How Bible Translation Changed a Son’s Heart
The Kiche Bible was completed in 2025. Pastor and lead translator Martin shared the following story from 2011, when the translation project began:
“My plan was to kill my father,” Pascual said to Martin.
The young Guatemalan man lived next to Martin, who invited him to a translation workshop. For two weeks, they read Genesis in Kiche. But when Pascual reached the story of Joseph’s forgiveness in chapter 45, Joseph didn’t do what Pascual expected.
“I just can’t believe that Joseph was able to forgive his brothers of everything they did to him,” he told Martin. “Is it true? There’s something in my heart that can’t understand it.”
Martin confirmed that the story was indeed true. And Pascual began to share his own true story.
Why the Joseph Story in Kiche Matters
Pascual grew up in church, but the gospel message hadn’t sunk in. His own father had abandoned his family and remarried, leaving Pascual to be raised by his grandparents.
Pascual later asked his father for money to attend high school, but his father dismissed him, saying he had a new family and not enough money to help. Pascual’s anger grew, and a plot began to form. As he grew older, he planned to kill the man who had cast him aside.
Reading the Joseph story in his Kiche language clarified the grace of the gospel in a way that Scripture in other languages couldn’t. “All of these years, I have hated my father,” Pascual told Martin. “After I read the Bible, my plan is different. It’s not the same. Pray for me. I have to change my plans.”
A Step Beyond Forgiveness
Martin prayed with Pascual—and encouraged him to take forgiveness a step further, to reconcile with his father in response to what he read in the Word. After returning home, Pascual did just that. Then he gave his life to the Lord, and Martin shared the gospel with Pascual’s father too.
Today, their family is changed because of what God has done for them.
“Right now, he is able to visit his father, and his father visits him even though he has another family,” Martin says. “That doesn’t matter because of forgiveness.”
When Martin and Pascual talk on the phone, Pascual often thanks the translator for inviting him to be part of the Kiche project. “Without that workshop, I wouldn’t know the gospel and the Word of God,” he says.
Martin always responds, “It wasn’t me. The Holy Spirit prepared the way for you to be there.”
This is the story of what God can do through one chapter of His Word, His people, and prayer. Now, 15 years later, Pascual’s people have the whole Bible in their language—which is our hope for every language group around the world.
