From Eden to Eternity and on!

Last Friday night (25th June) saw the final night of our touring with Saltmine Theatre Company with From Eden to Eternity, the Bible condensed into just over an hour.  Having been to 27 venues, played in front of 3,700 people across England and Wales and raised around £25,000 allowing around 2,500 verses of the Bible to be translated within the Koro cluster project in Nigeria.  Praise God!

Ashley, Jon, Tom, Beck, Dinger and Niffer did an absolutely amazing job on stage and with the techie stuff as did a team of people working behind the scenes both on the tour itself and back in the office.  We couldn’t have even begun to have toured around without the help of so many different church families, both the host churches and those in the surrounding areas, providing food, accommodation, technical help and ticket sales.  We thank God for these people and pray that He takes our efforts here and multiplies them to bless his people who do not yet have His Word in their language.

We’re currently looking into the possibility of taking the tour on it’s third year, next year, particularly exciting as it’s the year of Biblefresh.  If you’ve never heard of Biblefresh, take a look at the website here to find ouot more and how you and your church or small group can be involved!

Watch this space to see if we’re coming to a venue near you in 2011 and be sure not to miss out!

It’s WoW Time!

Our twice yearly WoW (Window on Wycliffe) Course is coming up soon.  25th-31st July 2010 at the Wycliffe Centre.  It’s a week-long opportunity to dig deep into God’s mission, to see a bit more of His love for all His people and His desire to see them come to know Him more and more.

We’ll look at the Biblical basis for mission, where Bible translation fits into that and various practical elements to the Bible translation team.  You’ll learn a bit more about the diversity of languages and cultures from all over the world, see some of the issues faced when translating the Scriptures and what it takes to incorporate the translated Scriptures into the lives of God’s people worldwide so that He can speak through them, changing lives for eternity!  How exciting is that?!

If it’s something you’d like to be involved in check out the website and drop me an email at connect_uk@wycliffe.org if you’d like more details.  Would love to see you there!

From Exeter to Durham and almost everywhere in between.

Tomorrow sees the start of our 27 venue tour with Saltmine Theatre Company taking “From Eden to Eternity” on the road.  It is a breath-taking 1-and-a bit-hour rendition of The Bible on stage which aims to get people excited all over again about hearing God speak through His Word.  It takes you through from when God created the world right through His people, Israel, providing a sacrificial lamb in Christ Jesus, to death defeated and the gates of heaven flung wide open.  You’ll meet some of Jesus’ disciples, face joys and challenges with them, laugh and cry.

There will also be the opportunity to give towards helping the Koro people of Nigeria to work towards having the Bible in their language.  £10 is all it takes to translate a verse of the Bible so that people can grow to know God, either for the very first time, or to know Him better.  I know I can’t pass this opportunity by, will you?

If you are free and near to any of the 27 venues then I strongly encourage you to come along.  Check out the website for more info on the venues and on how to buy tickets.  Hope to see you there!

New Word Alive

Next Tuesday marks the beginning of New Word Alive 2010 which takes place in Pwllheli (try pronouncing that!).  We, as an organisation, are privileged enough to have a pitch in the exhibition area which is very exciting.  If you’re there do come and have a chat or just say hi!  Would be lovely to see you!  Will be back on the blogging in a week or so!

Are We All April Fools?

We all like a good joke don’t we?  Which is why I guess the tradition of April Fools Day is still going strong.  Our ED, on April 1st, managed to provoke a lot of interest with his very good April Fool sent round in an email.  It goes as follows.

“I have been asked to forward on this message from Avril Leader at Wycliffe International.

At this date in history, when we are faced with such a multitude of Bibles in English, it would be foolish for an organization like Wycliffe not to use a standard translation. From today onwards, all Wycliffe Communications must quote from Today’s Authorized International Version and not any other translation.

Obviously this is extremely important. All departments at Horsleys Green should take steps to ensure that we follow this direction before noon today.”

