Wycliffe, the company dedicated to helping countries translate the Bible into their own languages, announced to their staff that four of their translators were brutally murdered and others injured by militants in the Middle East earlier this month. In the announcement letter, prayer coordinator Mae Greenleaf explained the militants’ raid on their translation office in the Middle East:

Militants killed four national translators and injured several others in a raid on a translation office in the Middle East. They shot and destroyed all the equipment in the office including the Print On Demand (POD) equipment. The invaders burned all the books and other translation materials in the office. Two workers died of gunshot wounds. Two other workers laid on top of the lead translator—saved his life—and died deflecting bludgeoning blows from the radicals’ spent weapons.

Though the militants seemed intent on destroying the translations, the computer hard drives containing the translation work for eight language projects made it out unscathed. The remaining translation team has decided to double their efforts to “translate, publish and print God’s Word for these eight language communities.” Greenleaf goes on to ask for prayer for the surviving translators, and for the attackers: