Archive for the ‘UK’ Category

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Not just for Christmas

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

In the run up to Christmas, everything gets busy. It seems that from the start of November onwards, no-one has anything else to talk about! And many take time during that busy period to support Bible translation around the world by getting their Christmas cards from Just Cards Direct. But Just Cards (and Bible translation) are not just for Christmas…

Just Cards bring beautiful, handmade cards made by women in Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya to the UK. When they are sold here, 10% of the sales go towards the purchaser’s charity of choice.

But, you don’t have to wait until November 2012 to buy these elegantly designed cards! Just Cards produce cards for all sorts of occassions – including birthdays and Easter – and blank cards for all your other card-sending needs.

To view the latest cards and support charities in your card-sending, visit justcardsdirect.com. (And if you’re really desperate to start thinking about Christmas, visit soon while Christmas cards are on sale!)

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Posted in Africa, Events, UK | No Comments »

Where in the wordle…?

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

This poster (right) was used to advertise the Wycliffe and Me event in Belfast recently. Perhaps the image concept intrigues you – do you see yourself in the Wordle? What part could you play in the Bible translation team with Wycliffe Bible Translators?

Well, Wycliffe and Me on Saturday 25 February was hosted by Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church – a big thank you to all our friends there! And it was a success!

17 participants came. Some we’ve known for years… others we’ve never met before:

  • There was a Spanish & Portuguese languages student who only signed up online on the Friday afternoon and was fascinated by the linguistics and grammar slot.
  • There was a farmer with an IT interest and an IT guy with a grammar interest.
  • There was a mother of 4 who wants to tell others in her church about what Wycliffe does – and another lady who came all the way from Dungannon for the same reason.
  • There was an accountant with a wife interested in Spanish and translation.
  • There was an English student wanting to know more about our MA in Field Linguistics.
  • There was someone who wants to know more about translation consulting.
  • There was a PhD Translation student exploring a dissertation on Bible translation.

Wycliffe staff in Belfast will be praying for these people, following them up, being alongside them as they listen to God guiding their futures.

To find out when and where Wycliffe and Me will run again in the UK, go to wycliffe.org.uk/give/go where you will find lots of options to help you fit into your slot in the Wordle.

John Hamilton is the coordinator of Wycliffe in Northern Ireland. To read more from him, visit his blog at nornirn.wordpress.com.

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Posted in Events, UK | No Comments »

Translation at home

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Where do we do Bible translation? We often talk of work ‘around the world’, and it’s sometimes presumed to mean the places of greatest need — like central Africa, India and Papua New Guinea. But work there sits alongside the work going on in our (figurative) back garden. There’s a whole lot more going on close to home than you might think.

Many sign languages have definite needs of translation, because for many Deaf people, the majority language of their home country is not their mother-tongue, whether it’s spoken or written. Here in the UK, the British Sign Language Bible project is still relatively new. In the Netherlands, Wycliffe has been working with the Dutch Sign Language Bible project since 2008. The team of six have attending some Wycliffe translation workshops and Wycliffe Netherlands have been supporting them with administration.

A Plautdietsch-speaking couple

There are also projects like the Plautdietsch, a language spoken by as many as 90,000 people in Germany and 80,000 in Canada. The complete Bible in Plautdietsch was only completed in 2003.

New translation work is going on among Roma (Gypsy) languages in many parts of Europe. There are estimated to be as many as 35 million Roma people in different parts of the world; three different Gypsy languages already have translations of the New Testament, and in twelve others have Bible portions.

The needs are far more reaching than just these few: 350 million people can’t access any part of the Bible in the language they understand best. Be part of Wycliffe’s vision to see a Bible translation begun for all these people by 2025.

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Posted in Languages, UK | No Comments »

‘The Son of God’: Wycliffe responds to accusations

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Over the last few weeks a good deal of information has been circulating on the Internet regarding the translation of the Biblical term rendered in English as “the Son of God” in certain religious contexts. While much of what has been said is inaccurate and misleading, it is encouraging to see the extent to which Christians in Britain are concerned about the accuracy of Scripture translation.

