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Century-Old Christian Minority in China Receive Translated Bible

Nadia Cavner

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A devoted philanthropist, Nadia Cavner supports a wide range of organizations in their local and international work. One of the nonprofits Nadia Cavner supports is the American Bible Society, which is dedicated to spreading God’s word to the most remote parts of the world.

The people of East Lisu in southwestern China had been Christians for over a century but had never read the Bible in their own language - ever. That all changed in October 2016, when the United Bible Societies China Partnership together with the American Bible Society distributed copies of the Bible, translated into the local language, to the people of East Lisu.
The journey of translating the Bible for the minority group in southwestern China began four decades ago when Yang Hanquan, a local school teacher, started translating the Bible. Yang was able to complete a rough draft but had no way of editing, reviewing, printing, or publishing the translated Scriptures.
In 2005, the United Bible Societies linked Yang’s team with a professional Bible translation consultant. Together, they edited Yang’s rough draft word by word. By 2016, the work was complete and Lisu was one of 600 languages (out of 7,000 languages) in the world to have its own Bible translation.