February 18, 2020 Indonesian partner agency celebrates 30 years of ministry By Wycliffe Canada Back to all stories About 200 staff members and guests gathered in Jakarta this past November to celebrate 30 years of ministry by Kartidaya, Wycliffe’s oldest partner organization in Indonesia. Dressed in traditional costumes, and holding up various completed translations and Scripture materials, Kartidaya personnel marched to the stage, region by region, to praise God for His grace and guidance over the past 30 years. Founded in 1989, Kartidaya serves the Church and other organizations in and beyond Indonesia, through traditional Bible translation efforts as well as “JESUS” film translation, ethno-arts and activities that encourage engagement with the translated Scriptures. As of 2020, Kartidaya has 45 staff members and is involved in language-related work for 25 language groups (three clusters and seven individual projects). Over the past three decades, Kartidaya has helped to complete the New Testament in four languages as well as Scripture portions in about 57 languages. Among the 719 language groups in Indonesia, 295 still do not have access to the Word of God in their heart languages. Source: wycliffe.net Photo by Ling Lam Posted in News and updates Previous Next

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Bible Translation Global Back to all projects Overview God has spoken, and continues to speak, through His Word, the Bible. Scripture points to Jesus, the source of life, restoration and salvation. Yet 1 in 5 people around the world still do not have access to the full Bible in a language and form they clearly understand. Bible translation allows people everywhere to meaningfully engage with the Word. God speaks through Scripture to transform lives in every culture, whether it is shared in written form, sign language, oral Bible storytelling, audio or video. Your partnership is key Your gift to the Bible Translation Projects Fund ensures that critical needs can be met quickly and effectively so more people can encounter God’s Word without delay. You can give with confidence knowing your support is helping advance translation work where it is needed most, right when it is needed. $0 $0 Remaining Need: of $60,000 Current phase: 2025-2028 GIVE NOW PRAY Facebook LinkedIn Your gift will help: Classics Memoirs Historical Fiction Download the latest update Due to the sensitivity of the region this project is located in, please contact development@wycliffe.ca for the latest updates on this project. CONTACT Read the story here Previous Facebook LinkedIn Next *Our funding commitments to Bible translation projects are made in 3-year cycles and include regular checkpoints with our field partners to ensure mutual accountability. For greater transparency and a more accurate picture of the scope of our projects, the amounts below now reflect the remaining need based on the entire 3-year funding commitment for the current phase of each project.

February 14, 2019 Berki’s Choice By Samuel Ko Back to all stories One African man’s desire to please God, even amid pressure to conform … Psalm 119:4-10 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” v. 9 (NIV) Berki Banko is a tall, lanky evangelist in Ethiopia. He has been trained by Bible translation leaders to tell accurate Bible stories (called oral Bible storying) in his mother tongue. “Since people have . . . heard Bible stories in their own Hamer language,” he says, “they want to know more about Jesus.” Since he was 19, this committed Christian has struggled to keep his life clean in God’s eyes. Based on what he knows in God’s Word, Berki has consistently refused to participate in a Hamer people’s cultural rite of passage into manhood: bull jumping. In this ceremony, the village gathers. Bare-backed women chant and blow horns in hopes of provoking the boys to whip them with birch sticks. The permanent scars become a symbol of their devotion — even though some women have died from the beatings. Then, each boy runs naked toward a line of bull cattle standing side by side. Vaulting himself, he runs across their dung-rubbed backs. If he makes it across the animals, he joins a fraternity of men, claiming a bride and the right to father children and to own cattle. Berki remembers the sound of bells tied around dancing women. The days of feasting and drinking sorghum beer. The animal sacrifices. Worst of all, the bloodied backs of women begging, “I was beaten in a small way. Beat me more.” The ceremony is full of things that don’t please the Lord , Berki thought. But his family and community pressured him. “You must choose one of the two,” they told him. “If you jump, you will be part of the family and live with us peacefully. If you refuse, you are no longer part of this family and we will kill you.” Here’s the full story , from Seed Company, of what Berki decided to do, and what happened next. Canada may seem a world away from rural Ethiopia. But as our culture drifts from the truths of Scripture, it pressures people to accept and participate in things that don’t please God. Amid that pressure, remember the touchstone and standard of God’s Word. Berki steers his life by that compass, just as today’s verse admonishes us all to do. — Lord, thank you for Berki’s example of directing his life based on your Word—even when that choice isn’t popular or safe. Help me to know and apply the truths in the Bible in order to please you, God. These are the standards to live out my days. Posted in People Previous Next

