Tens of thousands of students and leaders at a Christian conference raised $400,000 to translate the Bible into unique sign languages in areas of the world with limited access to the Gospel.
Nearly 40,000 18 to 25-year-olds gathered at the Passion 2019 conference in three different cities— Washington, DC, Dallas, and Atlanta— not only to gather to worship and learn the ways of Jesus, but to raise money to ensure deaf people in different parts of the world could access Christ’s teachings.
Conference attendees raised $448,270 to fund a campaign by the Deaf Bible Society to distribute copies of the Bible into sign languages unique to 16 different countries.
Fox News reported that the funds would go to partner organizations who would translate the New Testament into sign language dialects in the following 16 countries: Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Moldova, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico
Sign language is the primary form of communication for 70 million people around the world, according to the Deaf Bible Society.
The Bible is available in whole or in part in many different languages.
The full New Testament is available in 1,521 languages and the entire Bible is available in 683 languages, according to the latest statistics available from the Bible translation organization Wycliffe Global Alliance.