Bible translation takes center stage at UBS World Day of Prayer

Bible Ambassadors, young and old alike, gathered for the annual United Bible Societies (UBS) World Day of Prayer last May 9 at the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) ministry building. Participants joined hands and hearts with Bible Societies across the world in interceding for the advancement of the global Bible ministry, with special emphasis on the work of Bible translation.

The prayer gathering was held to commemorate the founding anniversary of UBS, the global fellowship of 148 Bible Societies in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. This serves as a poignant and powerful expression of unity to fulfill the mission of making God’s Word available to everyone.

With Bible translation as the prayer focus for 2018, the participants were treated to a brief talk on the principles and process of Bible translation to better understand and appreciate the ministry. UBS Translation Consultant Dr. Annie del Corro shared about the making of the Pinoy Version, one of the translation projects that PBS will launch within the year.

“Bible translation is at the heart of the Bible Society’s work. We believe that the message of the Bible is very important that’s why we need to translate it to languages that people are accustomed to use otherwise, they will not read it. We require that all our translations are faithful to the original text, easy to understand, and use reverent language,” Dr. del Corro said.

Participants then prayed together to praise God for His blessings for the Bible ministry work across the globe and asked for His guidance moving forward. Thanksgiving were likewise lifted up for the highly skilled and passionate translators committed to the Bible cause, as well as for the Scripture translations completed and published last year in 49 languages spoken by 580 million people all over the world. The prayer session was wrapped up by calling forth unity in intercession, in vision, and in work so that more people would have access to the Bible in their preferred language.

New PBS Board of Trustee Mr. Karlo Lara, Founder and Program Director of the Lakbay Biblia Catholic Bible Course, closed the entire gathering in prayer and further challenged the Bible Ambassadors present to live out the teachings of the Scriptures and be committed in sharing the Word to others.