Wycliffe Beginnings

Among the early missionary pioneers, William Cameron Townsend arrived in Guatemala in 1918 selling Bibles—Spanish Bibles, of course. After frustrating encounters with some Kaqchikel (kahk-chee-KEL), one of the largest Maya people groups, young Townsend realized that to be effective, God needed to speak Kaqchikel. Returning to Guatemala in the 1920s, under the Central America Mission, Townsend applied the insights of the then fledgling academic discipline of descriptive linguistics to unpack the layers of Kaqchikel grammar and sounds.

More than an earnest evangelist, Townsend combined careful linguistic work with developing reading primers and establishing schools. He also set up a medical clinic, founded a coffee cooperative and helped construct small dams for irrigation. The first edition of the Kaqchikel New Testament appeared in the early 1930s, the work of Townsend and gifted Kaqchikel co-workers. Back in the United States, he also spread the vision for this new type of linguistic, missionary work.

In 1934 Townsend began the first Summer Institute of Linguistics in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. The early students sat on nail kegs, wearing the acceptable attire of the day—dress pants, shirts and ties. From this modest beginning the worldwide ministry of Wycliffe Bible Translators emerged.