LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
“How did you end up at Wycliffe?” I am often asked this question and I love sharing the story about the journey. Looking back, I can see the way Jesus guided the process, from the first connection with the Kairos Course, right up until He confirmed the call to serve as Executive Director.
Key in this journey was the relationship between Wycliffe SA and our local church, St Andrew’s Presbyterian, in Benoni. I was the Missions Pastor and was part of facilitating the Kairos Course at Wycliffe SA. Some of the team then became facilitators on courses I organised. We also started an initiative called “Mission Alliance” where missionaries could gather together for regular times of connection. Here I met Roy and Rose, Sarel and Ansie, Harry and Elsbeth.
An amazing connection was when we were developing a plan for St Andrew’s to reach the unreached Bara people in Madagascar. Wycliffe was involved in the Bara Bible translation, and so we got involved in raising funds and prayer support. St Andrew’s sponsored the launch of Simply Mobilising in Madagascar through the Kairos Course and today there are courses run in the local Malagasy language, with participation from Bara pastors.
Partnership between St Andrew’s and Wycliffe SA in Oral Bible Storytelling, Partner Development, advice on missionary care, and invitations to events meant that I had a number of connecting moments with the team long before I was invited to serve in a leadership capacity. It also meant that St Andrew’s could send me to join Wycliffe SA and they continue supporting financially.
How we long for more of these partnerships! Paul writes to the Philippians:
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
When the partnerships work, we remember each other, we pray for each other, we experience joy in our relationship, the Gospel spreads, the friendships deepen and grow, the work is completed, and Jesus is glorified. That’s worth pursuing.
In this Translation Matters you will read about some other partnerships in the gospel as well as meet some new faces who have joined our team. Know, as you read, that you give us joy and we bless you for your partnership in the Gospel.
Alan Webster
NEWLIFE CHURCH
By Melanie Pienaar
Photo: Pieter and Melanie Pienaar on the mission trip to Lesotho
This relationship started a few years ago when my path crossed with Alan Webster again. I had known Alan before he joined Wycliffe SA and, therefore, we immediately clicked when we met each other again. I invited Alan to come and minister at our church during our Missions month in May. I cannot recall which year that was.
Since then we, as an assembly, decided to support Wycliffe SA, as we see value in this partnership and believed in the work they are doing for the Kingdom of God. We also decided to support the Baphuthi people in Lesotho and their Bible Translation project.
Our vision:
Transforming people, transforming communities – for the cause of Christ
(We believe that once they receive the Word of God in their mother tongue, transformation will come).
Our mission:
For the one – Jesus looks out for the one. (Matthew 18:12)
A highlight in this partnership was when we had a joint outreach to Lesotho to distribute audio Bibles to the Baphuti people there. A delegation consisting of members of our assembly and employees from Wycliffe SA went on a mission to Lesotho at the end of April/beginning of May 2023. What stood out for us was that we were so aware that God sees the Baphuti people. Tucked into the mountains in Lesotho hidden from the world are these special people that God loves so much.
This was the first mission trip our assembly had been on and was a learning experience for us. Valuable lessons were learnt on this mission and the delegates of our assembly came back encouraged. Sharing their experiences with the assembly has created an excitement for our next trip and we expect more people to join.
As an assembly, we had a large contingent join the “Run for the Bibleless” now for the last two years. Men, women, and our youth have supported this initiative with much enthusiasm. Members are supporting Wycliffe SA in both prayer and financially.
We are also excited with the new initiatives of Wycliffe SA and already we have been connected with other assemblies from which we have gained valuable information and support.
Going forward I foresee that we would be going on another mission trip, maybe in 2025. I also believe that this partnership will develop as we fulfil God’s purposes together. Our heart is to see those we have met mature into Christ-like members of the community so that they too can reach others for the Kingdom of God.
HOUSE OF THE LORD CHURCH
By Darren Staines
Photo: Praying over the audio Scriptures at the Sepulana Dedication event in 2022
I am the Missions Director at House of the Lord Benoni, and I just want to share a little bit about our vision of missions and my personal experience over the years with partnerships.
We, at the House of the Lord, have been involved in missions and outreach for more than 40 years now. I joined the missions board about 18 years ago. The primary focus at that point was just supporting our missionaries who are on the field, but as time progressed, the Lord showed me that we need to set up partnerships and start working together as a body. That's when we started looking at getting different partnerships up and running, joining with various organisations and churches, venturing out onto the mission field, and doing God's work.
