Worth the Sacrifice

We have been wanting to share this video for a while. It was recorded two years ago and at that time, they thought the Bible translation would be completed at the end of 2017 for the Kwoma* people.
    Chris contacted the translation consultant at the end of last year to get an update that we could share with you and see how we could pray for them and their team in Nigeria. The consultant shared with us that there have been setbacks that have delayed the completion (which is common when approaching the finish line). God is faithful though! They have recently completed the translation of the New Testament and hope it will be published early this year. You can learn more and pray for the Kwoma people (and others) in The Finish Line Africa 2019 prayer guide.
*name changed to protect the people


    Ben and Renee Kuwitzky — along with their four kids — live in Jos, Nigeria. Ben serves as a translation consultant working with Nigerian translators, helping ensure that the translation is being communicated in a natural and clear way. Renee serves on the care team while also homeschooling their kids. 
    Although living overseas has its challenges and difficulties, Ben and Renee believe it’s worth the sacrifice so that people can receive Scripture in their own language. And when they see people excited about God’s Word in their own language, they are once again reminded why their work is important. 
Wycliffe’s mission is to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by 2025.

A Greater Need

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    As we celebrate the milestone of translated Scripture, we celebrate that God is accomplishing His mission through His power and through partnership. More mission organizations, churches, and Christian communities are becoming involved in the Bible Translation movement. There is known active translation and/or linguistic development happening in 2,659 languages across more than 170 countries.
    Because of improved accuracy in collecting information from around the world about Bible translation needs, and other factors, the number of estimated translation needs worldwide has increased. As of October 1, 2018, over 180 million people, using 1,879 spoken languages and 284 sign languages, are likely to need some form of Bible translation to begin.
    Translation need is not as simple as determining which languages do or do not have Scripture. Most of the languages with only “some Scripture” are in need of more, and even full Bibles undergo revisions from time to time. Find out more in the FAQ sheet. (http://bit.ly/2018-bt-stat-faq)

Scripture & Language Statistics 2018

A Greater Joy : Celebrating the 1000th New Testament

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The Keliko of South Sudan have experienced displacement due to civil unrest and struggles. But in spite of their difficulties, they have relied on God to be their source of strength and hope. Recently, the Keliko dedicated their New Testament in Koboko, Uganda. Keliko was the 1,000th New Testament completed with the engagement of Wycliffe USA and SIL International — a primary strategic partner. Russ Hersman, Wycliffe’s Chief Operations Officer, attended the celebration and shared the importance of this milestone. Let’s rejoice with the Keliko who now have God’s Word in a language and form that speaks to their hearts!
    Wycliffe’s mission is to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by 2025.

A Great Opportunity

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Chris has been the technical lead and primary developer for the Scripture App Publishing Service. Last fall, they started working with two partners, Faith Comes By Hearing and International Mission Board, to plan an update to the service in order to 1) support multiple organizations and 2) customize the process of publishing apps for each organization.
This would require a significant re-rewrite to a portion of the service. About that time, Chris’ organization applied to Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) for direct funding of certain projects including the Scripture App Publishing Service. A very generous grant was given by ETEN that has allowed them to sign a contract with DeveloperTown to design and develop the software that needs replaced. They didn’t have the staff to complete this work internally and this is a great opportunity to complete the work. Praise God for the resources and talents He has made available!

Logos
 
Discussions around a whiteboard during the initial design meetings at DeveloperTown in Indianapolis with people representing SIL InternationalFaith Comes By HearingScripture Earth, and Kalaam Media in early April 2018.

The Great Message

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In 1981, while celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cakchiquel New Testament translation, Billy Graham delivered a sermon about the importance of Bible translation in the context of the command that Jesus gave believers to come unto him and go into all the world. Be encouraged by the excerpt from his sermon.  One statement that stuck out to me:

Billy Graham on the Importance of Bible Translation

Significant Partnership

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Chris has been the technical lead and primary developer for the Scripture App Publishing Service. The initial rollout of the service utilized a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) strategy which provides just enough features to satisfy earlier customers and provides feedback for future development. The service has been running for about a year and they have gathered valuable feedback for what needs to be done in the next release.
They have also communicated with other partners who have similar needs. Two of these partners, Faith Comes By Hearing and International Mission Board(IMB), have stepped forward to help with the future development of the service. IMB has a team in Bulgaria who they employ to fulfill different IT needs. Chris has been tasked to design the expansion of the Scripture App Publishing Service and train the IMB team to do the development. He will be traveling to Bulgaria to do the training sometime this fall. Please pray for wisdom for Chris to know how to design the system so that it can be effectively implemented by the Bulgarian team and be flexible for the diverse needs of many organizations.

