MILTON, ON-A partnership has been formed between Rain Ministries and OneBook to translate an English paraphrase of the New Testament created especially for and by First Nations people. The goal of the First Nations Version is to enable over seven million English-speaking Indigenous people on Turtle Island to read and hear 'Creator's Eternal Word' in the words that reflect their heart languages.

Due to forced assimilation, the great majority of First Nations peoples lost the use of their mother tongues. Over the past 150 years, English has become their only spoken language.

Terry Wildman, the CEO of Rain Ministries, says "The FNV is intended to present the Scriptures with phrases and word choices that relate in a general way to Native Americans and other First Nations English-speaking people because of the great diversity of our people."

Starting this summer, OneBook will bring together a collaborative group of Bible translators that represent many denominations and churches within First Nations communities. "This breadth of denominational and First Nations' perspective will help us to safeguard the translation from bias," said Wildman.

The goal is to keep thought patterns and illustrations that Jesus would have used, had He been on Turtle Island two thousands years ago. The translators will be continually concerned with maintaining the accuracy of the translation and its faithfulness to the intended meaning of the Bible.

"This is an exciting project," says Wayne Johnson, CEO of OneBook. "The Board of OneBook unanimously gave approval for the partnership with Rain Ministries, in our first North American Bible translation project. As with our projects in Africa and Asia, we aim to maintain church and local community ownership of the project and the final translated First Nations leadership of the project will be overseen by Terry Wildman and an Indigenous group of Bible scholars, pastors and lay people from across Turtle Island. They have been charged with providing leadership to the translation process in a contextual manner within the framework of biblical excellence."