One of the partnerships that has impacted me in a massive way was when we joined up with Wycliffe SA with the Sepulana project. At the time, Wycliffe SA was launching the first translated audio Scriptures in Sepulana, and we got to take part in the celebrations of that event. Looking back, one of the biggest things for me, personally, was just watching, listening, and seeing what God is doing in this community, which I never even knew existed up until a year prior to that. While listening to the verses from Genesis 1 being played on an audio device, I was looking at people's faces and one of the old gents really caught my eye. He just had tears rolling down his face. I made it a point afterwards to go and chat to him and he said to me that for the first time he has heard the Scripture in his own language and it now makes sense. He was just so excited about this. What I realised, coming away from that event, is that this was a mark in history in so many people's lives, but even more than that - it was a huge leap forward for the Kingdom of God.
That's one of the examples of where our partnership and our relationship have strengthened and grown. It's almost like when I joined the missions board, we were on a stroll pace. And now with partnerships coming on board, suddenly the pace has picked up and we are running towards the Kingdom of God.
I really do believe that partnerships are essential to the big picture of evangelism and getting God's Word out to the world. It's exciting for us to get involved in more partnerships, and to get more involved in the existing partnerships. Wycliffe SA has the Run for the Bibleless and we've been involved there as well. It’s such an amazing thing to be involved in these initiatives where the Kingdom of God can be glorified so much.
I just want to thank you for the opportunity that we've had as members from the House of the Lord to be able to join up together and to be strengthened and uplifted through the partnership.
PARTNERING IN PRAISE: VOICES OF JUBILATION CONCERT
By Jen Pillinger
Photo: Breakthru Life Church performing at the worship concert
Sometimes partnership takes the form of lively entertainment events with a higher purpose. Our Voices of Jubilation worship concert brought together churches from all over Johannesburg and performers from as far as Switzerland. The concert was held as part of the run-up to our 2025 Jubilee celebration, which will mark Wycliffe SA’s 50th birthday. It was also a competition with prizes to be won, including the opportunity to perform at the Wycliffe Global Gathering in November and be featured on our Jubilee album which will be released next year. The performers had all written their own music on the Jubilee theme, and were evaluated by the judges during the event to determine who would be awarded the prizes (a tough call, given the quality of every piece performed).
The concert itself was a vibrant event, filled with praise, dance, laughter and unforgettable music.
The Performers
The Kom Translation team from Cameroon was the only one to perform a song in their own native language, recorded on video and shared for the audience to enjoy. Njabulo Langa, a rapper from Sceptre Ministries, instantly elevated the energy in the room with his lively performance of “Lay my Life”. Alan Webster and Busani Mcingolwane each had the room singing along with their catchy tunes, “Breathe Upon Us” (Busani) and “Only Jubilee” (Alan). House of the Lord could not perform live, but their recorded video of “Voice of Jubilation” brought a spirit of reflection and worship to the room.
The Winners
First Place: Breakthru Life Church
Tanya and team exploded into their performance with jumping and dancing that had the audience on their feet in seconds to be part of the action. Their upbeat song, “The Great Reset”, was an instant hit.
Second Place: Naledi Grace
Naledi Grace wowed us with a beautiful rendition of her song, “Jubilee”, which captured the competition theme perfectly.
Third Place: Elfi Bohl
Although she could not be present at the event, the recorded video of Elfi’s song “I Too Dorong” made a real impression. She played the song on the Kora, an instrument of the Gambia, and sang in both English and Mandinka.
Special Thanks
While the concert was centred around the competition artists, they were not the only ones who made the event a success. Mesuli Tshele and Sizukiwe Vimbani opened the event with worship and praise, setting God at centre stage of the proceedings. Our MC, Lesego Nyoni, did a stellar job of leading the audience through the event with humour and energy, and our judges must be commended for making hard decisions in a short time frame. Our guest band from JTL Ministries (Jesus Christ to all Languages) contributed their own Jubilee-themed song in which they thanked Wycliffe SA for the work done, and had people dancing in front of the stage to the worship songs. We must also thank Rosebank Union Church for the use of their venue!
There are many others who worked quietly in the background, and each person who attended was a blessing to have. In all, there were 7 churches represented and more than 140 people who took part.
