Projects in the Works

The campaign has been taking place every summer for the last six years and it helps fund various Bible translation projects focused within the three areas of translation, training, and printing.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe USA)

“It’s a direct mail and online campaign. So, we provide our partners [with] opportunities to give in those three categories. And it covers a wide reach of projects, people, and countries around the world,” Wycliffe’s Pixie Christensen shares.

“We’re actually covering people in more than 24 countries. And the opportunities can touch lives in more than 160 people groups.”

The campaign is kicked off with a May direct mail piece which highlights the different ways to give, various matches, and the potential that giving to one of these projects can have. Then follow-up letters are sent in June, July, and August. Each month highlights a different focus of the campaign on either translation, training, or Scripture printing.

These letters are meant to help partners pray more effectively about the challenges and needs the campaign is facing, as well as to know where the needs are for giving. Partners are also kept updated through various social media sites where Wycliffe posts what’s new in the campaign and the rest of the ministry.

A First for Wycliffe

However, this year’s campaign features something a little bit different than the previous years. For the first time, Wycliffe has the chance to help with translation work related to Thai Sign Language.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators)

The Thai translation work comes from a unique story about a young Deaf woman with a Buddhist background. One day she came across an illustrated story Bible and was so drawn to it that she stole the Bible. After taking it home, she tried to read it, but couldn’t.

“The challenge for Deaf people is that we assume, ‘Well, if they can’t hear, they can surely read.’ But, it’s a whole different world to them. And for sign language, it includes the expression and other parts of communicating that you don’t get when you read,” Christensen explains.

“So even when she looked at the picture, she was fascinated but she couldn’t read it. She couldn’t understand it.”

However, this young woman’s journey with the Bible didn’t end there. By God’s providence, she met a missionary who, through a series of events, helped lead this young woman to Christ. Now, she’s even involved with the Thai Sign Language project.

Believe it or not, there is only one Deaf Thai pastor in all of Thailand. Wycliffe has featured him and his remarks on the importance of using sign language in his congregation. Making God’s Word available in Thai Sign Language will allow for more Deaf people in Thailand to be reached with the Good News of Christ!

Join in on the Help!

However, projects like the Thai Sign Language project are only possible through the gifts of partners like you!

“It is such an amazing opportunity, I think, to be able to look at these projects and say, ‘Wow, I can give to five different translation projects which have the opportunity to touch more than a million people,’” Christensen shares.

“‘I can give to a group of projects that train translators in the country so that they can take [over the] supervision and guide the translation projects through; and then the opportunity to give to printing.’ It’s just an amazing opportunity.”

Partners can send in a one-time gift or choose to give to the three different focus areas all throughout the summer. Want to get involved? Then start by joining Wycliffe’s mailing list or by giving!

But regardless, will you still pray? Pray for the ability and funding to both translate the Bible and print it for the different people groups around the world. Also, pray for the Gospel’s work in the lives of those who are receiving the Bible in their own language for the first time.

Find more ways to pray here!

Want to give? Click here!

Pastraporn Sarakong is a leader in the Thai translation team. (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe USA)

Wycliffe Bible Translators USA has been involved in sign language Bible translations projects for about two decades now. Wycliffe’s Andy Keener says, as more sign language projects are taken up within Bible translation, they’ve witnessed a joy akin to that in the early Church as the Gospel was spread.

He says, “Many have never thought about Bible translation. They’ve seen the Bible as a book that is for hearing people, and not for them. And so, these initial engagements have begun to generate a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in communities around the world.”

Getting the work done together

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe USA)

Wycliffe USA primarily plays a support and partnership role in the translation process as they provide funding and workers. In this work, they help to identify people who are good story tellers in their sign language and coach them in interacting with the Scriptures. The end goal is to video record the Bible passages so they can be distributed.

Keener says they work with many partners — notably DOOR International and Deaf Bible Society. Wycliffe partners with deaf-led regional organizations as well.

“We’re very much interested in partnering with organizations that are working both in their own communities at regional levels, and then some of these international organizations that really focus globally on seeing sign language Bible translation available for all.”

The Thai Church

Right now, Wycliffe is involved in about ten translation projects, including one in Thailand. Keener explains that the Thai Sign Language translation project is less than a decade old. The team working on it right now consists of a few different groups who are translating the Bible chronologically.

Keener explains why: “We found that this is a really key way of engaging the Deaf because in sign language, doing things in a storying fashion chronologically is really powerful and Deaf people have found it a very appropriate way culturally to understand Scripture and to understand the message of Salvation.”

The storying format means Scripture is cut into full stories, much like we might see in a Bible story book.

“When we do that, within sign language, we’re able to have someone in the signing take that entire story and craft that together, having every segment of what is in the Scripture part of that story, but done in a visual way.”

Transformation

As we’ve shared in the past with translation stories, hearing the Gospel in your heart language is so different than having to learn it through a secondary language. It’s the same for the Deaf community. Their heart language is a sign language, and even if they can read, it’s still like learning through a second language.

“They can interact with Scripture some,” Keener says, “but when they get it in their heart language, it really impacts them at a deeper level.”

So as Scripture is translated into Thai Sign Language, more and more in this community are able to hear the Gospel and respond.

“Many people are for the first time realizing, there’s a message here that’s for them and not just for hearing people. They’ve seen that as a huge gulf — less than 0.1 percent of the Deaf community in Thailand are known or expected to be believers at this point,” Keener says.

So as they continue in this work, there are a few things we can do. First and most importantly, we can pray. Ask God to raise up spiritual leaders in all of the Deaf communities around the world, even those that have no witness at this time. Ask Him to give courage, safety, and the power of the Holy Spirit to translation teams who are crossing borders to share the Good News with other Deaf communities.

And this is our motivation for prayer: “Every country in the world has Deaf people. And in each of those places there are Deaf people who the way that they communicate is through sign language. [There’s] not a single sign language in the world today that has a complete Bible. In most sign languages in the world today, there’s not even a single verse that is available in that language.”

Secondly, you can give. Click here to learn more about financial gifts to the sign language translation work.

And finally, consider going. Keener says to watch their website for opportunities to serve overseas.