Article taken from the Wycliffe UK website, all information and images provided by WSA - https://wycliffe.org.uk/story/a-special-christmas

For some communities, Christmas Day 2025 was a particularly special day. For the first time, they were reading or hearing the Christmas story in their own language!

Communities like the Mapulana people of South Africa, whose language is Sepulana. This Christmas, they went to church and opened a booklet with the first printed words from the Bible in their language – the Gospel of Mark.

Imagine: this is the first Christmas Day where they can read the story of Jesus’ birth in their Sepulana language.

Jeffrey Malibe of Kingdom Light Salvation Church says:

‘We are excited and celebrating that the book of Mark and the Christmas message have been translated and published in Sepulana, our heart language.

‘What a joy to hear our pastor preaching from it for the first time after it was made available to our congregation!

‘We rejoice in the Lord’s goodness as his word speaks directly to our hearts in our mother tongue. Wow, the message is very clear and simple for us to understand every single word. The experience has been wonderful. We give thanks to God for the privilege of having Scripture in Sepulana.’

Showing copies of the Sepulana Mark’s Gospel in Kingdom Light Salvation Church

Growing in confidence

For the Mapulana people, having God’s word in their language is part of a bigger picture.

Jeffrey Malibe with his Sepulana Mark book

The launch of the Gospel of Mark comes on the back of many years of being a community that was marginalised during apartheid and whose language was not officially recognised.

Now, the Sepulana Bible translation programme is joining others in the community who are literally putting the language on the map – in 2018 the government agreed to use Sepulana in official signage.

There are even novels being published in Sepulana, as the community begins to grow in confidence in using their language.

As Ntisi Chiloane, a member of the Bible translation team, says:

‘To me having the Christmas story in the Sepulana language means that the Mapulana people will enjoy the stories in their own language. They will also know that God exists in every language, whether official or not, and that God understands every language.’

The next step

The Mark book is just the next step in the Sepulana Bible translation programme.

The team started translation work in early 2020. Initially, they worked part-time with the aim of completing oral Bible translation of 40 narratives from both the Old and New Testament. Then, in October 2022, the team transitioned into full-time work on oral Bible translation and transcription, with the aim of finishing the New Testament by September 2027.

Ntisi Chiloane reads her Sepulana Mark book

They’ve now completed the translation work on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts, and are working through the book of John. The aim is to have Matthew through to Acts published and distributed by September 2026.

Thato Mokoena and Ntisi Chiloane reading the Mark book

Thato Makoena, a member of the translation team, says:

‘2025 has been a good year. It has been productive. It might have had its challenges. But at the end of the day we have been called to overcome.

‘Our greatest achievement is the printed book of Mark. It brings joy to me personally since our people have long waited to receive a hard copy of what we are working on – the Bible. It has been a wonderful journey. And I am looking forward to the new year.’

‘We are so happy’

Join us in celebrating this amazing moment in the history of the Mapulana people!

And rejoice that they are one of many communities around the world who are experiencing a similar moment this Christmas.

Kgotatso Morapane of the Sepulana translation team says:

‘Christmas is about the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is a season where people come together to celebrate with our loved ones, relatives travelling from town to town, from villages to villages, just to spend time together as family.

‘It is a joyous moment to us as Mapulana people, as this 2025 Christmas we celebrate it with a written and printed book of Mark. I carry it everywhere I go to show people and to church services in case they preach from the book of Mark so I can read in Sepulana.

‘We are so happy and excited, may the name of the Lord be glorified. We believe many will be saved through this book.’

As you experience the Christmas story again, may God give you a renewed sense of wonder, joy and amazement.

Kgotatso Morapone reads the Sepulana Mark book

To find out more about the Mapulana people and the Sepulana language, visit https://wycliffe.org.za/en/sepulana and https://sepulanabible.com/en/home.