Location/religion: Dagestan. Sunni Muslim.
Language family: Ibero-Caucasian
Bible portions to date: Mark (1996), Luke (2002, 2012), Matthew (2016), Luke+Acts (2019)
Audio recordings: Matthew (2016)
Apps: Scripture app (Matthew, Luke, Acts) (Android, iOS)

The Laks are one of the indigenous peoples of Dagestan. From the east and north-east, their lands border on the Dargins, and from the west and north-west - on the Avars. The historical capital of the Laks is the village of Kumukh, one of the most ancient historical, cultural and spiritual centers of Dagestan. It is located in the center of highland Dagestan, and is enclosed by high spurs of the main Caucasian ridge. The Laks were among the first peoples of Dagestan who in the 8^th century accepted Islam as their national faith. They still enjoy a unique position of cultural and religious prestige among their neighbors because of this. There is now a small group of Christian Laks.

Bible translation: The Gospel of Mark was published in 1996 and the Gospel of Luke was prepared in co-operation with SIL and published in 2002. After this, translation work into Lak was interrupted because of the lack of an exegetical advisor. In 2011 a Russian man moved to Dagestan with his family in order to study Lak and take up the work again. Work on the Gospels has been resumed with him as an exegetical advisor and with a new translator.

The Gospel of Matthew with audio recording was published in 2016, and both the text and audio are now available on the IBT website.

The Gospel of Luke is also available on the IBT website, and in spring 2019 one more publication appeared – Luke and Acts – now available both in book format and as a PDF on the IBT website.

A Scripture app with both Gospels and Acts has been produced both for Android and iOS. This should help get the text out to a much wider audience since some Laks may not feel comfortable having a hard copy of the book (societal pressure is very strong in Dagestan).

The illustrated edition of 9 Parables from Luke has recently been published. We publish Gospel Parables in many of our projects, but in Lak we added more parables to the usual 4, and new illustrations were prepared for additional 5. The audio recording of 9 Parables is also in our short-term plans, but this will be done only after the covid-19 quarantine is over.

Work continues on Bible Stories. The book was drafted by a new translator, but unfortunately she died of covid-19 in summer 2020. The former philological editor continues working on this book as a translator. By now Bible Stories has been partly checked. We need to find a new philological editor to replace the one, who has become a translator.

At present, intensive preparations are under way for the publication of the Four Gospels, the Book of Acts and Revelation. The edition, containing these books is scheduled for release in late 2021.

Your donation of $30 will help to publish and deliver to Dagestan 10 copies of the Four Gospels, the Book of Acts and Revelation (Print run – 500 copies)     

If you prefer to send your donation through a forwarding agent in the U.S. or Europe,
please write to us (link sends e-mail) and we'll provide the details of how this can be done.