‎ B., Dan and Evangeline Dan and Evangeline are grateful to be working alongside a team of six committed Zapotec believers who are passionate about getting God’s Word into the language of their people. Portions of Scripture and audiovisual materials are now being used throughout the region, and they are trusting God to have the entire New Testament and a quarter of the Old (e.g. Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs) ready for publication by the end of 2025. Dan grew up in the Philippines and Evangeline in northern Mexico. Their heart for missions drew them together when they met at Prairie Bible College. They were married in 1991, joined Wycliffe in 1996, and left for Oaxaca, Mexico in 1998 with their two toddlers in tow. They began living among the Zapotec in 2001, learning the beautiful Zapotec language and culture, developing an alphabet and literacy materials, and beginning translation of the Bible. Their passion has been to train and mentor a strong team of Zapotec, who are now involved in training and mentoring other indigenous speakers and Latins in Bible translation, literacy and Scripture engagement. Dan and Evangeline are presently based in Canada to help care for their aging parents, and make several trips to Oaxaca each year. They are grateful for good technology so Dan can continue working with the team daily via Zoom. Support our ministry GIVE NOW https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E341555QE&id=388 Previous Next

February 13, 2024 No way back By Ruth Richert Back to all stories A young woman trades her dream of “a simple life” to prepare for Bible translation work in Southeast Asia Missionary life can be an amazing adventure of faith. It can also be incredibly difficult. For missionary kids trying to choose a path for their adult lives, memories of hardship sometimes overshadow the adventure. Karis* is one of more than a dozen Southeast Asian scholarship students in Payap University’s linguistics MA program in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She grew up in a nearby region, in a family that has faithfully served their local community for generations. Her grandmother has spent the past 50 years translating and ministering to a people group commonly referred to as the “sea nomads,” while her parents are long-time missionaries in translation and discipleship. Karis is well aware of the challenges of missionary life. And that’s why she tried to avoid it. Over iced drinks at a café just outside the Payap campus, Karis* shares the story of how she decided to become a missionary translator. (Photo: Derryl Friesen) With her gentle eyes that peep shyly from behind round spectacles, it’s easy to imagine Karis as a child who spent hours lost in her books. She never wanted to be a missionary—instead, she attended university with the goal of one day becoming a university instructor, a job that would have provided her with interesting work and predictable hours. “I just dreamed of a simple life,” she says. This hoped-for simple life included a regular salary. Having grown up in a family where income was scarce and unreliable, she knows the pain and shame of going without, and of always being painfully aware of finances. But even though Karis was determined to take a different financial path than her parents, she was deeply influenced by the way they chose to live. “Every decision we made, my parents always taught me to ask God first. And then I realized that when I follow that . . . the result is way better than what I imagined.” Karis truly believed this. And yet, she wanted a job with a predictable salary. Plans paused Then, the pandemic hit. As they did in countries all over the world, restrictions shaped daily life in Karis’s home country. Her university classes were cancelled, and she had to move back to her parents’ home. No longer a busy student, she suddenly had time on her hands. Her grandmother—who had also moved in with the family during the pandemic—seized the opportunity to ask Karis to help with a sea nomads dictionary that she was compiling. Karis agreed. She enjoyed the work, but saw it primarily as a way to help her grandmother, not as a potential vocational path. After the first wave of the pandemic subsided, her grandmother sent her to a linguistics workshop, ostensibly to receive training that would help with the dictionary project. But her grandmother had bigger plans in mind, and was secretly praying that the workshop would inspire Karis to consider becoming a missionary translator herself. Karis* presents her research project to her classmates as part of a graduate-level linguistics course at Payap University. (Photo: Derryl Friesen) At the workshop, Karis met members from SIL, Wycliffe’s key partner organization, who told her about the linguistics MA program at Payap University and explained the application process. It was a wakeup call for her. Until now, she had simply been dabbling in linguistics as a service to her grandmother. But she could clearly see that if she applied to Payap and passed the difficult entrance exam, it wouldn’t just be a course of study: it would determine the course of her life. “I know that if I do this, there is no way back,” she says. She spent three days praying and searching God’s Word for an answer. In truth, she was searching for a clear ‘no.’ But that isn’t what she found. “Every verse I tried to read, it’s like, ‘I’m always with you, I’ll be with you, you will be okay. I will give you the people.’” It wasn’t the ‘no’ that she had been searching for. It was better. “I was so surprised, so touched by the words in the Bible. I was very afraid because I know what missionary life is like . . . but those words comforted me. And then I had peace in my mind.” A firm assurance It’s been two years since Karis decided to apply to Payap, and she’s profoundly grateful that she made that choice. The program isn’t easy—the courses are in English, her third language, and the material can be highly technical—but Karis knows that she’s in the right place. Karis* and a fellow student joke around on the Payap campus during a welcome break in their study schedule. (Photo: Derryl Friesen) The political situation in her home country collapsed shortly after she left for Thailand, and many of the young people she attended grade school with have been arrested for participating in protests. Knowing that her family and friends are living in such difficult circumstances is painful, but she can also see God’s timing in bringing her to Payap. “God prepared everything for me,” she says. After she graduates, she plans to help finish the sea nomad language translation that her grandmother started. She’ll be a missionary translator, just as her grandmother prayed. It won’t be easy. There will likely be challenges and financial difficulties. But Karis has the firm assurance that God is with her, no matter what may come. *Pseudonym https://www.wycliffe.ca/project/payap Posted in People Previous Next

