The Need for God's Word in Chad

This is a post I've been wanting to write for a long time, but it has taken quite a bit of research before I felt ready to write it. I'm sometimes asked how many people in Chad do not have the Bible in their language, and up until recently I've always had to say that I didn't know the exact figures. Then finally, I decided to do some research to find out the answer for myself.

The best-known resource for general information on the world's languages is the Ethnologue, which has a huge online database with information about each of the nearly 7,000 languages in the world. It took some time to figure out the answer to my question, looking up each of the indigenous Chadian languages to find out which ones have published Scriptures, and then figuring out the statistics, but eventually, after much calculating, checking, and correcting my figures, this is what I found:

• The Ethnologue lists 129 indigenous languages that are spoken in Chad today, not counting French or Standard Arabic, as they are not spoken as indigenous languages by the Chadian people, and not counting several extinct languages (i.e. languages that have no living native speakers).
• Only 8 of these languages have a complete translation of the Bible. This means that 75% of the population of Chad is without a complete Bible in their own language.
  
• Another 20 languages have a published New Testament, but no Old Testament.
  
• 13 languages have published portions of Scripture (e.g. the Gospel of John), but do not even have a whole Testament yet.
• This leaves 88 languages that are without any portion of the Bible, which amounts to about 41% of the population.

How large are these language groups that are still without the whole Bible? I used to assume that a local tribal language would consist of just a few hundred people in a few little villages, but in fact, a language group that small would be considered nearly extinct. Some endangered language groups do exist in Chad, but most of the needy languages have populations ranging anywhere from a few thousand to several million people. Consider the following language groups that I picked out mostly at random, all of which are without a complete translation of the Bible:

• Kanuri: 3.2 million speakers, 104,000 of which are in Chad
• Chadian Spoken Arabic (different from Standard Arabic): 1.1 million speakers, 896,000 of which are in Chad
• Gulay: 163,000 speakers
  
• Dazaga: 381,000 speakers, 331,000 of which are in Chad
  
• Kanembu: 461,000 speakers
  
• Tama: 67,900 speakers, 62,900 of which are in Chad
• Bagirmi: 44,800 speakers
  
• Nzakambay: 31,500 speakers, 18,500 of which are in Chad
• Dangléat: 45,000 speakers
  

I think this is enough to give you an idea of how much work is still left to do in Chad. Pray for each of the language groups above, as well as the Maba, Musey, Zaghawa, Naba, Masalit, Gor, and many others that are still waiting for a complete copy of God's Word in their own language.

Before I close, I should add a few observations about these figures. Although the Ethnologue is a helpful resource, and I think these figures do give an idea of the need in Chad, we should be aware that it is difficult to get exact figures on these language groups. Many African language groups live in remote or politically unstable areas; population figures are sometimes out of date or potentially inaccurate; and researchers often disagree as to whether two or more groups speak separate related languages, or merely dialects (i.e. variations) of the same language. However, one thing is certain: the people in Chad need God's Word! Please pray for our translation teams and each of our missionaries as we seek to meet this need for the glory of God.