Talking to teenagers at church about the value of studying God’s Word was not something I was looking forward to. How would they relate to me? Do they even understand what I do? In their eyes, I’m just that older guy who stands up every now and then to share stories about Bible translation. I talk about how millions of people don’t have the Scriptures in their own language, and I can almost feel them switching off.
So, no, the prospect didn’t fill me with joy. But then, while preparing my thoughts, I read Yoke’s story. “I love God’s word because I have seen with my own eyes how it changes lives,” she says.
Yoke is a young woman from Indonesia. Today, she is a translator with the Dobel language team, but a few years ago, her life looked entirely different. When she was at school, she was a bully. “My fellow pupils were afraid of me,” she explains candidly. “I used to hit them.”
