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Democratic Republic of the Congo - pictures from the mission field
This shot was taken in the last 8 months from a missionary who passed it along to us at Wycliffe Associates. These are coffins being distributed in response to civil unrest in the DRC
Wycliffe Associates Press Release - Operation Clean Water boosts Bible Translation
Attached is our Press Release on how Community Development projects are giving access to language groups needing translation of the Bible
Donn Hallman – 714-222-5079
(Orlando, Florida, USA)—Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, is building bridges for sharing translated Scripture in Asia and Africa by providing clean water systems in remote communities.
“We’ve seen how God uses a clean water system to draw men, women, and children to faith in Christ,” says Stephen Martin, Vice President of Field Development. “At the water stations pastors and national Bible translators sometimes read aloud the Scriptures they’ve most recently translated.”
Through its Operation Clean Water initiative, Wycliffe Associates supplies tools and training for local Christians to dig water wells and build clean water systems for their villages.
National Bible translators work to deliver the translated Scriptures to their language communities, yet many of the people they hope to reach with God’s Word are struggling to survive without clean water.
Little to no clean water is available to them, and sometimes the only water they can access is filthy and disease ridden. In some cases, the nearest water source is located hours from their homes, reachable only on foot over difficult, dangerous terrain.
“A clean water source becomes a hub for an entire community, a place where believers will share the newly translated Word of God with their friends and family members,” says Martin.
In one village, a woman known as “Alina” (real name withheld for security reasons) struggled to care for her husband and three children. She made a long, daily trek to the nearest river, where she retrieved dirty water for her family.
Then local Bible translators and church leaders installed a clean water system in the heart of her village. On the first day she went to the water station, a local pastor was reading aloud from the Bible in Alina’s language. Alina gave her life to Jesus Christ that same day. When she returned home with the clean water, she told her husband what happened. A week later, he attended a church service with Alina, where he, too, heard the Scriptures in his language. Now Alina and her family are committed Christians and are active in their church.
Wycliffe Associates has built 38 water systems and plans to construct additional systems in Africa, Asia, and South America over the next year.
About Wycliffe Associates
One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.
Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently accelerating Bible translation all over the world. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org.
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We partnered with a church in Nigeria to get relief to areas impacted by terrorist attacks. Attached is our release.
Donn Hallman
714-222-5079
Wycliffe Associates Partnering with Nigerian Church to Bring Relief and Hope to Victims of Islamic Militant Attacks
(Orlando, Florida, USA)—Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, is working to relieve suffering for Nigerian Christians through its Emergency 911 Fund.
Between January and August of 2021, more than 267 people in Nigeria have been killed, 246 houses have been burned, and more than 20,000 hectares of farmlands have been destroyed by Fulani Jihadists. In August, 2021, Fulani Jihadists attacked more than 17 villages and killed 70 people. Fifteen communities within the Zonzon and Zonkwa districts have been completely razed.
“Bible translators and their families have been on the run—trying to find safe shelter and security wherever they can,” says Tabitha Price, Vice President of Translation Services at Wycliffe Associates. “Fear and terror have gripped these believers as they suffer tragic losses and hopelessness.”
The crisis has been created by a twofold problem: Islamic militant groups like the Fulani Jihadists and Boko Haram are intent on eradicating Christianity, and dwindling grazing lands are forcing Fulani herdsmen into Christian communities
In addition, Boko Haram has publicly declared its mission of eliminating Christianity in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, and entrenching Shariah law throughout the nation, which is 53.5 percent Muslim.
The Southern Kaduna region of Nigeria has become a hot spot where militants are carrying out killing, banditry, kidnapping, and destruction almost daily. Meanwhile, a case study in the Miango community has recorded more than 200 widows and approximately 800 orphans.
Wycliffe Associates has partnered with the relief foundation of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Nigeria to provide emergency aid to those who have been attacked or affected by the attacks, especially widows and orphans. Wycliffe Associates is currently raising funds to send to the ECWA.
The ECWA is the largest single evangelical church in the northern part of Nigeria and has suffered severe attacks and casualties, including the murders of its own church members and an ECWA pastor.
Along with providing food, bedding, and clothes, ECWA hopes to purchase building materials to help victims renovate their houses when security improves, and they can return to their villages.
About Wycliffe Associates
One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.
Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently accelerating Bible translations in 64 countries. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org.
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Radio signals directed to isolated language groups in closed countries and regions is allowing Bible translators to get the job done.
Thank you!
Donn Hallman
Wycliffe Associates Turns to “Old” Technology to Bring the Scriptures to Isolated Language Groups
(Orlando, Florida, USA)— Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, has begun transmitting Bible translation training and ministry support materials via radio signals.
The organization has discovered language groups in isolated places that are without the Scriptures in their language and can’t be reached by other Bible translation strategies.
“Who could have predicted that God would take us back to radio, a communication technology 70 years older than Wycliffe Associates?” says Tim Neu, Chief Operations Officer. “Yet this is the only means of reaching some people, even in 2021. It takes the ‘old’ to bring in the new.”
Some of the language groups are located in geographically isolated places without infrastructure, roads, or access. Other language groups are unreachable due to repressive governments that are opposed to the Christian faith. The Internet is monitored, and it’s impossible for Christians or Americans to travel to these regions.
“In our earliest efforts, the results have been amazing,” says Neu. “In one African country, we broadcast into a majority-Muslim region. A believer immediately made his way to a telephone, found a way to speak without being overheard, and called us. In spite of the dangers, he was eager to start translating Scripture for his people.”
Wycliffe Associates plans to reach 35 new language groups by training mother-tongue translators via radio, reaching across borders to teach Bible translation methods to local believers.
“We have workers ready to begin Bible translation training and support broadcasts,” says Neu.
Wycliffe Associates currently has Bible translation projects underway in 748 languages. To date, the organization has facilitated the completion of 481 New Testaments.
Through its Church Owned Bible translation approach, Wycliffe Associates provides resources, training, tools, and support to empower national Bible translators to translate the Scriptures for themselves as they work in conjunction with their local churches.
About Wycliffe Associates
One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.
Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently accelerating Bible translations in 68 countries. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org.
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