Imagine hearing the story of Jesus's birth for the very first time — not in a translation, not in a second language, but in the language your grandmother spoke, the language of your childhood, the language that carries the deepest parts of who you are.

That was the experience of the Mapulana community in South Africa on Christmas Day 2025. For the first time in their history, they were able to read or hear the Christmas story in Sepulana — their own language — following the publication of the Gospel of Mark by Wycliffe Bible Translators.

The Sepulana Bible translation programme, which aims to complete the full New Testament by September 2027, has already translated Matthew, Mark, Luke, and several other books. But the impact goes beyond the words on the page. The programme is helping to put the Sepulana language on the map, growing confidence in its use, and giving the community a renewed sense of cultural identity and spiritual belonging.

Wycliffe Bible Translators UK supports this work as part of a global mission to ensure that every person on earth has access to Scripture in the language they understand best. There are still hundreds of language communities around the world waiting for their first Bible translation — and each one represents a community waiting to hear the Christmas story as if for the very first time.

Support Wycliffe's translation work at wycliffe.org.uk.