Four Bible translators killed by Islamic attackers

Four Bible translators became martyrs this week at the hands of Islamic militants at an undisclosed location in the Middle East.

Wycliffe Associates (WA) announced four national translators it supports died after an unnamed group of armed attackers raided their office. Two translation workers died of gunshot wounds. The other two died as they lay on top of the translation coordinator, saving his life by absorbing “bludgeoning blows from the radicals’ spent weapons.”

Other workers suffered injuries as the armed men “shot and destroyed all the equipment in the office, including the Print On Demand (POD) equipment.” The assailants also burned books and other materials in the office.

But WA prayer coordinator Mae Greenleaf reported a miraculous survival: “We praise the Lord that He protected the computer hard drives containing the translation work for eight language projects.”

Besides asking for prayer for those injured, and their grieving families, Greenleaf challenged Christians to pray for the attackers—and to commit to the work that remains to be done. Survivors of the attack insist the Scripture translations in those eight languages must go forward.

Wycliffe Associates, a leading mobilizer of funding, supervision, and training for Bible translation work, is working to reopen the translation office. The organization is not disclosing the location of the facility to protect its other workers and ongoing projects.

The number of Christians in the Middle East is in steep decline, in war-torn locations like Syria as well as less violent areas such as Egypt. More than 1,000 people have died in at least 125 jihadist attacks worldwide in the past month, according to internet groups who track the violence and keep tallies.