Archive for April, 2011

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E100: In with the New

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

As May begins, so too do the New Testament reflections from E100. The 50 passages from the Old Testament have taken us from Creation to the Prophets, with a very tall tower, a very wise king, a very big fish, and much more in between. But now, on to the New…

What’s E100?

E100 (or Essential 100) is a Bible-reading plan which takes you through the whole story of the Bible in 100 specifically chosen, short passages. Find out more.

E100 Reflections

A variety of people have been contributing thoughts to the E100 blog.  Each day, someone gives us a little glimpse into the passage, where it fits in the Bible Story or what it means for us in our lives. The New Testament selection of reflections begin at the start of May. Take a look.

Get your church involved

The centenary of the King James Bible is a great motivation to get back into the Bible. The E100 plan is being used all over the country (in fact, all over the world) by individuals, but also in churches. E100 can be adapted as a congregational reading plan, for small groups and as the basis for whole-Bible sermon series.

If your church is getting involved, let us know.

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Posted in BibleFresh, UK | No Comments »

Building New Life

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

On 15 May, Wycliffe will be part of a group of organisations hosting a trauma healing workshop.  The workshop is specifically aimed at churches in the UK who are working with immigrant or refugee populations in the west, or who are involved with short-term trips to areas affected by conflict.

Trauma healing applies biblical concepts to communities affected by war, conflict, oppression and disasters. The work is absolutely essential to Wycliffe’s vision of sharing the Bible: as God’s word is translated into people’s languages, Scripture use initiatives, like trauma healing workshops,  ensure that the message is also translated into people’s lives.

Where people have suffered from trauma, interaction with the Bible is often inhibited.  But God’s words are truth and life – trauma healing workshops involve applying that truth to the lives of those who have suffered to bring healing, forgiveness and freedom:

“I give thanks and praise to God for the healing he has brought to our church members. Up till now, they did not want to listen [to God’s word]. Today, because of this course, God has begun to build new life out of their pain.” Pastor Joel, Ivory Coast.

Healing the Wounds of Trauma (the book on which the programme is based) is already available in 35 languages, with translation on-going in 80 more. This Birmingham workshop on 15 May will equip UK churches to help those who are under the burden of trauma in a loving, useful and biblical way.  Find out more and register.

Find out more about trauma healing.

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Posted in Culture, Events, UK | No Comments »

Surveying the Situation

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

A job of adventures and challenges: every day includes something new.  Juliann’s work is a job of contrasts, but always includes new people, languages, cultures and lots of hiking!

Juliann is a language surveyor. This video look at her role is the first of a new series of films from Wycliffe Canada, called ‘Faces of Wycliffe’.

There are more ‘Faces of Wycliffe’ films on the way and many other films at Wycliffe Canada.

Find out how you could be involved in helping people come to know God in their language through Bible translation.

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Posted in Asia, Missionary life, Multimedia, People | No Comments »

Jesus is Risen!

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In God’s great mercy he has caused us to be born again into a living hope, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead!” 1 Peter 1.3

Around the world, people are celebrating the Resurrection of our King Jesus:

Jesus is risen! English, Great Britain (and others)

ישוע קם Hebrew

Celebrating a Bible Launch - Moba, Togo

O Isus si giungado Romani

-Zezu ka ‘wυsɔ tlιtlιnya glaa Kouya, Ivory Coast

Nivañombeloñe Jesoa A languague in South Madagascar

Yesu kə̀ slabakak ahay à məke wa. (Literally, Jesus has got up here from the hole.)  Mbuku, Cameroon

Yiesu yied o Moba, Togo (right)

Yeso e’eshegano! Kamuku, Nigeria

Nummahu hi Hesu Kristo Mayoyao Ifugao, Philippines

Yeŧu anaţa ţi pkeţ Mankanya, Guinea Bissau (and others)

ኢየሱስ ክርስቶስ ተነስቷል። Amharic, Ethiopia

UYeesu azyushile Malila, Tanzania

Гайсә үледән терелеп торды. A language in Asia

Tá Críost éirithe! Irish

Jesús kaugsariskami ka Inga, Colombia

Jésus azingo na kuâ awe ! Sango, Central African Republic

Yeeso n nyisigi, a yi kum puwa (Literally, Jesus has got up, out of death’s inside)  Hanga, Ghana

Reading my Language - Vagla, Ghana

Jezus is opgestaan! Dutch

Yeesu izi siu biinii Vagla, Ghana (right)

Mae Iesu wedi ei gyfodi Welsh

Atahi inahyrizikpo Rikbaktsa, Brazil

Yeesu fɔɔkinde Waama, Benin

Yesus yarin mul ti! Dobel, Indonesia

عئسا اؤلولردن دئرئلئب Southern Azerbaijani

İsa dirildi Turkish

Yéesú kolohte ɓúudé Ndut, Senegal

Yesu lékó yilki mɔ Southern Toussian, Burkina Faso

People speaking these languages use these words to praise God that Jesus has been raised from the dead. That’s because all of these languages either have the Bible or a translation project begun.

But, in over 2000 other languages, no project is started. You can help them to know that Jesus is risen!