As amusing as it was on the 1st to receive such an email as this, there is something in there which saddens me deeply, which angered me on a couple of different levels.  My first reaction was how dare she limit us to using one version of the Bible in our work?  How could Ms Leader (a fictional character!) presume to even dictate which version to use?  But then my anger turned towards myself and my self-centred reaction!  As he writes, we have SUCH a multitude of Bibles, more Bible than we know what to do with, the debate even causes friction between people, it’s foolish.  How could I be so foolish as to assume that every language has access to copious amounts of Bibles, for every age, some adorned with pretty pictures, some gold-edged, others sold in aid of Cancer relief, yet others encased in a metal box.  One Bible, that’s all I ask, to allow everyone, each one of God’s created beings, to have access to His Word written in their language, in a way which they understand and which God can use as a way of speaking directly to them, conveying His love and the amazing grace that we have just celebrated, the amazing gift of eternal life with Christ Jesus through his death and resurrection.  Hallelujah!

Visit www.wycliffe.org.uk if you want to do something about it!

BibleFresh – it could change your world. Will you let it?

As part of the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible the Evangelical Alliance along with United Bible Societies, Wycliffe Bible Translators and a number of other partners are joining together to encourage Christians in the UK to fall in love with God’s Word once again, to take those dusty Bibles off the bookcase

shelves and to experience the Bible in new and exciting ways throughout 2011 and beyond!  There are four sections to the initiative…

Biblefresh seeks

• to encourage people to read the Bible
• to be trained in handling it well
• to engage people in the discovery of the Bible in new and creative ways.
• to raise funds to help translate the Bible for a language group in Burkina Faso

Have a look at how one man feels about reading the Bible in a language he understands here.

Watch out to see if your church will get involved and embrace God’s saving grace through His Word, Jesus Christ!

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ WILL come again!  Hallelujah!  Happy Easter everyone!

From Eden to Eternity

Partnership is a funny word. We often find it uncomfortable working in partnership with others as it means stepping out of a carefully built comfort zone, practising equality, mutual trust and a shared vision with those you don’t know well! I find it astounding (daily!) how God desires to work in partnership with us, how He places His trust in His people, people like me, fallible, sinful, unfaithful and careless, to work together with Him, to sustain His world and to take on the incredible privilege of being His advocates, even His children here on earth! He has given each one of us a job to do and to do it well until He calls us to be with Him or until He comes again in glory.

The vision of Wycliffe Bible Translator’s is that, by 2025, together with partners worldwide, we aim to see a Bible translation programme begun in all the remaining languages that need one. One of the partnerships we have been blessed with here in the UK is with Saltmine Theatre Company. These guys are incredible at what they do, producing gripping performances and seeking to use their talents to communicate the gospel on stage. In 2009 we partnered with them to take a whistle stop tour of the Bible, From Eden to Eternity, to different churches across the UK and were so encouraged by their willingness and God-given ability that we’re doing it again this year, focusing on England and Wales. Below is a quick taster…

The show with no end and no beginning (all over in one hour).

Welcome to the story of everything – The Bible – in an hour – brought to life on stage by Saltmine Theatre Company.

Journey with us through tragedy and tears, music and mirth, serpents and salvation!

In the second half of this unmissable evening a representative from Wycliffe Bible Translators will share an inspiring glimpse into how they are bringing the Bible to life in Nigeria.

Another reason for this partnership with Saltmine is to explore different ways of raising awareness of the need for Bible translation worldwide and to raise funds to enable one particular project to have God’s Word in their own language. Two colleagues had the amazing opportunity to visit a Bible translation project among the Koro people and to get a better idea of what the money raised during the tour would go towards. Tim has written up some of what they experienced so have a look and see what God is doing amongst His people. If you’d like to experience God’s Word in just over an hour and hear about what He is doing overseas then do have a look and see if there is a show near you on the schedule. If you’d like more information feel free to email askus@wycliffe.org.

