Wycliffe’s vision is for a world where everyone can know Jesus through the Bible in their own language.

We know that having the Bible changes lives. We also see how the work of Bible translation changes lives – like developing a written form of languages spoken by some of the most marginalised people on earth, often for the first time, and teaching people to read and write.

A billboard in Uganda A roadside poster in the Lunyole language of Uganda. Wycliffe was involved in developing a way of writing in this language for the first time. The sign reads: ‘Dispose of all faeces in a pit latrine to prevent diseases.’ Without Wycliffe’s translation and language development work, health messages like this wouldn’t exist in Lunyole.
The effects of Bible translation

The effects of this ripple out beyond Christians and churches, and touch the lives of whole communities. When people learn to read and write in their language it means:

  • They can communicate in new ways, and access technology they had been cut off from.
  • They gain new opportunities to get work.
  • They can learn their legal rights, so that it is harder for corrupt officials to abuse them.
  • Women and girls are empowered.
  • Education is transformed.
  • Parents can read the correct dosage of medicine to give their children.
Poverty has many faces – spiritual, economic, social, physical. Watch this video to see how Bible translation plays a part in reducing them all:

 

(Watch more videos about Bible translation on YouTube)

That is why Wycliffe exists: so that everyone still waiting for the Bible in their language can experience the transformation God brings through his word and through the ripple effects of each translation.

The image at the top of this page shows the first known example of graffiti in the Bamunka language of Cameroon, a language Wycliffe workers helped write down for the first time. It reads: ‘I’ve gone to bed.’

Story by: Alfred Thompson

Date: 16/06/2022

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