Translation Efforts Set to Expand

Today, STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine) development is advancing worldwide, but who is reaching out with the Good News to the global STEMM  community—and those influenced by it? As requests for relevant content continue to pour in, Reasons to Believe is poised and positioned to respond through a significant expansion of translation efforts.

“Providentially, God is bringing us Scholar Community members and friends from other nations, many of whom are bilingual or even trilingual,” says Kathy Ross, who currently spearheads the new translation task force. “For the first time in the history of RTB, we have the talent available to undertake major translation projects.”

Decades ago, NavPress licensed multiple foreign-language translations of The Creator and the Cosmos (an early edition). When Hugh traveled to Russia in 1994, a few thousand Russian copies were made available to his audiences, but access to information about its distribution have remained elusive—until recently. Last month, during a digital outreach in Ukraine and Russia, Hugh learned that tattered copies “are still being passed around today!”

Sometimes overseas audiences respond with stunned silence to Hugh’s story about the role of science in his journey to faith in Christ. They’re hearing a message contrary to everything they have been told and are shocked to hear that science research affirms, rather than denies, the truth of the Bible.

Thanks to strategic partnerships, RTB now has both requests for and opportunities to translate books, videos, and course materials. One of these new relationships brings with it the prospect of reaching a potential viewing audience of more than 300 million Farsi speakers across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. More than 30 hours of RTB content has been translated for broadcast so far, and the translation of six books, as well as seminary courses, is about to get underway.

Meanwhile, RTB’s first fellow, Dr. Cynthia Cheung, is working to translate Navigating Genesis into Mandarin. Her depth and breadth of scientific expertise and ministry experience have been crucial in communicating concepts for which no direct equivalent wording exists. After Dr. Cheung completes the book, she hopes to prepare the remainder of the Navigation Genesis package—leader’s guide, study guide, and small group video series—in Mandarin.

During the COVID lockdown, two of RTB’s Spanish-speaking friends translated and began distributing Ken Samples’s Christian Endgame: Careful Thinking about the End Times and Hugh’s Genesis One: A Scientific Perspective. We anticipate translation of Hugh’s A Matter of Days to begin soon. As God provides, we’ll make every effort to fulfill requests for RTB materials in Arabic, Armenian, Hindi, Russian, and Swedish, among others.