25 Years of Wycliffe and the Bible Translation Movement through Word Alive

	1990 is declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Literacy. Wycliffe needs 200 literacy specialists. [May/June 1990]
	During the past decade, 2,300 portable computers have been provided for missionaries by JAARS, Wycliffe’s technical arm. And the entire reference library for Bible translators can now be contained on a CD-ROM, an exciting new technological development. [Oct./Nov 1990]
	John Bendor-Samuel, Wycliffe’s and SIL’s executive vice-president, foresees the agencies over the next 10 years assessing 1,500 languages for possible translation and publishing 400 New Testaments. This will take 3,000 new Wycliffe workers, a doubling of income and a fourfold increase in prayer partners. [Feb/Mar 1991]
	Eight Bible translation organizations, including Wycliffe, meet for the first time ever. They call on Christians of all nations and denominations to join the Bible translation task and pray that God’s Word will soon be available to every person in the language they understand best. [Sept/Oct 1991]
	Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Eastern Europeans have joined the Bible translation cause and doors of opportunity have opened to translate God’s Word in the former Soviet Union. [Jan/Feb 1992]
	Within the next three years, Wycliffe Canada members expect to complete translation of more than 20 New Testaments. [March/April 1992]
	Roles are changing for Wycliffe Bible translators from the traditional sending countries, like Canada. Increasingly, they are acting as trainers and advisers to nationals who will be doing the actual translation work. [May-July 1992]
	A redesigned Word Alive shares how SIL has finished four decades of service in Ecuador; the second country where its Bible translation and related work is now completed. [Oct/Nov 1992]
	The Waorani New Testament is one of 19 completed with Wycliffe involvement and dedicated in 1992. The Ecuadorian tribe became well known after killing five missionaries who made contact with them in 1956. [Feb/Mar 1993]
	More than 600 of the several thousand languages spoken in countries within the so-called “10/40 Window”—a region inhabited by many of the world’s most unreached and needy people—have a Bible translation need. [June-Aug 1993]
	Women play a vital role in Wycliffe. They currently account for 55% of its total staff; 58% of its language workers; 54 % of its language consultants; 63% of its support workers; and 27% of its administrative staff. [Sept/Oct 1993]
	Wycliffe Canada celebrates its 25th birthday. With its first national office begun on a couple’s dining room table in Moose Jaw, Sask., the organization has grown to include 400 personnel serving around the world, based out of an office in Calgary, with a $6 million budget [March/Apr 1994]
	Wycliffe Canada launches “Partners with Nationals,” a new program to link Canadian Christians as financial supporters with national translators overseas. [May/June 1994]
	Wycliffe’s sister organization, SIL, plans to begin Bible translation for the Deaf, part of a potentially big task since more than 77 different and distinct sign languages are used around the world. [July-Sept 1994]
	Internationally, Wycliffe celebrates its 60th year of work to bring God’s translated Word to Bibleless peoples. [Oct/Nov 1994]
	The Word Alive calendar issue is introduced (as one of four annual issues), as well as the first of many popular columns by Jack Popjes, Wycliffe Canada’s new director. [Dec 1994/Jan 1995]
	Wycliffe releases LinguaLinks, a CD that will gives Bible translators unparalleled powerful computer software resources and reference books. [April/May 1995]
	The 400th New Testament is completed with the Wycliffe involvement. Peter and Bev Evans of Australia were the second of two Wycliffe teams to translate among the Barai people of Papua New Guinea. [Sept/Oct 1995]
	Nearly 2,100 of the world’s 6,721 languages have some or all of the Bible. In the past 45 years, more languages have received some Scriptures than in all the previous centuries combined. [Jan/Feb 1996]
	More than 2,800 of the world’s 6,700 language still need to be surveyed to determine which ones need Bible translation. Most of the languages are in the eastern hemisphere. Wycliffe needs double the 45 language surveyors currently in the field. [Mar/Apr 1996]
	Wycliffe increases its presence in Eastern Canada by opening a new regional office near Toronto. [May/June 1996]
	From Japan to India, Asians are playing an increasingly important role in the Bible translation task, as Wycliffe organizations and local translation agencies grow in that world region. More than 150 Asians already are serving language groups. [July-Sept 1996] Wycliffe Canada launches its first Web site: www.wbtc.org. [July-Sept 1996]