Impact of Listener's Giving

The impact of listener’s giving will be spiritually transformed lives.

“Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us.… God decided in advance to adopt us
into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it
gave Him great pleasure.”

Imagine hearing those words from Ephesians 1:4-5 for the first time in your own language. Our
personal encounter with our Creator, with the God of the Universe, through Jesus Christ changes
everything. Hearing firsthand and believing that you are a child of God, adopted into His family and
loved with an everlasting love, is the most transformational life experience anyone can have.

This life transformation is what Bible translation is all about. And the impact of God’s translated Word
doesn’t stop at an individual level. For those who haven’t actually seen it, it’s hard to describe what it
means for a formerly Bibleless language community to finally have access to God’s Word in their
language. It’s not just about translated words on a page. It’s about a changed culture as Jesus becomes
a part of their community, speaking their language. When Jesus “moves into” hearts, lives and
language communities, He brings widespread positive change.

In addition to producing printed translations of Scripture, Wycliffe has the privilege of working in
partnership with other ministries to meet the holistic needs of language communities. Depending on
the community, this may include literacy programs for adults and children, mother-tongue education
for otherwise marginalized people with access only to majority language teaching, improved
healthcare, access to clean water and more.

Panama and Peru

Wycliffe had its very beginnings in Latin America. In 1917 our founder, William Cameron Townsend,
was trying to sell Spanish Bibles to Cakchiquel speakers in Guatemala when he discovered that the
people couldn’t understand Spanish. This experience sparked his vision that every language community
should have Scripture in the language they understand best.

Since that time, work has been completed for more than 400 languages of the Americas, and work
continues in 150 languages—with some language projects drawing to a close as soon as 2010. Almost
all the work in the Americas is done by indigenous workers. Unfortunately, not all churches in the
Americas have the capacity to support mission work. We need listeners’ sponsorship support so these
mother tongue translators can focus on translation work instead of support-raising.