Anyone attending to the news in SE Asia knows the challenges the population of Myanmar is facing. Recent announcements of the extension of Marshal Law to more areas where opposition to the military government is on the rise have made an already difficult situation there, worse.

To emphasize its control, the current government has been shutting down the power grid each day for up to twelve hours. This makes life in the extreme heat problematic. And without electricity, the computer work required to complete the translation of the Travel Guide to the Bible has been greatly hampered. But during the early days of March, we celebrated a bit of good news. Because we were able to shift some project resources, it allowed us to provide funds for the purchase of a small generator for the translation team in Yangon. Rova, our primary translator, was then able to complete his work in both Burmese and Mizo Chin. He is currently in the final design stages and is negotiating the printing of the first publication run of the books. He writes:

Thank you so much for your caring heart for us. We can now solve the many problems regarding electricity. The financial help to purchase the generator is a great help. I am trying my best to complete the work on the book soon. Your book (Travel Guide to the Bible) is good and will be very helpful to many Myanmar and Mizoram Christians. Mizoram Christians means believers who live in Mizoram State in India. Now that the Mizo Chin translation will be available, Mizo people in India will find it useful. I am very grateful that you have written such a simple book to help lay Christians understand the whole Bible through this good book.

We knew of the demand for the books in Rova’s networks in Myanmar. But that news of the pending publication of the book has also caught the attention of the Mizo (Chin) people in India, we had not expected. The people of Mizoram share a language, and a very porous border with the Chin Province in Myanmar. As a result of the recent struggles in Myanmar, movement in an out of Mizoram has increased, and as a result of that movement, rumors of the publication of a new book in Mizo Chin have reached India.

There are an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 Mizo Chin speakers in Myanmar and Mizoram.

Lee is fond of saying that, though we had modest plans for our books when we first started writing them, God has other plans, and the little books “escaped.” We are so thankful that they did. Our first book is now in 50 languages, the translation of the A Simple Word website into French is only a few months from completion, and a new set of books being printed in Africa this month will put the number of books in print and in distribution to nearly 700,000.

Thank you to all of you whose support of Clear and Simple Media has made this possible.