Mr. Johnson went further, telling the Mission Network News (MNN) that effective evangelism cannot happen unless the Word of God is in the mother tongue of the reader. Currently, the scripture ministry is being translated in up to 50 languages.
"We really believe that Bible translation is the bedrock of leading people to Christ. Effective evangelism really can't happen unless the Word of God is present in the mother tongue of people around the world. So right now, we're in the process of translating up to 50 languages in key parts of the world," said Mr. Johnson.
In Africa, a story had emerged of how Africans treated the Bible preciously, explained Mr. Johnson, where the people over there tear up one copy of the Bible and passed the torn pages to everyone so they could have a piece of the Word of God.
"There are stories in Africa of people who take one Bible, and they tear it up and pass out different portions so that everybody will have a piece of the Word of God. That's how precious it is in certain parts of the world. I think it's so important for us in the United States, who can so easily take God's Word for granted, to understand that there's a desperate need."
Annual budgets for individual translation projects have a price range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the scope of the work and the cost of qualified labour.