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The air was electric at UnBound: The Bible in Global Contexts as excited Bible enthusiasts congregated May 7 at Ambrose University College in Calgary to talk about Christianity’s application in hundreds of world cultures.

President Don Hekman of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada, which sponsored the conference, said the event would be a “tremendous conversation.” It certainly was, as Q and A sessions, a panel discussion and highly interactive workshops set the stage for open dialogue by those who attended.

“We believe that culture is created by God,” said one audience member, Tui Eli, following a morning workshop called ‘Redeeming Cultures: The Power or God’s Word.” Eli is a Samoan Christian who mourns the fact that traditional dress and drums are prohibited in church services in his country.

He believes these parts of his culture are gifts from God, evidence of His fingerprints, and should be welcomed in Christian practices in Samoa.

Bill Bivin, presenter of the “Redeeming Cultures” workshop Eli attended, showed a slide of a disco ball.

“We want something like this, where God’s glory is reflected by hundreds of redeemed cultures,” said Bivin, who serves with Wycliffe on a Bible translation and literacy project among Panama’s Guaymi people.

Balancing the day’s conversation was keynote speaker Dr. David L. Jeffrey, professor of literature and humanities and former provost at Baylor University, in Waco, Texas. He voiced a gentle word of warning that the truth and tone of Scripture must not be lost in any way when translated, no matter into which language.

“Being a translator is challenging in so many ways. It is a work that is filled with terrible risk,” said Jeffrey.

That risk, he said, is to potentially sacrifice the original meaning of the Bible’s Greek and Hebrew texts in order to appease cultures and fit into languages around the world.

“[The Bible] is intrinsically countercultural, not just an affirmation of the culture we have,” he stressed.

Sue Hall, a chemist turned ethnomusicologist with Wycliffe, transported her audience in the workshop “Sing it! Dance it! Believe it!” all the way to Ghana. In that African country, translated Scripture made into traditional music affirmed the Vagla people in their faith, she said.

“To see my Vagla friends so excited about this just blew my fuses,” bubbled Hall. “This was the birth of a whole new thing that was both really Vagla and really Christian,” she said.

Those in attendance experienced firsthand that “Africa is an artistic continent” as Hall said; they learned and performed an African worship song— handclaps, instruments, foreign words and all.

Wycliffe’s Dave Jeffery talked about a more serious topic in a workshop called “Fighting Poverty with Linguistics.” He demonstrated how language has proven to be a winning weapon against illiteracy, injustice and disease around the world.

“There is a language connection to all of these things,” he said.

Jeffery, who served as a linguist in South Asia, added that language-based development helps people reach their changing social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual goals.

Proving Jeffery’s points, the audience began to share stories from their own international experiences where they witnessed how promoting mother-tongue language use is linked to fighting poverty, from Nicaragua to West Africa, Peru to Pakistan.

UnBound’s second keynote speaker Ray Aldred, assistant professor of theology at Ambrose University College, focused his presentation on storytelling, one of the most celebrated art forms among the First Nations people.

“The Bible must be read, it must be heard, it must be lived,” said Aldred, who is a First Nations person (status Cree) and an active member of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies.

“The task of translation is complicated because we are not only shifting symbols and letters and words around, we are interpreting theology, choosing words in an attempt to communicate the greatest story ever told and lived,” he continued.

“It’s not something that one can buy an app for [in] one’s iPhone.”

Amy Smedes had technology on her mind after learning how computers support Bible translation at a recent “Check-IT-Out” conference at the Canada Institute of Linguistics, Wycliffe’s main training partner, in Langley, B.C. Her interest piqued, so she decided to attend UnBound.

Translation work was a new concept for Smedes, who wasn’t too familiar with Wycliffe.

“I never imagined that someone would spend 12 years translating the Bible—it just never occurred to me,” she said after hearing the story of one translator as told by Jeffrey.

Enlightened and excited about Bible translation, Smedes is exploring the topic further.

Glen Ager on the other hand has been involved with Wycliffe for 45 years, and said he really enjoyed the conference.

“I thought Jeffrey was provocative in some of the things he said,” Ager explained. But he’d likely agree with Jeffrey’s statement: “In the effort required to make a faithful translation of the Scriptures into any language, at any time, much more is involved than meets the eye of most readers of the finished product.”

And whatever the language, it’s the finished product—the Bible—that meets that world-renowned basic need for spiritual renewal, from Africa to America.