Once we've engaged with a community and a fully-fledged Bible translation project is underway, we determine to get the job done as quickly as possible. Proper training and mentoring are key at this stage, and it is also essential to let the process happen. The translators are mother tongue speakers of the language and, with adequate and ongoing training, they are the most qualified among us to translate God's Word into their own language.
What does excellence look like in a translation project? It is a translation that beautifully expresses the original meaning of the Scriptures in rich, idiomatic language in the mother tongue. It is a translation that is true to the original text, and accurately captures the original meaning of the author. And it is a translation that the community has been involved with from the outset. It is their language; their work and God is interested in them! Finally, it is a translation that has gone through rigorous testing phases from team, village and exegetical checks to language committee and consultant checks. They are signed off and ready for print. Sooner than it was imagined possible, millions of people have access to God's Word as they realise that God communicates with them in their heart language.