Description
Wycliffe Bible Translators is dedicated to translating and delivering Scripture to people around the world in a language and form they understand best.
History
In 1917, while distributing Spanish Bibles in Guatemala, American missionary Cameron Townsend was challenged by his Mayan guide Francisco Diaz to translate the Bible into Diazs native Cakchiquel language. It was Diazs long-held dream for the Cakchiquels to have Scripture in the language of their birth. Surely, Diaz told Townsend, God could speak to the Cakchiquels just as he could to the Spanish speaking people. Townsend accepted the challenge and went on to learn the oral-only language, create an alphabet and translate the New Testament. The project took 10 years and inspired Townsend, in 1942, to found Wycliffe Bible Translators, named for John Wycliffe, the 14th-century Oxford scholar who first translated the Bible into English.