‎ LABRECQUE, Barbara At the age of 15 Barbara came to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. From that time on the Bible, God’s written Word, played a large role in forming and transforming her mind and life. She went on several short term service trips and saw needs in many languages for Bible translation and literacy work. Between 1990 and 1994, she studied at Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alta., earning a BA in Intercultural Studies with a minor in New Testament Greek. Later, she attended the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) in Langley, B.C., studying linguistics. In 1998, she and her family joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and were assigned to work in the South Pacific country of Vanuatu. In 2001, the young family travelled to Vanuatu and began working with the Paama people. Within one year, they had also begun working with the Southeast Ambrym people, who speak a related language. Work progressed for 16 years with the Scriptures being translated, national translators being trained, church leaders trained, Bible studies written, six years of Sunday school lessons developed, school curriculum developed and school teachers trained. Finally, in May 2016, the Paama and Southeast Ambrym people of Vanuatu celebrated the dedications of the Bible in their two language groups (printed full New Testament with Old Testament summary, and 80% available in audio format). Since 2013, Barbara has been reassigned to CanIL in Langley, Wycliffe’s Canadian training school. Barbara has served in the Student Life department, reception, human resources, teaching, administration, and finances. Support our ministry GIVE NOW https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E341555QE&id=102 Previous Next

Americas HONECKER, Steve and Dawn Ministry Focus: Finance/expense report processing “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10 NIV). Steve was working as a commercial truck driver when he learned that Wycliffe moved missionaries with trucks and had a great need for drivers. He enjoyed serving in that capacity for the summer of 1983. In 1986, he was able to begin the process of serving on a longer term basis. Over a period of 15 years, he was able to assist missionaries from many organizations move thousands of shipments. This involved travel in 44 states and the western part of Canada. During one of his trips to the east coast, Steve met a special young lady. Dawn grew up in South America where her father was a missionary pilot. She was spending the summer with her parents in North Carolina between years of college. They were married in 1989 and spent their first year together in Canada. A Wycliffe training centre in the mountains of California was the location for their first assignment. Dawn worked on the finances for the centre while Steve did maintenance and also moved missionaries part time. Eventually, Steve became the West Coast Operations Manager for the trucking operation. When the west coast warehouse was closed, Steve and Dawn were made aware of the need for a business manager in Vanuatu. They were able to help out the translators in that country for about 4 years. As their daughters prepared for high school, educational opportunities were very limited in Vanuatu. Once again, Steve and Dawn were made aware of a need, and this time it was for someone to process expense reports in Wycliffe Canada’s office in Calgary. They accepted this challenge and their daughters were able to continue with their education in Alberta. Steve and Dawn consider themselves to be among those who stand in the gaps so that others are not distracted from providing God’s Word for more than 1,600 language groups that still need Scripture in their mother tongue. Support our ministry GIVE NOW https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E341555QE&id=89 Previous Next

