 Ukrainian was once again confirmed as the official language in the country’s constitution.

In 2018 Biblica began the translation process for the contemporary Ukrainian translation.

Andrey & Tanya Shpygunov are the Directors of ServeNow in Ukraine. They can trace their journey to this point back to the 1990s when, after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, many missionaries came to Ukraine. It was during this time that they both made a decision to follow God and dedicated their lives to serve him.

Andrey and Tanya in Traditional Clothes
Andrey and Tanya in Traditional Clothes

Previously, and for 10 years, they served in Crimea working in another ministry to children. Reflecting on this time Tanya said

“Everything seemed so stable, and we thought that it would be this way forever. No one could imagine that things might change. Yet, that is what happened in 2014. Russia occupied Crimea, and we had to leave the Hope Centre behind”.

It was a difficult time for Andrey and Tanya, but they can now see how God was working out his purposes for their family in what appeared to be a hopeless situation, leading them to ServeNow, and to becoming the Directors in Ukraine in 2014.

Partnering with Biblica, Andrey and Tanya obtained 1200 Survivors booklets – the first Biblica resource in Ukrainian for ServeNow! In Summer 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to run two camps which were attended by 173 children. Each of these children got their own copy of the Survivors Booklet.

Kid with Survivor Booklet
Kid with Survivor Booklet

Tanya said

“During our Bible study classes, we read this booklet and discussed it together. Most of the kids were not Christians, and so the accessible text with simple illustrations helped us to have meaningful conversations, as we talked about their fears and as we prayed together”.

What a great encouragement this is!

The contemporary Ukrainian translation is an opportunity to influence a nation. An opportunity to introduce people to the love of God. At Biblica we are excited to be working on this translation.

It costs just £1 to translate the next word – can you help?

www.biblicaeurope.com/givetotranslate/

You can download the Survivors booklet in Ukrainian here.

Dionne Mutambisi

Finance Officer

Dionne joined Biblica in January 2023. As a detail-orientated accounting and finance professional she has been meeting the accounting needs of companies, not-for-profit organisations and individuals for over 12 years. Dionne lives in Bournemouth with her husband and three children, Heavenly-Joy, Daniel-Jesse and Josiah-James. Together they attend City Gate Church. Dionne serves as a governor for two local Church of England schools.