April 15, 2025 The story that must be told By Guest Contributor Back to all stories This story is taken from our 2022 In Other Words newsletter. It highlights the importance of culturally-appropriate digital media tools in overcoming barriers to Scripture access around the world . We use pseudonyms and representative photos to protect identities. For quite some time, Khalid* had been feeling that his life was torn in two. It all started when he encountered Isa (Jesus). Khalid was hardly able to contain his excitement about the new path he was walking. Yet, in the Middle Eastern country where he lived, talking about Isa was dangerous. You might be seen as a traitor to your family and nation, since anything “Christian” was associated with “the West.” While Khalid longed to share his excitement with others, he didn’t dare do so, since the few books available about Isa had a distinctly Western flavour. He longed so much to tell his story, but just didn’t know how—until the day he came across a CD that looked and sounded like many others in the Middle East. Representative image from Khalid’s region . Photo: imb.org Bright colours adorned the CD cover; the title, Lives of the Prophets , was painted in a beautiful font. The speaker’s accent wasn’t foreign-sounding, the music was familiar—and the stories! Stories of the prophets his people had always cherished and revered, like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, and even Isa. Nobody who picked up this CD would consider it foreign or threatening. Khalid had finally found a way of sharing his journey with his family and friends. Taken by Surprise Representative photo from Shokrat’s region. Photo: Marc Ewell, Wycliffe Global Alliance At the same time, nearly 2,000 km to the northeast, Shokhrat stared at his phone in disbelief. He had just downloaded the Lives of the Prophets app—out of sheer boredom and because he liked traditional stories and music. He hadn’t expected much, but this was really good. The music was professional and the narrators sounded very natural. They even used the same idiomatic expressions as everyone else in his part of the world. He liked the respectful way they talked about the prophets of God. It sounded credible and trustworthy. He was particularly intrigued by the person of Jesus. He had always been curious to learn more about him, but would have never touched a Bible. This series now walked him through a story that was so much bigger than he had imagined. Starting with Adam and Eve, he followed the procession of prophets throughout history, men and women sent by God to guide people to the truth. When he came across yet another app, this time featuring the Bible in his language, he was ready to download it as well, eager to know more. He never regretted that moment of boredom which ended up changing his life. Thirst for More In a country further west, Memyan was furious: her daughter, the child she had raised to follow the traditions of her people, was helping to record stories from another religion. There was nothing Memyan could do about it. But because her daughter was already shaming the family name by siding with Christians, Memyan reasoned that she might as well listen to what they were producing. So one afternoon, Memyan slipped her daughter’s Lives of the Prophets CD into their player. As she listened, she was immediately drawn into the stories her daughter narrated. Not only did her daughter’s voice sound so beautiful, so full of life, but the stories themselves were incredibly powerful. Soon her anger changed into an unquenchable thirst for more, and she listened to the CD again and again, often together with her daughter. This was the most natural way for Memyan to learn: since she was barely literate, a book would never have worked for her. But sitting and listening allowed the stories to speak straight to her heart. Trust in the Scriptures started to grow in Memyan and when she passed away just a few years later, she, too, had become part of God’s story. Representative image from Memyan’s region. Photo: imb.org Countless people like Khalid, Shokhrat and Memyan are being touched and transformed by stories from the Lives of the Prophets. The series deliberately builds bridges to help people of another world religion receive the gospel message. The stories tap into what people already know, drawing on their reverence for the prophets who are also part of their religious tradition. The way the stories are presented removes the barriers that come from linking the gospel to Western cultural expressions. With those barriers removed, people are less likely to see the message as threatening, and view it instead as honourable, beautiful, and trustworthy. As a result, lives are being changed for eternity in some of the most spiritually challenging places on earth. *All characters are based on real people. Story contributed by Silke Sauer Posted in Engaging with Scripture Previous Next

April 2, 2020 Summer Linguistics Course Going Online By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories Responding to the social restraints caused by the spread of COVID-19, the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) plans to hold its “Summer@CanIL” training course online. As the training partner of Wycliffe Canada, CanIL has traditionally held its summer course in applied linguistics at its facility on the campus of Trinity Western University, in Langley, B.C. But with the need for social distancing unlikely to end soon, online delivery seemed a natural choice. The institute has delivered a number of advanced online courses in the past. The nine-week, intensive program is designed to launch students into one of several bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, or one of eight training tracks by helping them complete prerequisite courses. The summer course also provides an opportunity for students to test the waters of linguistics, literacy, Bible translation, Scripture Use, and studies in language and culture. Organizers are aiming to provide a sense of community for students, with multiple opportunities to interact with fellow students, faculty, staff, alumni, and field personnel. The experience will include online chapel sessions as well as opportunities to ask questions about living and serving in different locations around the world. For more information, visit canil.ca/summer Posted in News and updates Previous Next