This is part of a press release published on the Wycliffe Bible Translators website. Read the whole release and download pictures from the website.

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Posted in Languages, UK | No Comments »

Window on Wycliffe (13-18 February 2012)

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

The Window on Wycliffe (WOW) event is an amazing opportunity for those thinking about short or long-term service with Wycliffe Bible Translators. It shows what makes up a Bible translation project and the different ways people can be involved.

Three main threads run through the week:

  • The Biblical basis of mission — looking at subjects like ‘the will of God’ and whether we are called to mission.
  • An overview of the Bible translation process — what is phonetics? what if it’s an oral language that’s never been written down? who does translation and how?
  • Non-language related roles — if you don’t see yourself as a gifted linguist there are still plenty of opportunities for you within Wycliffe Bible Translators.

This is going to be a brilliant event where I hope God will speak to us and show us what the next steps are. Currently there are 23 people from all over Europe signed up to join us at The Wycliffe Centre, near High Wycombe, for the event.

If you want to find out more about the WOW event, visit our website: wycliffe.org.uk/wow. Have a look around, and discover the many ways you could play a part in providing the Bible for someone who’s never heard God speak their language.

Blog post by Steve Thomas.

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Grab on to the Bible

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Many churches in the UK focused on getting back to Bible basics last year, as part of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Authorised Version. But in all the excitement, it’s easy to overlook the parts that made it hard to stay in the Bible in the first place.

There are all those genealogies, laws and prophets to get your head around. But that’s just difficult to read because we don’t understand them — sometimes the bits that we do understand are even harder to take in. How do we deal with issues like evolution, or the genocide that God appears to condone?

Last year, Biblefresh ran a series of classes and published a book called Get a Grip, made to tackle these kind of questions. The book is still available from Biblefresh here, and half of the profits go towards Bible translation.

If you missed the classes, you can still experience a bit of that too – videos from some sessions held at Kings College London are available, with experienced scholars and pastors answering some of the hard or ‘I-never-thought-of-that’ questions about the Bible.

Catch the videos here.

You know those parts of the Bible you don’t understand? There are Christians around the world longing to read them who can’t because the Bible isn’t in their language. Help translate the Bible.

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Myles Coverdale (c. 1488 – 20 January 1569)

Friday, January 20th, 2012

Myles Coverdale was the translator of the first complete Bible into English, published in 1535. His work followed on from other first mother-tongue translations of Europe – French, German and Dutch – and the work of Tyndale, whose New Testament was published ten years earlier.

Coverdale began his work despite knowing that Tyndale was working on a complete Bible translation. “Why should other nations,” he said, “be more plenteously provided for with the Scriptures in their mother-tongue than we?”

Like Tyndale, his translation was executed and published in Europe, and was smuggled into Britain. In many ways, though, Coverdale’s translation was very different: he was not as proficient a linguist as Tyndale, and knew no Hebrew. Instead he worked from other translations. However, he was a great executor of the English language, and his translation is greatly admired for its literary, as well as spiritual, significance.

Despite his substantial work and impact, Coverdale was not a celebrated man. He was not born to a great family – in fact, the date of his birth is not even known. He never rose to great position in the church of his day, and died aged 81, in relative obscurity – 443 years ago today. Others thought he was humble and unassuming, a ‘very gentle spirit’. And he was phenomenally industrious: his notes suggest that he began his first translation less than a year before its publication, which meant he translated or revised on average 2,400 words a day – a remarkable feat.

He remained adamant in his belief that God used translations effectively. In response to objections to vernacular translations, he said, “The Holy Ghost is as much the author of it in the Hebrew, Greek, French, Dutch, and English, as in Latin… The Word of God is of like worthiness and authority in what language soever the Holy Ghost speaketh it.”

Today, while English-speakers are indeed ‘plenteously provided for’, more than 2,000 languages don’t have any access to God’s word in their mother-tongue. Give the Story.

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Posted in Missionary life, UK | 1 Comment »

Saturday 4th February is ‘The Bible: the Story everybody needs’ day

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Wycliffe Bible Translators are spending a whole day (well, from 10:30) telling people all about the marvelous ways God is transforming lives through the work of Bible translation and what accompanies it, including literacy and applying the Bible to art, HIV/AIDS, trauma, church and more.