CHURCH RESOURCES - WYCLIFFE LINKS
There are many ways for churches to contribute and partner in bringing the transforming power of God’s Word to those who don’t have it. Below, some of these ways are listed. Visit the link or contact us for more information or to discuss the options.
| Become a Wycliffe Ambassador |
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Advocate on behalf of the Bibleless and mobilise your church to pray, support, and go!| Adopt a Language |
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You will receive regular updates, stories and prayer needs. |
| Join or Host An Event |
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Every year thousands of people host or enter races and events for a cause; you can enter for God's Word! |
Join us as we get active: running, cycling, hiking, and more in the name of Bible Translation and the transformation it brings.| Trauma Healing (TH) |
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Host a trauma healing retreat at your church or life group through the Trauma Healing Network, or access resources and information at Trauma Healing Basics. |
Engage with the Bible through trauma; a complex topic that can be difficult to wrap your head around, but is something that all of us will go through at some point in our lives.| Scripture Engagement Workshops |
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There are various types of workshops available. Each workshop is rooted in the transformational truth of Scripture, aiming to help you grow in your faith, to serve your church and community, and to serve language communities doing Bible Translation for the first time.| Foundation 5000 |
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You will receive regular updates to hear how your contribution is transforming lives. |
Become a regular supporter by contributing R100 or more every month and pray for the work, helping us to build capacity for Bible Translation work on a long-term basis.| Kairos Course |
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"The world is changing, but God’s purpose and plan for His people remain the same." |
Join or host the full course to dig deeper into God's Mission - Missio Dei - or choose one of the other adapted courses. Contact us if you are interested in hosting a course at your church.| Visit A Language Group |
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Build relationships and connections with Bible Translation communities; support translation teams; experience the work of oral translation first-hand.ANNOUNCEMENTS & NEWS
NEW MEMBER
Joey Fourie came on board in July to join the Finance Department as a second Project Accountant due to increasing project volumes. She is responsible to assist in equipping the translation teams to effectively manage the project finances by timeously receiving and processing financial transactions and information used to produce reports which are used to make critical financial decisions about the projects.
CALLING ALL ARTISTS! JUBILEE ART EXHIBITION
As part of our 50th birthday in 2025, Wycliffe South Africa is holding a Jubilee art exhibition. We are inviting you to be part of this! Submit art already created, or art you are dreaming of. We are looking for submissions that convey how beautiful and precious Africa and its people are to God. You can interpret this as creatively as you want: sweeping landscapes, ethnic portraits, conceptual abstracts, traditional cultural art, wildlife sculptures, or wherever else your imagination takes you.
Apply by 31 August 2024 (Your art does not need to be ready by this date)
For more information and to apply: wycliffe.org.za/event/art-exhibition
KIDS WHO CARE
Hi there.
It’s Aunty Gill here again. I hope that everyone reading this is feeling happy and well.
Have you ever heard of a game called Padel?
It is similar to tennis, except the bat is smaller, thicker and made of a kind of foam and the court is much smaller and it has glass sides all around it. You normally play with 4 people- two on each side of the net. You hit the ball over the net and get points when the other people can’t get it back to you.
I hadn’t heard of it until a few months ago, but I have started playing it with my friend, Debbie. Debbie and I are PARTNERS. Here is a picture of Debbie and I after we played padel last week.
We play together against other people. We are on one side of the net together and we work together to try to play the best we can. Debbie and I are good PARTNERS. There are some things that she can do very well and other things that I am better at, so we make a good team. Debbie is very good at hitting the ball when it comes off the glass sides. I am not good at that at all. I am quite good at serving the ball across the net for the first shot of the game, and Debbie is not as good as me at that part. If I tried to play padel all by myself, I would not be very good at all. I would not be able to play well all by myself. I could try my best, but to play good padel, I need a PARTNER. Having a PARTNER means that we play much better and we both have different skills and talents that our team benefit from and we help each other with the things that each of us are not so good at. We are definitely much stronger and much better together!
The team at Wycliffe South Africa know that about half of the languages that people around the world speak do not even have one verse of the Bible in that language. This means that millions of people all over the world have never heard any of God’s Word in the language that they speak in their home!
Wycliffe South Africa are working so hard to get the Bible translated into more languages so that more and more people around the world can understand that Jesus loves them, that He died for them, that He rose from the dead and that God wants them to believe in Him and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. The team at Wycliffe South Africa are doing a very good job at this, but…just like I would not play a very good game of padel if I did it all by myself, without a PARTNER, Wycliffe can do a much better job with a PARTNER!
They do not need PARTNERS who have padel bats and can run fast and hit a ball well, Wycliffe needs churches to be their PARTNERS. When the team and Wycliffe and the people at churches work together as PARTNERS, they can do a much better job at helping more people get the Word of God in their own language so they can understand it.
The team at Wycliffe South Africa is a small group of people. They do a very good job, but they could help even more people get God’s Word if they had more people to work with them.
I am sure that a lot of the boys and girls reading this go to a church. I have a challenge for you today! Are you ready to say YES to this challenge?
My challenge to you is to go and speak to your pastor. