“Chen” from South Korea is a Translator and Consultant in Training and was the student representative speaker at the School of Biblical Hebrew graduation. She and her husband will be translating the Old Testament for the Barma, a people group in Chad (with a 44,800 speaker population) that has never had the full Bible. 

Chen’s speech in fluent Hebrew is a beautiful personal testimony and shows her heart for translating the full Word and giving others the hope of resurrection. Here is the translation of her testimony:

“As I was preparing for the final ceremony I wondered to myself: how is it that we are all running this race together? My answer is because we all know the heart of God. When God chose Abraham, He promised him that he would be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. From the very beginning, God’s plan was that all His creation would recognize a creator and worship Him. 

When I was a student at university, my mom had a serious illness. Through this I learned there was an end to our life and the end can come at any time. I experienced the pain of separation when she died, but her death caused me to look forward to God’s Kingdom which is eternal, and I knew that we would meet again in that Kingdom.

Afterwards I realized that there are many people in this world that are living without the hope of resurrection. God opened my eyes to see people that have been born into difficult circumstances and are living without hope. I understood that God’s love that saved me can also save them. I heard God’s voice saying, ‘Who will go?’ I answered, ‘I don’t have the ability, but if you want to use me, yes I’ll go! Please help me to use me.’

When my husband and I got married we left Korea and went to France to learn French. And in October of 2001, we arrived in Chad. We moved into a village where we still live. We learned the language and the culture of the people. As I learned their language, God opened the way for me to create letters in order to write their language with the goal of translating the Bible. I love to translate the Bible, but because I didn’t know Hebrew, I was forced to translate from either English or French. And I felt that I was missing the ability to be able to read in Hebrew and really understand. 

I found out that there was a chance to study at Whole Word Institute. I believe God gave me the opportunity to learn Hebrew so the Bible could be translated for my friends, and the people group and the villages in Chad can know God and become a people of God. 

Before attending the School of Biblical Hebrew Chen and her family were involved in developing an orthography for the Barma language, prior to which it did not have a written form.

‘It felt like a dream when I was told at school that it should be heard in a vivid language when reading the Hebrew Bible. However, after nine months of Hebrew study, my eyes and ears were opened and the Hebrew Bible began to sound vivid.’

Thank you for sharing the Word,
The Whole Word Institute team
The Whole Word for the Whole World