The free day will be held at Union Baptist Church, in High Wycombe. As well as spending times celebrating, learning, singing and praying, you could find out more about…

  • why a New Testament translation takes an average of more than 10 years
  • how young people can be involved with Bible translation
  • what it’s like to adapt to life on another continent
  • how computers are changing the process of translation
  • the linguistic training that Wycliffe workers undertake
  • how a language would use 26 words for ‘carry’
  • supporting the work of God’s mission overseas from the UK by finding academic journals, keyboarding, sending magazines to workers, or more.

To find out more or to sign up, go to wycliffe.org.uk/conference.

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John Bois: 3 January 1560 – 14 January 1643

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

John Bois was a British scholar and Bible translator, playing a significant role in the translation of the Authorised Version at the turn of the sixteenth century; his notes from the translation discussions reveal insights into how the decisions for that translation were made. Today marks the anniversary of his death.

As a child, Bois was certainly remarkable. Born to parents renowned for their personal godliness, Bois was the only of their children to live through childhood. His father personally educated him, and very proficiently: by age 5, he could reputedly read the Bible in Hebrew.

When he was just fourteen, he went to study at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he learnt Greek and later taught it. He had originally settled on medicine, but his severe hypochondria meant the studies were too distressing: instead, he studied divinity.

In both his studies and his teaching, he was well-known for his extraordinary diligence, often at early hours in the morning. After marrying, and having to leave his fellowship at St John’s, he continued to return to the college to listen to regular lectures.

He was selected as one of the translators for the second Cambridge group, translating the Apocrypha for the King James Bible. The team finished significantly earlier than others, and after the death of another team leader, he was asked to work with the team translating the books of Chronicles to Song of Songs.

Although his selection was originally questioned – the London translators didn’t think they needed his ‘country’ help – he was also selected to be on the committee for the final checking of the translation. The process took the team of 12 nine months to complete. His notes from the meetings have been found, and made up part of the ‘Manifold Greatness’ exhibition in Oxford, which last year celebrated the anniversary of the King James Bible.

After the translation, Bois continued to be a model of godliness, even to the point of asking to be rebuked if he ever complained during his last illness. He preached regularly, and he would not allow his extensive knowledge of the Bible to obscure the main message of his sermons. He died aged 83 on this day in 1643.

Despite the historical work of Bois and others to ensure that English possessed a clear and accessible Bible translation, today more than 2,000 languages still don’t have any translation. Those languages are spoken by more than 300 million people. Find out what you can do to help them hear God’s word.

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Posted in Culture, UK | No Comments »

The written World

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Now’s the time to listen to a recent series on Radio 4 by Melvyn Bragg (BBC Radio 4: In Our Time – Written World), discussing the impact of the written word on the world’s culture and history.  Interesting stuff, and it unfolds the story of the printing press used to produce the Gutenberg Bible in the 15th Century.  Episodes 2-5 of the series are accesible online for the next few days only.

The books that shaped history

The 15th-Century Gutenberg Bible changed the way books were received and read. It was the first real book to be mass-produced using movable type printing techniques – and so could be made in a fraction of the time it had previously taken scribes to write by hand.

The book is one of several influential scripts being investigated by Melvyn Bragg for BBC Radio 4, as he looks at the written world and how it changed our intellectual history.

Here, he takes a look at the Gutenberg Bible at the British Library in London – and then travels to Cambridge to see the student notes of Sir Isaac Newton, and how writing helped make the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment possible.

View the 5 minute presentation of the series here.

Meanwhile today, many languages and cultures remain unwritten, and cut off from a wealth of life-saving information and writings, including God’s word in a language that they can truly understand.  The work of Wycliffe Bible Translators is changing this, preserving cultures and history by enabling these language groups to create writing systems, words, dictionaries, and translated scriptures for themselves.  You can be part of Giving the Story.

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Posted in Culture, Multimedia, Podcasts, UK | 1 Comment »

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