About Sponsor a Mother Tongue Translation
A people group is a group of people who see themselves as having a common cultural identity, shared customs, common language, and traditions. A people group is "unreached" if the number of true believers in insufficient or lacks cultural standing to sustain a gospel movement. Many large populations are statistically unreached because the culture, customs, and dominant religion is hostile and resistant to the gospel.
"Least Reached" People Groups
An unreached group is "least reached" when they are a minority ethnic group, often marginalized and oppressed, with no churches, no gospel literature, no Bible in their heart language, and often no known believers.The least reached are the focus of The Ancient Path project. The Ancient Path is a booklet written especially for southeast Asia, to overcome the main objection to Christianity—that it is a western religion. This objection is consistently a barrier to Christianity throughout the region of the World. The Ancient Path Project is an initiative to the least reached with our national partners who live near to and have a burden for the least reached—those who have never heard.
Partnering with Nationals in Nepal
The Ancient Path Project is partnering with national partners in Nepal to complete translation of The Ancient Path into all 125 minority languages of the least reached people groups in Nepal. Our partners have completed 43 of those languages. Our partners tell us there are 70 languages with no Christian literature. They want to complete 40 more this year. You might wonder—aren't there churches and Christians and a Bible in Nepal? Yes, there are all of those things.The "least reached" may be conversant in Nepali—the majority language—but there are three major barriers to their understanding. Gospel literature is a "language" with vocabulary that is uncommon and requires explanation. It is often unintelligible when presented in a second language that is primarily used for commercial and community communication. Second, the members of the majority culture often represent prejudice and oppression. They are not well received as messengers of the gospel. Third, as with most cultures in this part of the world, Christianity is considered a western or foreign religion with no relevance to everyday life and the felt needs of these people groups. This is the importance of mother tongue heart languages. The cost to sponsor one of these translations is less than $900.
