Wycliffe Associates have revealed that they depend on local churches to carryout and assist Bible translation. This is as a result of the ongoing projects on Bible translation. According to the Vice President of Translation Services (Wycliffe Associates), Tabitha Price, this method has been very effective in the translation work during the pandemic. She stated that presently, Wycliffe Associates are carrying out 777 projects.
Specifically, they are working with partners of the individual projects to assist them speed up the project to the extent of ownership. In her words:
"We have trained church leaders in various countries who are able to now take that training to the next country. Some of them are already able to do that [right now]. Some borders are open [but] others are not. How quickly that movement will grab hold is in the Lord's hands, but we are seeing the motivation for it."
Price also talked about situations where unbelievers are drawn to work on some of the projects. However, they become converted in the process.
"The local church is far more aware of what's going on in the ground than we are. We certainly know that there have been training events where the local church has said, this womans a believer, and we really want her to be a part of this translation. Her husbands not a believer, [but] she said she will come if he can come, so we decided to bring them both. In that specific incident, the husband became a believer during the workshop," Price said.
In addition, there have been scenarios where the gospel has been greeted with harsh responses. Nevertheless, it has not stopped them from carrying out their work. Moreover, nothing is too overwhelming for God.
"We asked for God's Word to transform lives, for the strength and the wisdom to reach into places where we face opposition. When they first started translating Scripture, four of the people that committed to helping with the Scripture were not believers, but they said, well come and see what you're doing. They saw the Gospel of John in their own language, and within a week of seeing that, they gave their lives to Christ and were baptized," Price stated.
Furthermore, she emphasized on moments where they have gotten support from people who are not explicitly Christians.
"There have been so many times when weve seen God either to bring people to salvation or to even turn the tide of the mindset to this is a good thing. This is something that even people in our community who are not explicitly Christian are supporting," Price explained.
In conclusion, Price requested that "God would bring an end to the pandemic and allow our teams to be able to go across borders again so there can be that partnership [and] face-to-face training that has really helped accelerate what's going on in the field."
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