Category Archives: Wycliffe
The Race is On!
Source: blog.syracuse.com
Did you know that Wycliffe Bible Translators holds races to raise money? Do you know some healthy, energetic people who might be interested in a fun way to shed light on Bible Translation needs? Perhaps you could send a team from your church youth group and have everyone support them. Here are some details and a link below.
When: 3/14/2014 5:00 PM – 3/16/2014 5:00 PM Where: Tall Timber Ranch, 27875 White River Rd
Leavenworth,Washington 98826Contact: Kris_Russel@wycliffe.org Race to 2025:
Wycliffe USA’s Adventure Fundraising Race with Eternal Impact!
Racers: Hike through wilderness territory. Climb and rappel precarious heights. Face various challenges along the way to discover a hidden village! Race to 2025 bridges the adrenaline of adventure sport young people crave and the extreme challenge to which Jesus calls His church – to make disciples of all nations. Young people are joining the Bible translation cause-praying, advocating, giving, and going.
The Race
Inspired by intense language survey trips conducted by Wycliffe linguists in remote regions worldwide, this race is hosted in the beautiful outdoors of various locations. Co-ed teams of four race against time and other teams in demanding linguistic and wilderness challenges, all in search of a remote ‘Bibleless’ tribe. Upon contact, teams share an ethnic meal with villagers, conduct a simulated language survey and race to the finish with valuable linguistic data. Prior to the race weekend, teams commit to raise a minimum of $2,000 per team ($500 per racer). These monies go to support Bible translation projects around the world. Cool prizes are awarded for the most money raised, fastest team across the finish line, and various other categories. Each night, veteran missionaries engage racer’s hearts and minds with stories of lives spent serving God in tough places, unlocking the fascinating world of language and linguistics.
Shop at Wycliffe!
Are you looking for some unique gifts? Wycliffe has a website with interesting items for sale, ranging from t-shirts to bracelets. Proceeds support Bile Translation. These would be great gifts for family or for a church function where you are highlighting missions. Click here to start shopping.
Video
Those last four words
Those last four words…
Most people know the story of Jonah in the Bible. Runaway prophet, he ends up spending three days in the belly of a large fish after being thrown overboard by god-believing (small g intentional) sailors.
After having enough of his dark, smelly quarters, he relents and decides to follow God’s instructions to go to the city of Nineveh to warn them of God’s impending judgment. Much to his surprise and chagrin, they repent immediately.
Jonah is ticked off with God. He wanted the evil Ninevites to feel the wrath of God. He’s judgment-oriented and wants people to get what they deserve. But he testifies about the character of God when he says, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”
After Jonah relishes in his self-thrown pity party, God quietly rebukes him, reminding Jonah that he has been concerned about the unimportant things in life (like a dying vine), rather than the 120,000 people of Nineveh that could have died.
Requisite cute animal photo!
And then comes those last four words….
“and also many animals.”
God was concerned that if the people of Nineveh were judged, their animals would suffer too.
God is an animal lover! That warms my heart since I’m pretty crazy about my dog, Brandy.
Requisite cute Brandy photo!
But more than an animal lover, God cares about the small ones who can’t help themselves. Isn’t that wonderful?
The work of Bible Translation does the same thing…it attempts to bring the very Words of God to those who can’t get access to it themselves. Some of those people groups are small, just thousands, but if God would lift his hand for just a few thousands Ninevites and their animals, shouldn’t we do the same?
Each month, many of you lift us up in prayer or write a check out on our behalf so that the work of Bible Translation can continue. You must have the heart of God!
So thank you. Just like God’s care of those animals, illustrated by those last four words, you care. And we’re not complaining!
Click here to see Wycliffe USA’s president and his wife say a word of thanks to you too.
Safe with Scorpions
Ken has arrived in Jos, Nigeria once again. I’m always grateful to get a text message or email to let me know he is at his final destination. Today, I got a phone call for Mother’s Day! I love hearing his voice.
Tomorrow Ken and a group of others from Wycliffe Bible Translators partner, Jaars, whose campus is in our town of Waxhaw, NC, will start sharing the duties of teaching and doing tech support for a group of Nigerian Bible Translators. Most will stay for three weeks but Ken’s work will be one week long.
Thanks for praying. He’s doing something new this trip. Although he’s studied the material it’s always nerve-wracking to do work on someone else’s data. He’d hate to lose any of their hard work!
Scorpion!
P. S. This scorpion was found in the kitchen of the guesthouse he’s staying in. We’re not used to seeing those kinds of insects on the east coast of the USA!
