In 2002 a national Wycliffe Member Organization was organized in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. Named the Association Nationale pour la Traduction de la Bible et de l’Alphabetisation (National Association for Bible Translation and Literacy), or ANTBA, its goal is “to inform and mobilize the churches throughout Burkina Faso and get them involved spiritually, materially and financially in the work of Bible translation, literacy and Scripture Use activities.”

In the few short years of its existence, ANTBA has been blessed with positive responses from within Burkina Faso. The coordinator of public relations and church relations, Jacques Sankara, says that one of the organization’s greatest opportunities is the favor it enjoys in the eyes of the government. He says, “Today, ANTBA is considered to be a serious organization which works for the promotion and the well-being of the Burkina languages. And thanks to God, this gives us real freedom to work and do translation and literacy work in the country.”

Another area of responsiveness has been on the part of the country’s youth. Under ANTBA sponsorship and direction, a group of Christian youth volunteers from a number of different churches has formed a traveling music group called Vision (named for Wycliffe’s Vision 2025). Performing both traditional and modern forms of music, the group has been traveling all around Burkina Faso to promote the ministry of ANTBA among churches and Christian communities. Vision also toured three states of the USA, promoting Bible translation in African-American churches.

Most importantly, ANTBA is seeing spiritual fruit born as God uses its service to the people of Burkina Faso. There are many examples of people’s lives being transformed by their exposure to the Scriptures in their own languages for the first time ever. Mr. Sankara recalled one exciting incident: “One example was a class that was held in the western part of the country where the language is called Sìcìté. The class used Bible stories for literacy instruction in Sìcìté. As a result of this powerful teaching, almost the whole class became Christians, and subsequently most of the village are also following Christ. Today there is a Christian village in this Sìcìté area, thanks to literacy instruction. Wherever there is Bible translation, it looks much the same.”