2,454 languages now have Scripture

9 new Bibles and 34 New Testaments were registered for the first time in the United Bible Societies' 2007 Scripture Language Report.

Hundreds of people welcomed the new Vute New Testament in Cameroon. One chief and his entourage made the 130km journey on foot. "To have the New Testament in your own language is to be evangelised.. it is to possess God's Word and thus to be visited by Jesus Christ," said Rev Thomas Nyiwe, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In Guatemala the launch of the Chuj Bible attracted more than 1,000 people, some of whom had travelled for days to be there, braving wind, rain and thick mud on the steep and winding roads. They cheerfully sat through several showers of rain during the ceremony and then queued in torrential rain to get copies of the Bible in their mother tongue.

"One of the highlights of my work has been seeing people's faces as they hear God's Word read in their own language for the first time," said Gwen Tremlett, a member of the translation team responsible for the new Kriol Bible in Australia. Kriol is the first language of 10,000 people and the second language of another 20,000. The Bible is the first formal written text in Kriol and more than 2,000 people gathered to celebrate its publication last May.

Making the Bible's message accessible and understood has been at the heart of Bible Society work since the foundation of the first Bible Society more than 200 years ago. And translating the Bible into the language of the world's many diverse people groups remains one of the key means of achieving that goal.

In theory, due to the globalisation of certain languages like English, French and Spanish, 95% of the humanity now has access to the bible in a language they can understand. But many of these people are having to read the Bible in a language that is not their own. With overwhelming evidence that Scripture speaks most powerfully to people when it is presented in their mother tongue, Bible Societies are working ceaselessly towards the goal of giving everyone this kind of access to the Scriptures.