It’s all a matter of perspective
Snake eating a lizard.
Source: ntnews
My friend’s daughter and family just moved to Papua New Guinea to serve as teachers to missionary children for the next two years. They are getting some field training and are in a classroom themselves for a few weeks.
They posted a photo of a snake eating a lizard in their classroom (not the photo above) on their blog. They casually mentioned, “There was some discussion as to whether we should leave the snake in the rafters so that it would kill the rats and mice in the classroom, or remove it.”
What? Who would think about leaving a snake to hang over your head while you were studying???? Trust me, if I were there, it would be a short discussion! Get rid of the snake!
Apparently, there were others like me. They caught the snake and it’s happily (we hope) living in a tank in the classroom for all to (safely) see.
This got me thinking about what other things might be obvious (and good decision-making!) and important to me, but not necessarily to others that share my space.
- I can’t understand seeing stacks and stacks of shoes in other people’s closets and so have a minimum number of pairs of shoes, but if you get me near a lawn and garden center, I can’t resist buying a plant or two or three….
- Eating out everyday? Hmm, I sure love to have someone cook for me, but I do like my own cooking and I love saving money by eating at home.
It’s all a matter of perspective. What’s important to me may not be to others.
What does God see as important?
People.
His Words.
It’s why we work for Wycliffe Bible Translators and have done so for the last 22 years. We’re in the “business” of both people and giving them God’s Words in their Mother Tongue.
It’s important to many of you too, since so many of you are our supporters and have been so for many years.
So thanks…once again. We love doing the obvious!
P. S. Is there anything that’s important to you but not so much to others? Drop us a line!
God Dvu’s you!
Yes, that’s someone’s head, but here is the group!
Last night we had about 25 people over ranging in age from 11-25. It was the youth group from our church, Next Level Church. We had the great opportunity of sharing with them about the Bible translation process, the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators, and why God’s Word is important to them too.
One of the stories we told was recently posted on Wycliffe’s web page. The translation committee in the Hdi language in Cameroon couldn’t find the world for “unconditional love,” the kind of love that God has for all of mankind. How could they translate verses about God’s love without this important word?
They knew that a verb in this language needed to end in an i, a or an u. They knew two words for love already, “Dvi” and “Dva” but would these words work? The coordinator got together with a group of men who spoke Hdi.
“Could you ‘dvi’ your wife?” he asked them? “Yes”, they said. “That would mean that her husband loved her once, but not anymore.”
Hmm, that doesn’t work for God’s love.
“Could you ‘dva” your wife?” “Yes”, they said. “That kind of love depends on the wife’s actions or what she did.”
That won’t work either.
“Could you ‘dvu’ your wife?” he asked? Everyone laughed.
“Of course not!” they said. “If you loved your wife that way, you would have to keep loving her no matter what she did – even if she never made you meals or even if she went to live with another man. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t happen.”
The coordinator sat quietly for a moment. “Could God ‘dvu’ people?”
After several minutes tears started running down the faces of these men. They finally responded.
“Do you know what this would mean? This would mean for God kept loving us over and over for thousands of years even while we rejected him and were sinning!”
By changing one simple letter, the vowel at the end of the word, the meaning changed from “I love you because of what you do and who you are,” to “I love you because of who I am.”
Isn’t that a wonderful story about how God created this language so that people could understand the true love of God!
Thank you for supporting us in this important work. It’s so exciting!
Will we see you?
Ken and Anne will be making two trips this summer. The first trip will be to Long Island, New York and the second to the state of Idaho.
South Bay Bible Church has joined them as a new partner in the work of Bible translation. As mentioned in a previous post, this partnership came out of a friendship from over 28 years ago. Our friend Scott Walker was kind enough to connect us with his church and we are thrilled about this new partnership. We’ll be speaking there the last weekend of May.
South Bay Bible Church
Idaho will be the next stop! Jim and Lyn Heath, longtime supporters, invited Ken and Anne to speak in their church. The fun connection is that both the Heath’s and Scott Walker and family were all with us as we started our marriage in the far away state of Wyoming! This will be our first trip to this church. We are excited about making connections and sharing our vision with a new congregation this coming July.
Do you live nearby Long Island or Idaho? We’d love to see you! Send us a note and we’ll connect with you.
If you would like us to speak in your church or to your youth group/VBS…we’re available!
The Road to Transformation
Here is a short video which clearly explains the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators.
It’s a lot of work! We each have a small part in this huge task.
Thank you for playing your part!
