In 2018 the Keliko people of South Sudan celebrated a momentous milestone: after 20 years of perseverance through the hardships of civil war and displacement, the Keliko translation team has completed the New Testament.
Photo by Marc Ewell
SIL International, a partner of the Wycliffe Global Alliance in the Bible translation movement, celebrated a milestone of its own: the Keliko translation is the 1,000th New Testament completed with engagement from SIL, along with Wycliffe and its major partners.
The Keliko New Testament dedication took place Aug. 11, 2018, inside a refugee camp in northern Uganda, where members of the translation team fled after civil war broke out in their homeland in 2013. For some 70,000 Keliko speakers from South Sudan, many of whom now live as refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the ability to access God’s Word in their own language is finally a reality.
A 2018 peace agreement in South Sudan has meant reduced fighting and new hopes of returning home. At the same time, God’s Word in their mother tongue brings eternal hope for transformed lives among the Keliko people.
Source: Wycliffe Global Alliance