September 27, 2023 Exodus translation published for Quebec’s Naskapi First Nation By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories The Naskapi people of northeastern Quebec have had access to the New Testament in their language since 2007. Since then, one of their long-term Bible translation goals has been to translate and publish the book of Exodus. “We want to report with gratitude and praise to God that this goal has been reached,” Wycliffe Canada’s Bill Jancewicz reported on Aug. 24. Earlier that month, 300 copies of Exodus, printed by the Canadian Bible Society, were delivered to the Naskapi community about 15 km northeast of Schefferville. Exodus is the latest Scripture translation for Quebec’s Naskapi people, joining the New Testament, Genesis and Psalms. Jancewicz and his wife Norma Jean have served the Naskapi in language development and Bible translation since 1988. Since the publication of the Naskapi New Testament, local translators mentored by Jancewicz have also completed work on Genesis and the Psalms. All are available in print and on the YouVersion Bible app. All Naskapi Scripture publications use BJCree, a typographic font Jancewicz designed to format and print Naskapi syllabic characters using computers. The Naskapi translation team is currently working to finish translating the book of Judges, while translations of several other Old Testament books are being checked by team members for accuracy, clarity and naturalness. Learn more: Northern Translation Brief (blog by Bill Jancewicz) Related stories: Nomads No Longer Give to Indigenous Initiatives in Canada Posted in Bible translation Previous Next

October 26, 2018 A Traditional Priest Chooses Christ By Samuel Ko Back to all stories Niwanke Emmanuel was a traditional title holder and a priest (to a god called yiʼa). He became exposed to the Word of God in 2014, while helping local Bible translators in Bambalang, a village in Cameroon’s North West Province. The translators in Bambalang would often take portions of the draft Scripture in Chrambo and read them to Emmanuel. In that way, he helped test the translations to make sure they sounded natural (i.e ‘good’ Chrambo). Touched by what he had been hearing from God’s Word, Emmanuel began attending church services in 2014. That same year, he renounced all the “privileges” he had as a traditional priest, noble and traditional title holder. In February 2018, he took the courageous step—facing possible ridicule from his peers—of making a public confession of faith through baptism into the membership of Central Baptist Church in Bambalang. He did this after faithfully being discipled for more than two years. The former priest is now actively serving Jesus in the Bambalang church. He is also involved in distributing mother-tongue diaries, to help promote Bible translation and literacy efforts for his people. “Even though I had heard the Word of God before,” says Emmanuel, “it had never spoken to my heart . . . as it did when I started hearing it being read to me in my mother tongue.” LEARN MORE: Ndop Cluster Project Change on the Plain : Word Alive, Fall 2015 Posted in Impact Previous Next

January 20, 2020 Kenya’s Samburu dedicate New Testament By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories The Samburu of Kenya’s Rift Valley dedicated the New Testament in their language, as well as an accompanying dictionary, on Jan. 4 at Maralal Stadium in Samburu County. The event was attended by about 3,000 people. Until now, the Samburu have tended to use the Maasai translation. Although they generally understand this translation, there are issues with comprehension and some of the Maasai words are offensive or derogatory to the Samburu. This has been a contributing factor to the Samburu not fully understanding the Christian faith and therefore mixing it with traditional religion. The Samburu New Testament arrives by donkey. © Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL) “When the Bible becomes available in local languages, it becomes a tool for evangelism and discipleship,” says Peter Munguti, national director of Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL), one of Wycliffe’s partner organizations in Kenya. “We believe that having the New Testament in Samburu will transform this region.” A total of 5,000 printed copies were produced; all have been sold and are already being used by the Samburu people. The audio version was also available at the dedication, and 162 SD cards with the audio version were sold that day. The BTL Scripture engagement team will be making trips this month to distribute more SD cards. The Samburu are a largely nomadic people of about 160,000 whose source of life is their livestock. The indigenous Samburu Church is quite small, with a few local boma/manyatta churches (household churches) here and there. Only 10–12 per cent of the Samburu are Christian. As the Samburu move around the country, they may not have a local pastor or missionary who travels with them. Also, the adult literacy rate is only about 20 per cent. So having the audio version as well as the printed version will boost a fledgling church with few church leaders and a low literacy rate. Julia Leaduma, a Samburu who attended the dedication said: “Today is a day of happiness for Samburus because we now have our own Bible. We now know that Jesus understands Samburu language too.” Translation work began in 2006, and the first Scriptures (the Gospel of Luke) were published in 2014. While Wycliffe workers have contributed throughout the process, much of the work has been done by local Samburu and BTL team members. Translation of the Old Testament is ongoing and the aim is to have a complete Samburu Bible in a few years. Samburu girls read the New Testament in their language. © Bible Translation and Literacy (BTL) The dictionary is aimed at Samburu people who already speak and read English, and would like to get the most out of the Bible in their mother tongue. Janet Sweet, who serves with Wycliffe, worked on the dictionary. “The dictionary aims to be a storehouse and reference point for cultural information,” she says. “It will be used primarily by Samburu people who have been educated in English and would like to connect more with their culture. “They will use it as an accompaniment to the New Testament, helping them to understand their mother tongue more deeply and enabling them to look up words they are not familiar with.” Adapted from an article at wycliffe.org.uk Posted in News and updates Previous Next