Living with Hope
Credit: Mars Hill
I’ve been in a Christmas funk! I just haven’t had the Christmas/Holiday/December excitement that I usually have. The month started off with the death of a church family member. John had cancer so it was not entirely unexpected, but it was still disturbing. I miss him. Then a young 16-year-old girl from our church died. I didn’t know her, but my heart was in pain for her parents. Following that we heard that an old friend, Tanya, who lived her life in a wheelchair and was still too young, died suddenly, leaving her 14-year-old daughter on this earth. And then of course, the awful tragic news of all those senseless deaths in Connecticut. Like you, I’ve cried several times a day, watching the news and thinking about the pain those families are in. In between this news, several friends have found out they have cancer and have a long fight ahead of them.
I have my own pain too. Nothing as dramatic as a death or cancer. But it’s my own burdens which weigh on me daily. I share it with my husband, we try to carry it together, but it is a heaviness indeed.
Each morning, like many of you, I try to read the Bible and pray. And when I am finished, I always feel better. My spirits are lifted up little by little. The other day I read about forgiveness and felt the weight of my own sin of holding on to my unforgiveness of others. If Jesus loved me so much that he came as a baby to die for me, the least I can do is forgive the people around me!
On another morning I was reminded about the sacrifice and the faith that it took for the wise men to travel for two years just so that they could worship Jesus! I was so humbled by their faith. It just renewed my faith and my heart welled up with joy as I remembered how amazing the Son of God really is.
So I live with hope. Hope for the future. Hope that God is still in control. Hope that I serve a God who knows what He is doing. Hope that my Savior will return for me one day in the clouds.
The people we serve and the people you support with your prayers and finances have no hope. They don’t have God’s Words to read each morning to get out of their “funk.” Isn’t that awful? And they still live in darkness.
You make it possible for them to one day live in Light and to live with HOPE. And they will never be able to thank you. But we can.
So, thank you! Thank you for your faith, your love, and your hope. We couldn’t be serving the Lord, helping to bring the hope of Jesus to the world, without you.
Have a Merry, Hopeful Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Anne and Ken
On Advocates
ad·vo·cate/ˈadvəkit/
Noun: A person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.
Who doesn’t like to be supported? And to be supported publicly is even better! I hope I’m the kind of person that supports others. I love the verses from the Bible that remind us that both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are our Advocates before our Father in heaven. Some people translate that word in the Bible as “Comforter” which is another aspect of the word.
Ken and Anne with Virginia.
We have so many great advocates in our lives. Just recently we met one for the first time. Her name is Virginia. Virginia is on the missions committee at United Armenian Congregational Church in North Hollywood, California. On November 4, we were able to speak and worship at this church which has been supporting us in our work with Wycliffe Bible Translators for many years.What a great time we had sharing with some of the members in the fireside room! Virginia passes our newsletters on to others in the church, prays for us, and makes sure that we’re not forgotten. What a great Advocate she is to us.
About two weeks ago we discovered another Advocate in Scott. We met Scott and his family almost 30 years ago when we were first married and moved to a distant land called Wyoming (WY-O-Ming!). We lived in the same remote town for two years and worshipped together in a small, country church. We then moved to New York to serve for five-year with Children’s Bible Fellowship before joining Wycliffe in 1990. We lost contact with Scott after we left Wyoming but last week, out of the clear blue sky, he contacted us by phone. What a pleasant surprise! Reminiscing about our Wyoming days with Ken he later said, “I’d like to pass your name on to our church here on Long Island to see if they could take you on as one of our missionaries.” Wow, wouldn’t that be a blessing.
Within two days we received another phone call from Scott asking if we could quickly send to his pastor all the information we had about ourselves and Wycliffe. The pastor, as we discovered, was meeting with the missions committee the next day and wanted to evaluate Wycliffe and ourselves. We gathered our ministry material and sent it off – PRONTO.
Two days later I received a phone call from the church’s pastor. “Where can we send our first gift for you and your husband?” Wow! With the ailing economy, our funds have been very tight so what an incredible blessing this will be. And, I simply couldn’t believe how fast this happened.
Just like Virginia, Scott was an Advocate for us. He took the time to hunt us down, gave us a call and then followed through by passing our name on to his church. If he had delayed with any of those steps we probably wouldn’t have this new connection. Isn’t that cool?
Jesus is our advocate to the Father. Where would we be without that? Virginia and Scott have been our advocates to the church. Where would Ken and I be in ministry without advocates to the churches like Virginia, Scott, and yourself?
We cannot thank you enough.
The Haugh Herald 