Thousands in Chiapas Celebrate Completion of Bible Translation
"What a day!" says RCA missionary Jim Heneveld of the November 25 Bachajon Tzeltal Bible dedication in Chiapas, Mexico. "More than 4,000 people were present. Representatives came from several Latin American countries, including Cuba, and from the U.S."
As many as 200,000 people in Chiapas speak the Bachajon dialect of the Tzeltal language, and now for the first time they have the entire Bible in their own language. RCA missionary Jim Heneveld and a team of three Tzeltal pastors worked on the translation for more than 10 years.
"We have not been able to get an accurate count of how many Bibles were sold that day but we saw boxes leave the room and many people with a Bible or two in hand," says Heneveld. "The Pentecostal church alone ordered 600 that day. We picked up five boxes which will be delivered to the prisons. What an exciting time it was!"
The Tzeltal church also used the occasion to give Jim and Sharon Heneveld an official retirement farewell after 22 years of ministry. "It was a bittersweet day for us," says Jim.
Besides working on the translation project, Jim has led training institutes and developed materials for use in theological education. In addition, Sharon has been involved for many years in a ministry to inmates at prisons in the Ocosingo area where she and Jim made their home.
Posted 01/30/07
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