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Wycliffe and Me

Saturday 10th April 2010.

The Wycliffe Centre, Horsleys Green.

Why translate the Bible?

What’s it like to live and work overseas?

How can I be involved, using my skills either in the UK or overseas?

These are just some of the questions which our one-day event, Wycliffe and Me, seeks to answer. The day is designed to give you more of an idea of what working as part of the Bible translation team involves, whether that is through praying, giving financially (to individuals or projects) or giving time either in the UK or overseas. The biggest needs in Bible translation are, surprisingly, not language-related. The greatest need at the moment is for people like qualified school teachers and administration staff to use their skills to support Bible translation projects.

On the day, we hope to have various presentations, both language-related and not, from people who are involved overseas and who can share some of their experiences with you. There will also be opportunities to ask questions and to chat to others. Advice on practical aspects of serving God in this way will be given, from figuring out where you would best fit in to raising sufficient prayer or financial support to take up an assignment.

If you’d like to find out more have a look at the infosheet or visit the website to book your place. There is no charge for the day, however lunch and refreshments are provided and so there is a suggested donation of £5.

Quantifying silly numbers

During a session in my day trying to figure out ways of advertising the need for Bible translation at New Word Alive (come and find me on the Wycliffe Bible Translators stand if you’re going!), part of my wonderingment took me to the number 300 million.  Having googled “300 million” purely out of interest to see what came up, I now know that a fossil of 300 million years has been found somewhere, the theft of 300 million Yen was the single largest heist in Japanese history, the WHO estimates that 300 million people suffer with Asthma, the Apple app store has exceeded 300 million downloads for the iPhone and iPod Touch and Facebook has over 300 million users and counting.  To me, 300 million is just a really big number, this morning I also enjoyed finding out all the ridiculous names of fictitious numbers (some might say I’ve not been working too hard!) such as gazillion, squidillion and katrillion.  But then something hit me, really hard.

300 million people, individuals, people that God has made with His own mighty hand, 300 million of them do not have ANY access to God’s Word, His gospel, the amazing news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the news of salvation and freedom of belonging to Him.  As I write this post, I still can’t picture how many people that is.  I even tried something really silly just now, trying to copy and paste faces onto a page.  Each one fits 260 faces.  I got to the 99th page and, to be honest, couldn’t be bothered anymore.  It seemed like a ridiculous task.  I’d have to paste onto 11,538,46 pages of A4 before getting to 300 million.  Even though I stumble and fall, even though I lack the effort to carry on, even though I couldn’t be bothered to finish the task, I’m incredibly thankful that there is One who never grows weary, who keeps showing His love to His people, who keeps revealing Himself to those who do not know Him or who haven’t even heard of Him, oh the riches of His marvelous grace!

Thank you, Lord, for showing yourself to me, for giving me your Word in a language that I understand, and for allowing me to work alongside you.

May I never lose the will to give God’s story to those 300 million who do not yet have it.  If you’d like to know more on how you can be a part of that then go to our website, www.wycliffe.org.uk

Meet the Team!

Yesterday we, as a Wycliffe UK Mobilisation team, were greatly privileged to be able to meet together and not just to chat on Skype!  From Youth and 18-30s work to recruitment and application we’re an incredibly diverse team and it’s really exciting to be able to work together, to share the wealth of experience that there is and to enjoy fellowship together.

The team are spread across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and so it’s been brilliant to be able to get together, to discuss old and new ideas, to support each other in prayer and to give thanks for and look forward to old and new direction.

John, ex-Mob big man, wrote his own blog post on the day so you can read more on his blog!

Please pray for us all as we seek to raise awareness of the need for God’s Word to be given to those who don’t yet have it in a language they understand.  If you’d like to find out more on how you can be involved then check out our website, www.wycliffe.org.uk and see how you can live and give God’s story!