DREAMS AND VISIONS
Hi there.
It’s Aunty Gill here again. Here’s a picture of me in case you forgot what I look like.
I speak English at home, so I made a sign that says “Hello!” to greet you all with. I could have written Hi!/Good day!/ Howzit!/ How ya doing? on my sign as well.
I wonder how you say hello in your house. Maybe you speak English and so your greeting sounds a bit like mine, but perhaps you speak another language and you greet people differently. Maybe you say Goeie More or Sawubona or Dumela or Mhoro.
Did you know that there are 7394 different languages in the world? Seven thousand, three hundred and ninety four different languages!!! That is a lot of different ways to say hello.
HELLO PHOTO CHALLENGE
We would love to learn how to say hello in YOUR language, so I have a challenge for you. Make a sign that says hello how you say it and ask someone to take a photo of you holding your sign and then email it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will share your photo in my next Kids Who Care column. I hope I get lots of photos to share, so we can all see some more kids who care and also learn how to say hello in lots of different ways. This is your chance to star in our next newsletter! Don’t miss it!
Photo: Keira Burton on Pexels
Imagine that you went to school one day and you had a new teacher and your new teacher only spoke a language called Bippity Blob. Your new teacher stood up to teach you all and she said “woo-wah-wama-wig-tig-ta-ha-ham-jam-jab-jabba-lob-ho-na-bib-bob” I can just imagine how you and all of your friends would look at each other with wide open mouths! You might scratch your heads and say “Huh?” or “What did she just say?” It would be very difficult to learn anything from your new teacher if she only spoke Bippity Blob, and you spoke another language.
Photo: Gabby K on Pexels
Or imagine you got a brand-new phone. You opened up the package to read the instructions so you could set the phone up and the instructions were all written in a language called Zaxyzan. Step 1 said “Zaxxan zap zax pix, zip, zanax, piz, pizan, zan, zax.” There were 24 different instructions all written in Zaxyzan, with no pictures to help. You would not be able to use the phone or even turn the phone on. You would probably feel really sad and angry. The instructions were in a language you could not understand.
Photo: Ben White on Unsplash
It’s the same with Bibles. If you have a Bible in your house, it is probably in the language that you speak at your house. We have quite a few Bibles at my house and they are all written in English, because that is how we speak at our house. I can read the Bible and understand what it says.
Imagine that I had a Bible written in a language called Frutaq at my house. I might open it and find it says “Lafrut, bofrut, bo, bo, bo, teletaq, botag, frut, frut.” I might try to read it for a minute or two but then I would close the Bible and give up. I would probably not even open it again. I need a Bible in a language I can understand, so I can read that God made me, God loves me, Jesus died and came alive for me and I can be friends with God.
The people who work at Wycliffe are being obedient to what Jesus said just before He rose into heaven: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” They want people all over the world, in all 7394 languages, to know that there is good news. Their dream is to have God’s Word in all 7394 different languages, so that all people can know the good news, get saved and become a follower of Jesus. They are working very hard to achieve this dream! They have teams in different countries who are working to translate the Bible into their language so people can hear and read God’s Word.
Let’s dream with the people at Wycliffe and pray that God helps this wonderful dream to come true - the Bible available in all 7394 different languages!
Lots of love to you, KIDS WHO CARE
Aunty Gill
