Join Grace Fabian at a Wycliffe Associates banquet at 7 p.m. Friday, at Boulevard Baptist Church in Anderson to hear her moving story and get an inspirational look at the life-changing work of Bible translation. Call (800) 843-9673 for complimentary tickets to this very special event.

When Grace Fabian and her husband Edmund accepted and assignment in 1969 to go to Papua New Guinea as Bible translators, they planned to “really do a number” on the Nabak people. After all, the dedicated, highly trained couple was there to decipher the Nabak language, create and alphabet, and ultimately translate the Scriptures for these remote villagers.

But as Grace will tell you, while the translation of the New Testament was eventually completed, it did not come without great sacrifice, suffering, and a gentle lesson of her own. The sacrifice came in 1993, while Edmund sat at his desk translation 1 Corinthians 13 — known, ironically, as the “love” chapter, he was brutally murdered by a local villager.

So intense was Grace’s pain and suffering that at first she thought about leaving the translation work unfinished and returning to the States. But she soon felt God nudging her to stay put and complete the work she and her husband had started together so many years before.

“God is so almighty,” Grace said. “He is able to take a tragedy and use it for His glory.”

The Nabak translation of the New Testament was completed in 1998 and was marked by seven days of celebration by local villagers.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the celebration, however, was when Grace and her family were lovingly inducted into the clan of the very man who had taken her husband’s life.

“I thought I was going to teach the villagers, Grace says. “But they taught me, too … about reconciliation.”

Today Grace lives in Pennsylvania and is serving as a speaker, sharing her story and her passion for translating the Bible so that others might have the chance to read God’s Word in their heart language.