Wycliffe Associates Providing Technology That Helps Keeps Bible Translators and Their Work Safe in High-Risk Areas

(Orlando, Florida, USA)—In regions where Christians risk intense persecution and even death because of their faith, Wycliffe Associates is helping believers translate the Bible for their language communities through its Tablets for National Translators initiative.

By providing computer tablets loaded with translation software, Wycliffe Associates is providing the technology that allows Christians to safely hide their translation efforts in plain sight as well as securely back up their work.

“I’m looking at an astonishing number of requests for tablets from believers in distant lands, places where people have been waiting, hoping, praying—for generations,” says Tim Neu, Interim President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates. “Our tablets change the equation.”

Based in Orlando, Florida, Wycliffe Associates is an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation.

“With our translation strategy, they can perform the task themselves. All they need is the technology and training,” says Neu.

Wycliffe Associates preloads each tablet with translation software, equipping mother-tongue Bible translators with $300 worth of technology they need to carry out their work discreetly in places of intense, anti-Christian persecution.

“No missionaries have been able to penetrate these places,” says Neu. “For an American to go there now would be very dangerous.”

In addition to providing a measure of safety for the translators, computer tablets give them access to an online library of translation resources and make it possible for them to work collaboratively with other translators as well as upload and store their work securely in the cloud.

And once the translators complete their work, they’re able to immediately duplicate, print, and share the newly translated Scriptures.

“Without tablets, translators must translate by hand, slowly and painstakingly,” Neu says.

To date, Wycliffe Associates has distributed 6,402 computer tablets in 67 countries through its Tablets for National Translators program.

Wycliffe Associates has facilitated the start of Bible translations in more than 1,000 languages and has seen the completion of 427 New Testaments through Church Owned Bible Translation efforts.

About Wycliffe Associates

One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.

Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with accelerating Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently assisting Bible translations in over 100 countries. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org.

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