Faith Comes By Hearing
IMB

Searching for Significance

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We’re excited to announce that Wycliffe’s most recent devotional, “Searching for Significance”, is now available as a 10-day reading plan on YouVersion! “Searching for Significance” focuses on the search for something more in our lives — whether you call it significance, purpose, or meaning. There’s an innate desire in each of us for our life to matter, and this devotional explores that desire from a biblical perspective as we dive into God’s view of our worth. You can explore more stories and videos about this topic at wycliffe.org/significance. We encourage you to read the plan on YouVersion and share it with your family and friends. It’s an easy way to engage them in a conversation about God’s view of our significance and worth, while also sharing opportunities for them to engage with Wycliffe. Start the 10-day plan today!

Let’s Release!

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Chris and his team have released the first version of the Scripture App Publishing Service! After many months of design, development, user testing, and refinement, the service is now available to Wycliffe members. This release is a minimum viable product and they plan to enhance the product in short iterations based on user feedback.  There are currently 175 Android Apps in the Wycliffe Bible Translators’ Google Play Store being managed by the Scripture App Publishing Service.

Let’s Celebrate!

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Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
Psalm 115:1


The vision of Wycliffe is to see God’s Word made accessible to all people in the language that speaks to their heart. On September 23rd, we paused to celebrate the completion of Bibles and New Testaments for people groups who are getting God’s word for the very first time. You should have been there! Local pastors and ministry representatives paraded into the auditorium amid exciting music and applause carrying the precious Bibles. Here are some interesting statistics about this year’s celebration:

  • 25 languages communities
  • 7 complete Bibles
  • 17 New Testaments
  • 1 “Hybrid Bible” (NT + Genesis + Exodus in Takwane, Leviticus – Malachi in Portuguese — permission of Bible Society of Brazil)
  • 17 of 25 Scriptures available in a digital format
  • 7 of 25 have launched a website
  • 13 available in audio format
  • 7 available in Jesus film, Luke video or Genesis video
  • 7 available as Android or iPhone app
  • 12 are available in the YouVersion Bible App

Statistics are interesting, but read below about one of the language communities that received God’s Word.


The Lahu Si New Testament

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Upai Jasa, Wycliffe Thailand, recalls his reluctance to join the team working on this project.

“The Lahu Si New Testament translation began in the 1980s and by 2009, it was… well, it was a mess. Relationships among the team working on the project were broken, trust was nonexistent, many viewed the Lahu Si community in Thailand as being riddled with divisiveness. They saw Lahu Si churches split over the smallest disagreement, clans and communities also split.”

They had no idea how this project might move forward.  God did.  Read this whole story (and more stories) in the 2016 Scripture Celebration Information Sheets (page 9).

It goes right into my heart!


During our community testing as we were reading through the Lahu Si draft of Acts, a pux (the grandfather) said, “Even though I preach and pray in Lahu Na (a related language) in church, that doesn’t enter my heart as when I normally pray on my own in my own language. When I read the draft it goes right into my heart, as no other language can do.”

Let’s Hack!

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hack_logo

Our team has recently released the first version of the Scripture App Publishing Service which automates the process of publishing Scripture Apps to the Google Play Store.  We currently have 175 apps managed in the Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc account. However, our first version is only a minimum viable product and has limited workflow process management to handle the interaction between end users, the build infrastructure, and the service administrator.  Only parts of the process can be automated so people have to be involved.

To help accelerate the development of the Scripture App Publishing Service, our team is partnering with Indigitous, a movement passionate about connecting people to Jesus using digital strategies. We have submitted a project to the 2016 Indigitous #Hack, a global missional hackathon focused on solving technology problems related to missions. Are you a software developer? Consider participating in the hackathon which is Nov 4 – 6. There are host cities as well as a virtual group.