August 12, 2019
Wycliffe Translators Origins
In 1917, a missionary named William Cameron Townsend went to Guatemala to sell Spanish Bibles. He was shocked when many people couldn’t understand the books, but soon realized they spoke Cakchiquel, a language without a Bible. With the goal that everyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language and understanding, Townsend started a school to train people to do Bible translation. On this day — August 12 — in 1942, Townsend and Rev. L.L. Legters incorporated the Wycliffe Bible Translators in California. In the year 2000, Wycliffe would celebrate having translated the Bible into 500 languages.
Their work continues. Wycliffe has set its sights on beginning a translation project in every language in the world — that’s more than 2000 languages — by the year 2025.