Kids Who Care | June-July 2026
Hello everyone! Thank you for being one of our KIDS WHO CARE. You are a child who wants all children to have a Bible. And…you are part of the Wycliffe family! We are a great big family of people who want all people to have a Bible in a language that they can understand.
The Wycliffe family- do you think that is a strange name, like I do? Maybe you are wondering where this family got its name. I decided to do some investigating and find out where the name Wycliffe comes from.
Wycliffe was the surname of a man called John who lived in England more than 600 years ago. In the 1300s, most people could not read the Bible for themselves because it was written in Latin, a language ordinary people did not understand. Only priests and highly educated people could read it.
John Wycliffe believed God’s Word belonged to everyone, not only to priests and scholars. He believed that ordinary people should be able to read the Bible in their own language. He thought farmers, workers, children, and ordinary families should all be able to hear and understand the Bible in their own language. They should not just have to listen to God’s Word being read to them in Latin, by priests at church, and not really understand what they were hearing.
When I read this information about John Wycliffe, I realised that what he believed sounds just like what I believe today, and I’m sure you do too. God’s Word should be for everyone. All people should be able to hear and understand the Bible in their own language. Nearly 700 years later this is still what people in the Wycliffe family believe and are working hard to do.
I found out some more about John Wycliffe. John and his friends began the huge job of translating the Bible into English. Word by word, page by page they changed it from Latin to Middle English, the language that ordinary people in their country could understand. This became known as the Wycliffe Bible.
This was long before computers or printers existed. Every single Bible had to be copied by hand with ink and a feather pen! It could take months and months just to make one copy.
Wycliffe’s helpers carefully carried these handwritten Bibles around England. They would visit towns and villages and read the Bible aloud to people. For many people, it was the very first time they had ever heard God’s Word in English. People were amazed. They listened closely because now they could finally understand the stories of Jesus.
But not everyone was happy. Some powerful church leaders became angry because they did not want ordinary people reading the Bible themselves. They liked it and felt special when they were the only people who could understand God’s Word. These leaders could control people by twisting the words to tell people what they wanted them to hear, and sometimes not what it really said.
It became dangerous to own an English Bible because many church leaders were fighting against this happening. John Wycliffe was not afraid and bravely continued to help more people to have a Bible in a language that they could understand.
Even after he died, angry leaders tried to erase his work and stop the spread of the English Bible. But they could not stop his ideas. More and more people got an English Bible.
This was hundreds of years ago and now millions of people around the world can read the Bible in their own language. God used people like John Wycliffe to make a way for more people to be able to understand His Word. People still remember what the hero, John Wycliffe, did.
A large group of people carry on the work that John Wycliffe started. They are the Wycliffe family and they still work hard, sacrificing their own time and money to help more people get God’s Word in their own language. They are brave and they don’t give up easily. Even when it is difficult, or when they feel tired or like the job is too big, they keep doing what Wycliffe did: helping more people understand the Bible. I love it that I can play a very small part in carrying on the work that John Wycliffe started. I can still pray and give and help more people to know about what the Wycliffe family are doing. And you can too!
Love Gill
