Wycliffe Bible Translators History
William Cameron Townsend initially went to Cakchiquel Indians of Guatemala to sell Spanish Bibles. However, people in Guatemala did not have Bible in their own language. At that period of time they did not even have a written form of language. This prompted William Cameron Townsend to translate Bible in different languages. He spent over ten years along with Cakchiquel Indians, learning their language and gave them a written form of language. Later he translated the New Testament of the Bible in their language.
He initially started Camp Wycliffe in 1934 at Arkansas. The name Wycliffe was an inspiration from the first English Bible translator named John Wycliffe. Camp Wycliffe later split into two affiliate organizations in 1942. These two organizations were Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).
To help him in this mission, Kenneth Pike joined the team of SIL as President. An internationally acclaimed linguistic scholar, he helped to expand the work to 50 other countries. Camp Wycliffe initially started with only two people. Today, it has over 6,600 members and is growing with each passing day.
William Cameron Townsend's vision was to see that everyone across world should have access to Bible in their mother tongue. Wycliffe Bible Translators was founded with this goal in mind. Today, thousands of members and volunteers work towards this goal and are passionate about their work. As they have identified the number of languages and regions which need to be targeted, the next step is to find right people to translate the Bible.
Training is given to translators before absorbing them for translation of the Bible. Some of them are given cultural training, language training, spiritual and Bible training. As it's a non-profit organization, all the work is done in collaboration and co-operation with the philanthropic groups, government aids and resources from universities.
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