July 20, 2018 Consuming Passion By Samuel Ko Back to all stories Betty Amon remembers sitting with her family during family devotions, reading the Bible in Pohnpeian, one of Micronesia’s major languages. She could read the words aloud, but she didn’t have the faintest idea what they meant. Her father had to explain each verse. Young Betty wondered, Why do I have to read someone else’s Bible when I can’t even understand it? Betty grew up on the remote Micronesian island of Nukuoro. Her father was a hardworking farmer and a church deacon; he was training to be a pastor before he died in his early 40s. Betty’s mother was the first female pastor in Micronesia. And she became one of the instigators of the Nukuoran Bible translation. As Betty began high school, her mother began to pray that her daughter would one day be called into Bible translation. “By the time I was in eleventh grade, I really believed God had put it in my heart that I should do the Bible translation for my people.” After high school, Betty enrolled in Bible College in Canada. God confirmed her calling during her studies, but it was a letter from her Nukuoran church that really got things moving. “The letter said, ‘We have heard that you have finished Bible school, so would you come and start the Bible project?’” says Betty. “I didn’t even know, but the church had collected over $12,000 to publish the New Testament. So it wasn’t just me, there’s a whole bunch of people behind me whom God used to begin this project.” Betty returned home to pick up the work her mother and others had begun. Much of the New Testament translation was already done, written out by hand. Betty refined the language and typed everything on a typewriter, sometimes all night long. In 1987 the gospels of Matthew and Mark, the first Scripture in Nukuoran, were published. But Betty’s work wasn’t finished. The church asked her to translate the Old Testament, so she enrolled at Bible college in Israel in order to learn more Hebrew. When Betty returned home, she selected a team of Nukuoran translators living on Pohnpei, where the Federated States of Micronesia’s capital city is located. In 2005 the new team began work on the Old Testament. From a tiny one-bedroom house in Pohnpei, they translate up to four days a week, around their day jobs. Betty worked with the Nukuoro community to refine the text. For Betty, now 65, it is all part of an all-consuming, heartfelt commitment to serving her people. “My life is full and rich,” says Betty, “not because I’m somebody, but because of God. God is making it that way.”Betty hopes that the Scriptures will greatly help this community, which, she shares, struggles with crime, family problems and suicide. She adds, “Even if I’m not here, the Bible we’ve translated can do what God wants. Long after any of us [are gone], God can still use his book to speak to hearts and bring more and more of our people and family to Him.” Adapted from an article by Claire M. Smith Photos by Elyse Patten Posted in People Previous Next

March 28, 2022 An important distinction By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories For the last 21 years, [my husband Will and I] have lived half our life in India. It started with research into linguistics and surveys of languages. Then, we joined Wycliffe. In 2008, we were living in rural India with an eight-month-old baby, and Will was working with a local translation team. He started bringing the translation team over to our house to do Bible studies. File photo One day, we were reading Mark. In chapter 6, it says that Jesus sent out his disciples, saying, “Take nothing for your journey except a staff” (v.8). One of the translators asked me, “How old were the disciples?” I replied, “Why are you asking?” He said, “Because if they were old, they were taking the stick to walk with. But if they were young, they were taking the stick to beat people into submission.” I realized that, in translation, connotations are so important, not just dictionary definitions! We translated “stick” as “stick for walking.” Source: https://www.eternitynews.com , from an article by “Kathryn” with Naomi Reed. Posted in Bible translation Previous Next

