MK forum

Carry on!

Ha! That would be awesome hahahahahahahahaha, the Down Under Shortbus. We'll wear helmets to keep from hurting ourselves

As far as Wcyliffe goes, I'll go ahead and copy-paste a bit of wikipedia to try sum up most efficiently the most basic details:

'Wycliffe Bible Translators' is an interdenominational organization mandated to making a translation of the Bible in every living language in the world, especially for cultures with little existing Christian influence. Wycliffe was founded in 1942 by William Cameron Townsend and is associated with the Protestant section of Christianity. There are currently branches in over 50 countries. The organization is named after John Wycliffe, who was responsible for the first complete English translation of the whole Bible into Middle English. As of September 2010, translations of either portions of the Bible, the New Testament, or the whole Bible exist in over 2,500 of the 6,860 languages used on Earth.

That about sums it up. Wycliffe has some good points. They don't generally go there to deliberately try convert the heathens, they want them to have the bible available to them if they are so inclined. They try stay neutral with tribes, they try work with anye xisting churches, they do some incredible linguistic work that helps preserve the native language of the people.
My parents were/are bible translators. They ended up working with a language that had never been written down, so they went in as linguists, not preachers, learned the language, gave it a phonetic alphabet, and then started teaching people to read it. They helped set up some basic schools to teach kids to read in their own language, and then created some basic reading primers that people could buy very, very cheaply to practice reading. They also set up sunday school lessons at local churches, and taught people to teach their own people how to do this.
These are all very good things.

Wycliffe works... omg, so many places. I know Ukarumpa is considered their largest mission base, and it at least used to be the largest mission base int he world. Their international headquarters are in singapore, their US headquarters are in (surprise, surprise) Orlando, Florida. For a long time Wycliffe was a single organization, but now they're a global network of organizations that work in various parts of the world and with varying purposes. IE: SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) trains linguists to work overseas. JAARS (Jungle Aviation And Radio Services) does most of the technical stuff with commuications and flying us various places.
It is a primarily protestant organization, with a number of things you have to sign that you agree with before they allow you to work, but I know they *are* genuinely supportive of a number of different denominations (this has caused occasional conflict within ukarumpa). I know they also do fairly extensive backgroudn checks, and up until the 21st century, they were considered to ahve some of the best member care in missions. I... still find this fairly laughable.

More to come.

That's really interesting, some of it rung bells and some of it was new.

I quite like the philosophy of producing a bible then allowing others to promote or use it. Makes good sense to me.

I hitched a ride on a JAARS helicopter once, to the airfield which I think was called Aiyura. Would have been about 1980.

Many thanks for the interesting info.

Oh and about the Downunder Short Bus. You'll have to have the front seat, next to the driver after all they will appreciate some intelligent conversation after being stuck with the rest of us for the trip across the Pacific. Of course we might have to off load some of our personal baggage and dirty laundry to accomodate you, but hey what's a bit of dirty laundry left all over the place .

I'm in a bit of a unique position in regards to Wycliffe/SIL. While I grew up in NTM, just after I graduated from high school, my parents were dismissed from NTM and went to work with Wycliffe where they worked for nearly 30 years. I did a short stint with them as a guest helper and then went back for a year as a short term assistant.

As Ghanima noted, their main goal is not church planting, but Bible translation. In fact, in most places they work as Summer Institute of Linguistics, which is a scientific linguistic research organization. In most cases they negotiate contracts with the appropriate government agencies to work in the tribal areas for that purpose, and often they are prohibited from "preaching".

For those reasons, among others, the organization is decidedly less religious and legalistic than NTM. I think the fact that almost everyone has a university degree also has a great influence on how things are handled. Field leadership is voted on by the members and is for short terms.

There are many other differences, but I think you get the general idea from this.

I truely enjoyed the year I spent helping Wycliff in Brazil. It was a wonderful experience. I grew up in NTM but there was a different atmosphere between the two. We worked on their flight base in Cuiaba, Brazil. A GREAT year as I worked in the accounting office.

dbarney, you have lived around the world!

I attended day school for 4 years at that SIL base in Cuiaba. Have some good memories . . .once a pair or rabid Dobermans came across the base -- we're heading towards us kids. My dad loaded us up in the open backed pick-up truck and chased them off with a machete.

Most of the SILers were gracious. They used us kids at the school to help collate mimeographed portions of the Bible. Most missionaries were flown in and out of the tribes. It appeared to me that there were a lot more support personnel than translators. We hardly ever saw a Brazilian there. They called it "Little America." It felt very colonial (as in India.) I loved the safe feeling of walking the dirt roads at night, not worrying about crime. They had "cultural" nights of entertainment for the missionaries--classical music, movies. The hanger was used for school plays, Thanksgiving feasts.

There were UK missionaries--loved listening to them talk. They were quite "worldly" and I'm sure we came off provincial. Mennonites were used in support, less in translation. We had quite a few conversations off base about whether so and so SILer was "even saved."

There were a fair share of "persons of interest" we can remember now, in the shady arena. Had a 7th grade teacher who enjoyed teaching with his fly down, commando-style.

The last years of the base they had to put 24 hour guards at the entrance/exit. I was able to stay there one last time and show it to my daughter. Monkeys had come back on the base as they were herded out of the jungle. I think condos were put in 5-6 years ago.