involving students in Bible Translation,short term missions and internships
In the 1300’s, a young man living in England, John Wycliffe, translated the Bible from Latin into the language of the common people…English. He was excommunicated from the church for translating the Bible into English. But the common people began to understand God’s Word for themselves, and it began to impact their lives. The church was afraid of losing control. After Wycliffe died, church leaders dug up his bones and burned them as an example of a heretic. But, God’s Word in the common language would speak to the hearts of the people for the rest of time.
In 1917, William Cameron Townsend "Uncle Cam", age 19, went to Guatemala as a missionary. He hoped to preach in Spanish and sell Spanish Bibles. Over the next few days, he preached and tried to sell Bibles, but the people did not respond. A few days later, an old man speaking only broken Spanish said to him, “Mister, if your God is so great, why doesn’t He speak MY language?” Cameron Townsend knew that God certainly spoke this man’s language (Cakchiquel), but it hadn’t been written down. Over the next 17 years, Cameron learned their language and translated the New Testament into Cakchiquel so the people could know God and worship Him in their heart language.
But it didn’t stop there. Uncle Cam wondered how many more languages there might be in the world. Uncle Cam founded SIL and Wycliffe Bible Translators--organizations dedicated to translating God’s Word into all the languages of the world.
At first, Uncle Cam thought there might be 500 language groups that needed to have God’s Word translated. Today, we know there are over 6,800 languages in the world. Only 5-6% of the world’s languages have the entire Bible in their language! Only 30% have any portion of the Bible in their language. If we continue doing translation at the same rate that translation has been done in the past 100 years, it will take us 150 years to reach the remaining language groups that don’t have ANY scripture in their language. That’s too long for some people to wait!
© 2012 Created by Dagney Stone.
