More is Needed
“God’s work done His way, in His timing, for His glory, is never lacking His supply.” – Jim Elliot, missionary to the Waodani, martyred in Ecuador, 1956
The high cost of translation, and of teaching communities to read, is now a major impediment to accomplishing Vision 2025. The funding gap has widened. More support is needed for programs and projects than can be raised by traditional means.
The combined annual budget of all Wycliffe and SIL organizations is in excess of $220 million. Of this amount, $150 million is dedicated specifically to language project operations.
Contributed income to support all those involved in Bible translation projects has increased as translation productivity has grown. And projected expenses are rising dramatically.
We have jumped ahead, in faith, starting more and more translations. There is an expectation that funds are forthcoming. More than 1,000 “project write-ups” were submitted by field translators and literacy teams last year. But the challenge is that only one-third of the needed dollars were covered.
Wycliffe’s response entails a commitment to growth in new project funding. This is essential, along with a sustained level of missionary support and sufficient funds to keep ongoing projects on track and headed for completion. The estimated project funding we need to raise between now and 2025 to start all remaining languages is $865 million. Wycliffe forecasts a need to raise gifts and pledges of over $1 billion dollars when all the costs are added in. This includes the cost to strengthen U.S. and international capacity to serve and anticipates the declining value of the dollar overseas.
Keep this in mind. This is not for Wycliffe. It is for the millions of souls without God’s Word. Wycliffe is merely God’s scribe and messenger.
