Stories of Impact

Instilling a Heart for Giving
by Angela Nelson

Wanting to get her grandchildren involved in giving, Pat set up a donor-advised fund with the Wycliffe Foundation. She calls it the Penrose Intergenerational Charity Fund, and it’s been a great way to teach them how to care for others who don’t have even their basic needs met.

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God’s Word Comes Alive in Mexikatl
by Jenny Evans

Spanish Scripture had never resonated with the Mexikatl speaking communities of the Black Hills. But when the first portions of the New Testament became available in Mexikatl, things changed.

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Following the Great Commission
by Angela Nelson

Robert Baldwin spent the first years of his life in places that had little access to the Gospel. He was born in Panama in 1915, while his father was working as an engineer on the Panama Canal. The family later moved to the Andes Mountains of Chile, then back to the United States, where his dad helped build oil refineries.

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Capturing a Fresh Vision of Legacy
by Steph Clark

The Huallaga Quechua people of Peru just dedicated and distributed the entire Bible in their language—the fulfillment of forty years of translation work. At the Scripture celebration, I watched a young girl step onto the stage carrying a Huallaga Bible on a pillow—like a ring bearer at a wedding. The leader announced, “The time has come!” and people moved into lines at the tables where the Bibles were to be uncovered. An elder led in the dedication prayer as I sensed God move on these people.

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Sooner and Better
by Bob Creson, President, Wycliffe Bible Translators USA

Jacob, senior mother tongue translator for the Mwaghavul project in Nigeria, just emailed his consultant another draft of the Old Testament passage he’s working on. Later today or tomorrow he’ll check back and probably find a response in his inbox. The rapid feedback will allow him to improve his translation and quickly move on to the next passage.

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Temporary Home Leads to Lifelong Giving
by Angela Nelson

In 1968, during a sabbatical from their teaching jobs in California, Arlene and Matthew Barton* lived in Mexico City and attended an English-speaking church. At that time a number of Wycliffe missionaries also attended the church, and Arlene and Matthew soon grew close with many of them—especially Ronald and Judy Klump, who were dorm parents at a school for missionary children.

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A Quicker Method for Bible Translation
by Angela Nelson

Andy and Kate Ring moved their family to Ghana in 1979, setting out to translate the Bible into the Lelemi language for the Buem people. For more than fifteen years, they labored to translate the New Testament. More than once they faced difficulties that would have caused most people to quit—yet friends and family back home helped bolster their faith.

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It's Never Too Late!
by Mike Osborn

At ninety-three, an elderly woman decided it was time to start thinking about her estate.

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See The Impact of Bible Translation
Video

This video provides a glimpse into the story of the Kimyal people of West Papua, Indonesia and their hunger for God’s Word.

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Solar-powered Pastors
Adapted from a story by Mark Gaddis

A translation team in West Africa recently finished a New Testament. To make it available to the nomadic group they were working with, they recorded it, along with an evangelistic message and other discipleship tools, onto MegaVoice MP3 players. These solar-powered players are ideal for use in remote camps where there are no formal churches and very few pastors.

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Scripture's Power After Forty Years
by Angela Nelson

Christle grew up in Long Island, New York, going to church and Sunday school. She loved God’s Word and wanted to be a missionary. Since languages were easy for her, she hoped to be a Bible translator one day. In her early twenties, she went through Wycliffe’s linguistics training and loved it. But Christle never made it overseas because she wasn’t able to raise enough financial support, and she eventually gave up the dream of being a missionary.

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With Hands Raised
by Amy Millward

One by one, the twenty-two letters of the Machiguenga alphabet were projected on the wall for all to see. Pausing at each letter, a representative from the Ministry of Education asked participants: “Should this letter be included in the Machiguenga Alphabet? Raise your hand if you are in favor of this letter being included in the Machiguenga Alphabet.”

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In His Image
by Amy Millward

Sound familiar? Many people in the U.S. grew up hearing empowering messages like these, and it has shaped how we view ourselves. But generations of people from minority language communities all over the world often grow up hearing exactly the opposite.

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Freedom from Fear
edited by: Matt Petersen

“I’m going to accept Christ,” Pugong said for many years, “but not yet. I’m still afraid of what the spirits will do to me.” At one time a leading priest in his area, Pugong believed in the spirits’ power to bring success or failure, health or sickness, life or death to his community. He worked hard to appease them, faithfully performing sacrifices and rituals.

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Crafting Bible Stories in an Oral Culture
By Elizabeth Wilson, Storying Consultant, Wycliffe Bible Translators

Peter* is one of twenty-three young men working on a cluster of eight Bible storying projects in northern India. “These stories have allowed me to share the gospel in ways I’ve never been able to share before,” Peter said, when I asked him how the oral chronological Bible storying project had affected his life and ministry.

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A Message of Hope
by Scott Toncray

We arrived at a modest church in the Bundi village in Uganda after a short, bumpy ride on a red clay road carved into a tropical forest. There, Bishop Hannington Bahemukae of the Charismatic Episcopal Church introduced us to about fifty men and women who spoke Bwisi.

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Supporting a Son’s Passion for Translation
by Mary Tindall

Thirty years ago, Roger Bugenhagen set off on an adventure. As a trained linguist, he planned to help translate Scripture in Papua New Guinea, a nation where more than seven hundred languages are spoken.

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Proving Faithful
by Rachel Tidwell

Somewhere near the JAARS* center in Waxhaw, North Carolina, sits a piece of property that used to belong to Al and Janet Walker. Though small in size and believed to be small in value, the Walkers decided to leave the property, through Wycliffe Foundation, to fund a missionary support plan that will benefit nearly thirty missionaries serving around the world.

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From Hands-on to Hand-in-Hand
by Amy Millward

Ron and Karen McIntosh served with Wycliffe in South America for almost twenty years—Ron as a pilot, and Karen as support staff in the clinic, print shop, and group house, as well as “keeping the home fires burning,” as she puts it. Although they resigned from Wycliffe in the early 1980s, they continue to support Bible translation.

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Family ties inspire a legacy
By Mary Tindall

Early in their marriage, Fred and Caroline Yocum made a decision that has shaped a forty-year legacy of generosity. “We were challenged many years ago—in 1969—to tithe,” Caroline recalled. “So we made a determined effort to tithe within that year. And then, as the Lord blessed us with any salary increases, we would increase our giving at a rate of one percent.”

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A Heritage of Faithfulness
By Mary Tindall

Throughout his childhood, Todd Moore watched his parents make sacrifices to help others. He even went to Ecuador, Mexico, and Haiti with his father, an optometrist who volunteered his time at eye clinics.

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