The beginnings of Wycliffe started 100 years ago because of a question asked by many others since then. In 1917 Townsend arrived in Guatemala as a Bible salesman. Townsend later recalled that Guatemala’s indigenous inhabitants (in particular the Kaqchikel) kept asking, if not in these exact words, something like: “If your God is so powerful, why doesn’t he speak my language?” Staggered by the implications of this question, Townsend blazed a new path in missions. By 1930 Townsend completed the Kaqchikel New Testament and at the same time began a training school to teach indigenous pastors. In 1934 these beginnings arrived in the United States and were known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). In 2001 Jeff and I attended CanIL, the Canadian SIL training school, and in 2004 boarded a plane to Asia.
SIL is key to the work of Bible Translation. These schools, which exist in several countries around the world, are where translators-in-training go to learn both linguistics and exegetical training. A good Bible translation begins with a good translator. But there’s more to what we celebrate this year besides the beginnings of the training school, we celebrate the purpose of this school and all that followed it.
In the year 2000: there were about 3,000 languages with no portion of the Bible
In the year 2007: there were about 2,250 languages with no portion of the Bible
In the year 2017: there were about 1,636 languages with no portion of the Bible
In the year 2017: at least 3,300 languages representing over 652,000,000 people have the New Testament
This is reason to celebrate - progress is being made. We celebrate not because the goal is to produce a well known book but because the word of God has the power to transform lives and it is reaching more people every year!
Wycliffe Global Alliance, of which Wycliffe Bible Translators Canada is apart, is comprised of about 100 organizations from over 60 countries around the world. As a whole we are involved in more than 2,100 of the current 2,600 languages being worked on today.
And yet, there are still 114 million people with no portion of the Bible; zip, zilch, nada.
Imagine not having:
Your favourite book in the Bible to sit down to read
Your favourite passage to encourage and teach you
Your favourite verse to comfort or guide you
Any portion of scripture to read or listen to.
Further, those who have the Bible, the whole Bible, know that we need all of it. The New Testament is best understood in light of the Old Testament. That 652 million people have the NT is great, but those same 652 million are missing more than half of God’s word. The work is not done.
So let’s celebrate (notice the new logo with fireworks!), but let’s also press on.
