Wycliffe

We took a field trip today to a museum and if you're thinking, "Heather doesn't seem like the museum type," YOU'RE RIGHT! I'm not! But it was so amazing, every display, every picture, every video just gave me chills. Wycliffe is a Bible translator organization with headquarters here in Orlando. I had NO earthly idea how many languages there are on the globe or how many of them have no Bible in their language. It was so interesting to hear how some languages are tonal, meaning that a group of words can have 6 totally different meanings just based on what word you put the emphasis on or the inclination in your voice. And some languages even are whistled languages. I know, crazy huh? I guess I would be mute if I lived there cause I can't whistle worth a flip! Many rural languages don't even have a written form at all, nor do the people know how to read. So Wycliffe has teams all over the world learning different languages, creating written forms of languages that don't exist, and teaching the people how to read the language so they can read God's word. SO COOL! We watched a video of one of the men who created the translation in the Phillipines about 15 years ago. He got to go back to the villages he lived in and learned in and see how having a Bible in their language had changed their lives. Out of about 60,000 people that spoke that language, 20,000 of them had come to know Christ and over 100 Christian churches had been started! Can you imagine knowing that what you did allowed 20,000 people or more to have an eternity with Jesus? There are MANY MANY languages around the world that still have no form of a written Bible, but Wycliffe is in progress in many of those places. It seems so strange to me that we are just now, in this century, realizing the need for Bible translations??? Wycliffe began in the early 1900's so for over 2000 years many people haven't had Bibles in their languages. We certainly take for granted in America how accessable and easy to read they are. I heard a story once about Christians in China who have to share their Bibles, sometimes with an entire village, because it's illegal to have a Bible or to be Christian. So when one is handed off to them, they read it cover to cover really fast and pass it on to the next person. And yet, we have a house full of them in America and many of us have NEVER read it cover to cover. As I carried Ashton around the museum today, I couldn't help but wonder if MAYBE just maybe mission work might be in her future. I've always known she has a very special purpose. But maybe she will be a Bible translator one day, who knows! And Lexi too of course! You never know who you're raising!!!