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Posted in Events, Languages | 1 Comment »

Back to the (rest of the) Bible

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Do you ever think that maybe we aren’t getting everything we can out of the Bible? Maybe, even with sermons and reading plans and Bible studies, something’s gone missing? Despite claiming to have a great love of the word of God, we can often leave 75% untouched from week to week…

As part of Biblefresh*, Wycliffe Bible Translators have been hosting a series of Bible evening classes — Bible training from Bible translators, if you will. Last month (16 March), Katy Barnwell spoke clearly about why it’s so important that we dig deep into the Old Testament, especially if we want to really understand the New Testament.

Katy’s talk is available both as a podcast here or with the slides on our website. Find out more about Understanding the Scriptures Biblefresh evening classes.

*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Posted in BibleFresh, Evening Classes, Events, Podcasts, UK | No Comments »

Catch Up with Evening Classes

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

As part of Biblefresh*, Wycliffe Bible Translators have been holding monthly evening classes to equip the local church to read and teach the Bible. But how do we know that we are reading the Bible as it originally was? How do we know that this isn’t an inaccurate redraft?

On April 13, Nick Lunn spoke about what kind of assurance we can have that the Bible we have today is faithful to the original texts.  Using his knowledge of the history of the Bible, he went through common questions and doubts we might have about the text of the Bible.

You can listen to or download ‘Can we rely on the text of the Bible?’ as a podcast here. Or you can listen on our website, and watch the slide show as you go.

More information on our Understanding the Scriptures Evening Class series can be found on our website.

*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Posted in BibleFresh, Evening Classes, Events, Podcasts, UK | No Comments »

Feeding with God’s word

Monday, April 18th, 2011

The JESUS Film is being shown all round the world. Based on the gospel of Luke, the script has been translated into more than 1000 languages, and has shared the Story with billions of people in their own language.

Stephen, a translation consultant, was recently consulting during a workshop where the JESUS Film was being translated. One moment really struck him, as he saw the passion of the translators to share Jesus’ words with others in their own language:

At a recent translation workshop involving eight languages in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, we were only getting about two hours of city electricity every day between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. The translation center had a generator, but it was expensive to run and just came on at certain times. Early in the workshop, Dominique, one of the translators in the Yaka language, stood up after the morning devotional time and said,

“Yesterday afternoon we weren’t able to work because there was no electricity for our computers. We only have three weeks here to translate the whole script, so our time is very limited. I’m willing to skip lunch if we can take the money and use it to buy gas for the generator so we can work in the afternoons. How many of you are willing to join me?” Read more on the Seed Company blog.

Stephen works with the Seed Company, whose aim is to help accelerate Bible translation. The Seed Company, Wycliffe Bible Translators and many other organisations are striving to make the Bible accessible for the 300 million people without God’s word in their language.  Find out how you can be involved.

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Posted in Africa, Events | No Comments »

Experience Easter

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of what Easter is really about.  Sometimes we get so caught up with chocolate and egg hunts, with the sermons and the songs-sung-but-once-a-year, that the real celebration – which should be front and centre – gets lost amidst the festival.

To help with this, we  have collected some resources which, we hope, will prompt a deeper understanding and experience of Easter. These include the Easter story ‘live’ on Twitter, details about some of the passion plays happening across the country, the Bible in new forms, and many other resources made available through Biblefresh*.

Find new ways to experience Easter.

*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

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Posted in BibleFresh, Culture, Events, UK | No Comments »

A Sponsored Run that’s Good Fun

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

On 17th September, your running could give hope to people across Africa.  Running the Race is a 10k run in Scotland to raise sponsorship for Wycliffe and other charities working in Africa.

The run, taking place at Strathclyde Country Park on Saturday 17th September, will be accompanied by a family fun day and a roadshow, with information about the life-changing work of Christian charities in Africa, including Wycliffe Bible Translators.

The proceeds from the whole event will go to your selected charity, to support the work of a charity in Africa.  As well as Wycliffe, there is the opportunity to raise money for…

  • MAF — using aviation services to provide spiritual and physical relief to those in remote areas
  • Open Doors — serving persecuted Christians
  • Africa Inland Mission — planting and supporting churches in Africa; and
  • CMB — working to improve the lives of people with disabilities around the world.

Now is the time to sign up and start training! Find out more about Running the Race and about Wycliffe’s work of Bible translation for those without God’s word.

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Posted in Africa, Events, UK | 1 Comment »

International Christian Resources Exhibition

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

This year’s International Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) is taking place at Sandown Park, Esher between the 10th and 13th May 2011. Wycliffe Bible Translators will be exhibiting there, raising awareness of the need for Bible translation around the world and giving people the opportunity to find out more about who we are and what we do.

If you would like to come along for FREE, either to visit the Wycliffe stand or to see some of the other 400 exhibitors at the event, you can reserve your ticket online by visiting the CRE website.

“With over 400 exhibitors from puppet suppliers to clerical vestments, church furniture to mission organisations we can guarantee you won’t be disappointed. CRE is more than just an exhibition; it’s an event with seminars and workshops with presentations from how to lead worship to young people and the Bible. There is also an opportunity to enjoy time in the arts theatre with performances including the Royal School for Church Music choir and Saltmine Theatre Company. A day visiting CRE is time well invested.”

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Posted in Events, UK | No Comments »

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