Author: Wycliffe UK

The engaging story of the Malila Scriptures

It can be easy to think that once people have the word of God in their own language, the work of Bible translation is done. That could be the case for the Malila community in Tanzania, who celebrated the arrival of their printed and audio New Testament in 2...

The translation can go where the church cannot: Contemporary Wolof translator Paulette knows the Bible can transform lives

Watch Paulette tell her remarkable and inspiring story Paulette Bleck has been praying for this day.She stands at the threshold of her family’s home with her firstborn daughter Mavis in her arms, holding her breath. Paulette is a member ...

A very big, very historic event

The launch of the Kabwa New Testament in Tanzania in March was a historic day for the Kabwa community – and they were going to be there whatever the weather! This was a very big, very historic event for our Kabwa community!’ says John Miriro, one of the Ka...

One country, five months, five New Testament launches

Exciting events in Tanzania in the coming months reflect how the pace of Bible translation is accelerating.

A future where everyone has the Bible in their language

More people now have more of the Bible in the language they know best than ever before. In 2020, for the first time, speakers of over 700 languages had access to the complete Bible in their language.

7 things you might not know about sign languages

Did you know? There are at least 392 sign languages worldwide (and counting!) Sign languages have their own grammatical structures that are different from the spoken languages in the same areas. Those who use sign languages often also h...

Praying for Bibleless people

Incredibly, some Bibleless people are already Christians, like the Vures people of Papua New Guinea – 95% of them identify as Christian, but they don’t have any Scripture in the language that speaks to them best.

Proclaimers: packing a powerful message

Proclaimers – not the well-known Scottish band, but solar-powered digital audio players – are bringing the word of God to oral-based communities, and lives are being transformed as people hear the good news of Jesus in the language that speaks to them best....

Where can I find a Bible in my language?

‘I can understand French with my ear and Swahili with my mind, but my own language I understand with my heart.’ – a pastor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo Some Scripture – the whole Bible, the New Testament, or portions and stories – exists in ov...

Reaching across language barriers

One challenge that many Bible college graduates have is forgetting their mother tongue. Perhaps they were identified as intelligent and talented from as young as twelve years of age so they were sent to boarding school for the sake of their education. This ...

We fit together well!

Everyone was listening to it, and they kept saying, “Wow! God’s word is in our language! And it’s easy to understand!”’ Yan, a Muniyo man passionate about reaching his people with the gospel, recounted excitedly as he exchanged news with Seth.

From no phones to Zoom – and everything in between

Just over twenty years ago I went to Kenya to live in a rural village. I stayed with an American family involved in Bible translation, in order to help homeschool their children. I was to find that landlines barely existed, and my primary form of communicat...

A Heart Warmed

Spring comes late to Nanai country in the Russian Far East. Ice on the nearby Amur River can be three feet thick after a winter where temperatures plummet to 40 degrees below zero. Yet life thrives here. Ice fishermen find success even on the coldest days.

The story of Global Recordings Network

How do we tell the story of Jesus to those who can’t read or write? Kenny takes you on a tour of Global Recordings Network where audio Bibles in more than 6,000 languages are changing lives every day.

https://www.facebook.com/WycliffeBibleTranslatorsUK/videos/1255818167932912/

What’s the best story you’ve ever heard?

Our lives are full of stories, big and small: thrillers, romances, adventure, tragedy and the stories of everyday, seemingly mundane, life. We’ve had stories read to us as children, we’ve shared stories with others, we’ve watched stories unfold in front of ...

What is Bible storying?

Probably every people group in history has used stories to record important events, pass on their beliefs, teach correct behaviour or reflect their world view. Much of the Bible itself was transmitted orally for centuries before it was first written down.

An Open Door Opens Hearts

God works in many ways to reveal his love for people – through acts of kindness, a word timely spoken, and truth from the Bible. One Christian Lenthomi woman could never have imagined where an unexpected visit from a neighbor in need would lead.

Where do we start when the world is so big?

The Great Commission sometimes seems just a little too... great: 7.6 billion people, 7 continents, 7000 languages, 17,000 people groups. Jesus must be made known in all those languages. I do not know where to begin.

We Have Never Heard Anything Like It!

A church congregation in Cameroon hears the Easter story in their own language for the very first time.

What’s an endangered language?

Pandas. Elephants. Monarch butterflies. We’ve all heard of endangered species (especially the cute ones), and know there’s value in preserving them. But what about endangered languages?

From Atheist to Bible Translator

Growing up in a restrictive West Asian country, Reza never embraced Islam, which is the majority religion of his country. Instead, he considered himself an atheist. As a college student, he vocally shared his opinions on his university campus. One day, his...

When your Bible is Illegal

Suspecting that Lily might be a religious extremist, they confiscated the phone and detained her at the airport for questioning. The interrogation lasted two hours, as the officers tried to make her incriminate herself. But Lily felt no fear as she calml...

Spreading the Word

I was reminded this month that God never lets any of our experiences go to waste. Nine years ago I worked for Trans World Radio. These days radio programmes are a very important aspect of our work here in Mbeya, especially in a culture that sees reading as ...

More Than Words

The specific challenges that will come up in translating the Bible for a specific people group are hard to anticipate, and often don’t become apparent until a translation is tested in the community. A recent example of this comes from Asia.

Good news travels fast

If you heard a great story, how long would it be before you shared it with someone else? Probably not long. You’d be even quicker to share it if you were from one of the world’s oral cultures.

Where Faith Comes By Hearing

Jo Clifford shares a great step-by-step account of one of the many trips she takes to record Scripture, this time to Mpanda in Tanzania. From invitation to hanging blankets over wooden frames, this is a brilliant window into the world of Scripture audio rec...

Finally knowing what it means to depend on Christ

Many Dukawa speakers finally know what it really means to believe and depend on Christ, whereas before they had not really understood. Over 3,800 Dukawa people have turned to Christ as a result of hearing God’s word in their own language! In early 2016, af...

When the spoken word is more powerful

Nearly 70% of people in the world are from oral cultures. Even when they can read and write they often prefer to learn through oral means. This means, for Bible translation, that we must find appropriate non-print formats in which to present God’s word.

Proclaiming the word of God

Sometimes translating the Bible is a long process. Take the Bakossi language of Cameroon, for example, the project first started in 1974. The running of the project was taken over by CABTAL* during the 1990s and the Bible was finally launched in 2011, 37 ...

The Bible for the Unreached

Did you know that there are about 400 sign languages in the world and none of them yet have the whole of the Bible? Deaf Opportunity Outreach (DOOR) International, which has a centre in Kenya, is working to change this.

Ethnoarts – Creating culturally authentic Bibles

Wycliffe UK writes: "In most Western cultures, important messages are communicated in print. Many other cultures around the world, however, communicate important messages through pictures. One such culture is found in Wewak, Papua New Guinea, among speakers...

Making audio scriptures in Tanzania

The majority of people in the world belong to oral cultures. For them, faith literally comes by hearing. With this in mind, one of the tools we use to share Scripture with these communities is audio recordings of Bible stories! So how does Scripture go from...