Why is it so important to eradicate Bible poverty?

Another reason is that even in the most remote and challenging places where Bible translation is needed, God has already gone ahead of us. Think about the many examples of God going ahead of his people in the Scripture:

• Exodus 23: The Lord instructed Moses to tell the Israelites: I will send my angel ahead of you to guard you as you go into the promised land; I will send my terror ahead of you to throw the nations into confusion, and I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive out peoples.

• Dt 1.33: God himself went ahead of the Israelites on their wanderings in the wilderness – to search out places for them to camp and to show them the way they should go.

• Dt 9.1: God promised the Israelites that he was going to go ahead of them like a devouring fire as they crossed the Jordan river.

Several years ago, the Samburu and Ilchamus peoples of Kenya both requested help to have their own Bible translation. When John Ommani of Bible Translation and Literacy went to meet with the elders, they told him an amazing story. They had an ancient story about once having a book of God, but a cow ate it. So they have been looking for it ever since. They know now that the Bible was this book.

So when Ommani met with them, they told him, “We know it costs money to do the work of translating the Bible. We don’t have much, but see those cows there (pointing to a group of cows nearby)? Each of us has agreed to give one of our cows to help get the Bible translated into our language. A cow took away our Bible, so these cows are going to help us get it back.”

Now let’s move to another region in northern Kenya. It’s the end of a long, hot day. A small group of Borana men — who are nomadic cattle herders— are sitting together under the stars to share news and stories. An elder begins to speak: “Long, long ago, we Borana people had a Book of God. We called it our Boogi Waqa and everyone had a copy. We read it often to learn how to please God. But as the years passed, our books began to wear out until eventually only one remained—the prized possession of one old man.

“Those were years of drought, and our people struggled to survive. Day after day the old man took his cattle out in search of grass and water. One day he had to leave one of his cows behind that was too weak to keep up with the rest. This cow came upon the last Boogi Waqa as she was looking for something to eat…and devoured it! When the old man came home that night, all he found left were a few pieces of the leather cover of the book scattered on the ground.