Maybe you have a study Bible, a concordance, a Bible dictionary, or a commentary. Maybe you have Bible software on your computer. Here in America we are blessed with a wealth of Bible study resources. But the Jita people of Tanzania don't even have the Bible in their own language.
Thankfully, we're getting very close to publishing the New Testament in the Jita language. And in the back of the New Testament, we will include a Glossary. A Glossary is a collection of important Biblical words and phrases, along with their definitions, organized in alphabetical order. So for example, imagine a Jita person reading Matthew 9:27,
As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”
Maybe this Jita person wants to know more about that term, Son of David. They can look in the Glossary and find an explanation along with some other relevant Bible verses to help them understand the meaning. A Glossary is a great tool for Bible study.
But we have had all kinds of problems with the Jita Glossary. Sometimes our translated text would become corrupted and entire sections of the Glossary would mysteriously jump into other sections. Other times, whole paragraphs would disappear. We had to sift through the archives to try and recreate those sections accurately. It was just one major problem after another.
Clearly, these were spiritual attacks to prevent us from finishing the New Testament. Think about it, this little Glossary in the back of the Jita New Testament, will be the first Bible study resource ever printed in the Jita language. That's exciting!
Thankfully, by God's grace we finally finished the Glossary. And we saved it and made lots of backup copies :)
Now we're one step closer to printing the Jita New Testament!
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