IBT and its partner organization in Azerbaijan, “Kitab”, have published a new edition of IBT’s popular illustrated Children’s Bible (CB) in the Azeri language. Previously, IBT and Kitab had cooperated on the translation of the full Azeri Bible, which Kitab published in 2009. The Azeri title of the new CB literally means “Pearls from Holy Scripture.” 3,000 copies of this edition were printed in Baku this summer and the book is now being distributed among Azeri readers.

At the request of churches in the Siberian Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), IBT has published a revised and supplemented edition of the Children’s Bible in the Sakha (or Yakut) language of Siberia. Sakha is a Turkic language spoken by about 450,000 people. The previous edition of the full Sakha Children’s Bible was printed in 2013 and was rapidly distributed among the people.

IBT has also completed work on the Sakha translation of Proverbs and plans to publish this by the end of 2016. Translation work into Sakha is also progressing on Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Song of Songs, as well as on a biblical-theological wordbook.

One of IBT’s newest publications is an illustrated edition of Bible Stories in the Kalmyk language. This is a collection of 58 short narratives taken from both the Old and New Testaments, beginning with Creation and ending with Revelation. It is a significantly revised and shortened form of the Children’s Bible, which IBT published in Kalmyk in 1998. Even though Kalmyk is an endangered language (only 44% of the ethnic Kalmyk population can speak their language), there has been a serious revitalization movement in progress among the Kalmyks over the past decade. One of the  multitalented young activists in this movement who is working to strengthen her mother tongue is Elistina Shinyakaeva...

IBT has recently published an illustrated edition of “Bible Stories” in the Dungan language, spoken primarily in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China. This book is a short version of IBT’s beloved Children’s Bible that introduces readers to 58 stories from the Old and New Testament.