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.

IBT has audio recorded the book of Psalms in the Yakut (Sakha) language and is currently preparing this recording to be made available to the public. This is the second book of the Bible in Yakut that can be listened to as well as read – in 2007, IBT's Yakut New Testament translation was audio recorded by the Yakut Republic Library for the Blind.

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in eastern Siberia recently received 3,000 copies of the hot-off-the-press New Testament portion of the IBT Children's Bible in the Sakha/Yakut language, ordered by the Yakut diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.This is a brand new type of publication for IBT, containing over 150 NT stories with familiar illustrations from the Children's Bible.

On 21 May, the Russian Orthodox bishop of Yakutia met with IBT staff at the IBT office in St. Andrew's Monastery in order to discuss further cooperation on Bible translation work into the Yakut (Sakha) language. Bishop Roman expressed gratitude to IBT for publishing a revised version of the colorful Children's Bible in Yakut in 2013.

Patriarchal Liturgy in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow with Epistle and Gospel readings in Yakut

On 9 December a historic event took place – the Patriarch, Aleksiy II, held a service in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow at which a priest from Yakutia read the Epistle and Gospel readings from the modern translation of the New Testament (IBT, 2004) following the Church Slavonic texts. it was thrilling to hear a Turkic language in a cathedral service in Moscow...