Bualkhaw Chin Bible & Literacy

• Location: Myanmar
• New Testament Completion Date: 2012
• Bible Completion Target Date: 2031

The Bualkhaw Chin people reside in the Falam Township in the Chin State of Myanmar. They number approximately 2,500 people, with 90% professing Christianity and 60% claiming to be evangelical. The remaining 10% practice ethnic religions. An estimated 80% of the Bualkhaw-speaking people can read their own language.

Although the Bualkhaw people had a New Testament that had been translated many years earlier, they wanted one that was translated directly from the Greek. So, their church association contacted Bibles International with this request in May 2000. They signed the translation agreement for the Bualkhaw New Testament translation in 2002.

The main translator, Jonathan Ram Ling, worked with several BI and national consultants to produce a trial edition of the books of John and Romans in 2007, which was enthusiastically received by the Bualkhaw Chin. In addition to the translation work, BI printed a bridge primer in 2008 as a resource for literacy teachers, as well as an Old Testament storybook to provide background information for both the Old and New Testaments. The team finished the translation of the New Testament in 2012. An audio edition of the New Testament followed in 2016, making the Scriptures more widely accessible to people who cannot read.

A letter written to Bibles International and the Bibles International Myanmar Society by the Bualkhaw Bible Translation Committee stated, "We, the people of Bualkhaw, are really grateful to God and to you for this wonderful work. When we met the Bualkhaw people who use the New Testament Bible in our language, they also want to have the Old Testament as soon as possible."

BI and BIMS signed an agreement for the Old Testament translation project in August 2014, with Jonathan Ram Ling continuing as the main translator. The books of Genesis and Ruth were completed as a single trial edition in 2021, and the entire Bible should be completed by 2031.

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