‘What does everyone want to eat?’ said Mike, perusing the menu up and down.

‘Does anyone know what “Hors d’oeuvres” are?’ said Alpha, looking puzzled.

‘It’s a French word, meaning outside work’ replied Foxtrot. ‘They are a small bite to start a meal, outside of the main course. It’s so important to be able to read and understand things in your own language, isn’t it?’

‘Especially the Bible,’ said Mike. ‘The Word of God is alive and active,’ he continued. ‘And we want as many people as possible to be able to read it, so they understand more about God and know the hope we have because of what Jesus did by dying on the cross.

‘In fact, in spring this year, I flew a translation team from an organisation called SIL to celebrate the newly translated New Testament into the Budu-Nita language in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They work with speakers of the language from the community to ensure the right words are used in the new translation.’

‘Wow! I bet that took a long time to write?’ asked Alpha excitedly.

‘Yes! In fact, it took 36 years to finish!’ replied Foxtrot. ‘This was such an exciting day in Bunia – there was much singing and rejoicing! Nearly 4,000 people turned up to celebrate. The team is starting work on the Old Testament, so the people will soon have a complete Bible to read.’

‘It’s so great that MAF helps fly in translators into remote places where there is no access to God’s Word in the local language. But there’s still much to be done – more than half of the world’s languages have no Scripture at all. MAF will keep flying to support this work,’ explained Mike.