November 8, 2019 Keyboard software aids in language preservation By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories An international software firm developing smartphone keyboards specifically designed to write in traditional languages is helping people protect their language. The project, called Keyman, allows people to type in one of more than 600 different languages, most of which are majority languages. A majority language is one spoken by large groups of people such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin. Keyman has been developed by not-for-profit company SIL International, and lead software developer Marc Durdin said it was created in 1993 originally for the Lao language. “We had people in other parts of South-East Asia discover the program and ask to adapt it to other languages, then we made it more accessible,” he said. “But as we started to expand out into other languages, we made it more language agnostic so that it would provide the resources to allow you to adapt it to a language, but not actually have any language knowledge. “So it’s not me producing keyboards for all these languages, it’s the communities producing keyboards for themselves.” Durdin said Keyman relied on “language champions” to put their language forward to be digitized. “There’s a tool called Keyman Developer that you can use to create a keyboard layout,” he said. “. . . We’ve had 500 to 600 people contribute keyboard layouts for different languages.” Read the full story at ABC Australia Posted in Bible translation Previous Next

March 15, 2022 Ukraine Response: Wycliffe Poland By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories As of this week, more than 60 per cent of the people fleeing Ukraine have come to Poland — more than all other European countries combined. That is 1.7 million refugees and counting, coming to a neighbouring country of 38 million. Loading supplies bound for western Ukraine. Across Poland, this means a constant flow of people into every city or town, with every church and NGO part of the effort. “Any church, any organization that has any capacity to host refugees, they do it,” said Agnieszka Domagala, director of Biblijne Stowarzyszenie Misyjne (BSM), also known as Wycliffe Poland. “It’s everyone. Every town is co-ordinating and trying to co-ordinate help. But there are also a lot of bottom-up initiatives. People are just volunteering. Giving clothing, shelter. Warm meals. Picking up people from railway stations. So it is an amazing, amazing volunteer movement.” Speaking via Zoom from her church in Wroclaw, Agnieszka’s Internet connection was unstable because it is being used by so many people staying there. Her attention is necessarily split right now between her part-time role as Wycliffe Poland’s director and serving at the church where her husband is a pastor. The church initially thought it could offer 20 beds. That quickly grew to 60 families or singles now under their care at the church, plus about the same number who have stayed there temporarily and then settled around town or in nearby villages. “We have a crisis center, so people can stay in the church and live here and we co-ordinate everything — food, clothing, schooling, medical help,” she said. “Everything you can think of. The church is used as a place to stay, and also as a transit place because there is a constant stream of refugees. They stay for one or two days, or even for a few hours to have a warm meal, and then they go further, like to Germany or to other places in Poland. Or some stay longer. “It’s not only us, but other churches we know in Poland are doing the same,” she said. “And different organizations are doing the same. So it is a united movement. People think, Where can I give my hand? And then we just do it. “This is how the situation more or less looks everywhere in Poland. We are trying to find accommodations for people and then connect them with their food supplies, medical supplies, doctors and any help they need. We are very busy. Our days are long.” From an article by Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance. To learn more about the responses of Wycliffe Poland and other Wycliffe organizations to the crisis in Ukraine, visit wycliffe.net . Posted in News and updates Previous Next

January 11, 2023 Son of Man or “pumpkin child?” By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories A completed New Testament could be published very soon for the Rangi language community of central Tanzania. Even as a final read-through of the whole New Testament was recently done, local translators continue to put the text through a battery of careful checks. One of those checking sessions revealed a startling error. The error was discovered by a team member working in literacy and other ministries, not translation. But when Emilia was asked to review the translation of John’s Gospel, she agreed. “I look especially at portions of text that the translators marked for review,” says Emilia, “but it also helps to read the surrounding verses.” “Emilia . . . immediately made a big difference,” says Emmanuel Mwankosole, team leader for SIL* Tanzania’s Dodoma Region office, where the Rangi team works. In chapter six, in a verse that was not flagged for her to check, Emilia found a significant correction that was needed. In the phrase “Son of Man,” she spotted a concern over the Rangi spelling of the word for “man.” “In the text,” Mwankosole explains, “the word written for ‘man’ was actually the Rangi word for a type of pumpkin!” Because the spellings are very similar, this error had been easily missed through several careful checks, even by the translators themselves. Team members are praising God for His work through Emilia and their team, to protect His translated Word. As work moves forward to complete the remaining checks and changes, they request prayer for every detail — the process of publication and printing, planning the community celebration, and organizing distribution of the completed Scriptures into Rangi churches and homes. * SIL is Wycliffe’s key field partner Participants at this orthography workshop in 2022 helped make significant improvements to the Rangi writing system. (Photo by Paulo Modamba) Source: SIL Tanzania Posted in Bible translation Previous Next