Sign Language Translation Fund Global Back to all projects Overview Worldwide, more than 70 million people use over 350 distinct sign languages. Yet only one, American Sign Language, has a full Bible translation. For many Deaf communities, written Scripture remains inaccessible due to limited literacy and education opportunities. The Sign Language Scripture Fund supports training, technology and resources for sign language projects around the world. These efforts are giving Deaf communities their first opportunity to fully experience God’s Word in a language they understand. Together with partners, Wycliffe is equipping Deaf translators to create Scripture videos in their own languages and training local leaders to share them in churches and outreach. As a result, more Deaf people can encounter the gospel clearly, without barriers. Your partnership is key Your gift to the Sign Language Scripture Fund helps ensure critical needs are met quickly and effectively, so Deaf communities can access God’s Word without delay. You can give with confidence, knowing your support is helping remove barriers and bring Scripture to people in a language they truly understand. $0 $0 Remaining Need: of $60,000 Current phase: 2025-2028 GIVE NOW PRAY Facebook LinkedIn Your gift will help: Classics Memoirs Historical Fiction Download the latest update Due to the sensitivity of the region this project is located in, please contact development@wycliffe.ca for the latest updates on this project. CONTACT Read the story here Previous Facebook LinkedIn Next *Our funding commitments to Bible translation projects are made in 3-year cycles and include regular checkpoints with our field partners to ensure mutual accountability. For greater transparency and a more accurate picture of the scope of our projects, the amounts below now reflect the remaining need based on the entire 3-year funding commitment for the current phase of each project.

‎ BOWMAN, Joseph Joseph was born and raised in the Niagara Region of Ontario. He has been a lover of words and languages all his life. Though a native English speaker, French was his favourite subject in school. He has undergraduate degrees in French-English translation and linguistics (and studied Spanish and German as well), bilingual professional writing (technical writing and journalism), and much later on, a Bachelor of Education degree in Adult Education. Joseph spent 14 years working for the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) while simultaneously completing a Master of Theological Studies. While still at WSIB, he began serving as a licensed lay minister in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), providing pulpit supply at many CRC congregations. He continues to serve CRC in this capacity to this day. With his theological and linguistic studies, work in both Greek and Hebrew, and being an English grammarian of the top degree (he will sometimes correct other people’s grammar in conversation!), he felt called to join The Bible Translator’s Assistant (TBTA) team at Wycliffe. Working with TBTA will allow Joseph to use his language and grammar skills to help develop software that allows minority language groups to more rapidly complete first drafts of translated Scriptures. By hastening that process, translators can focus their efforts on ensuring the accuracy of translation and equipping people for deeper Scripture engagement. In his spare time, Joseph is an avid Scrabble player. He has been playing Scrabble competitively in clubs and tournaments (yes, there is such a thing) for more than 20 years. See how much he loves words? Support our ministry GIVE NOW https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E341555QE&id=332 Previous Next