The Gergeti Trinity Church of Georgia set high in the Caucasus Mountains is a beautiful symbol of Georgia’s Christian heritage. Similarly its neighbour Armenia was the very first nation to adopt Christianity as its official religion early in the 4th century. The area between the Black and Caspian Seas, known as the Caucasus, is a natural boundary between Europe and Asia and also includes the nations of Azerbaijan and Russia. This is one of the most linguistically complex regions of the world, containing more than 60 languages from five distinct language families. Remarkably, people throughout the Caucasus are less multilingual than in the past communist era, and have returned to their ethno-linguistic heritage and diversity. The translation projects currently underway ask for your prayers.

One language community in the Caucasus wants to develop a written form of their language. A linguistic team is helping to research the sound system and design an alphabet. Pray that teachers and other community leaders will be able to give their feedback.
Another language community is making good progress on their Old Testament translation with Proverbs, 1 Samuel and Esther all ready for checking. The project leader writes, “After many months of plodding through Proverbs it’s nice to see some movement in the project again! The downside is that I’ve got lots of work to juggle. Pray that I can set the right priorities.”

Photo: Stefan Krasowski
Words: Elyse Patten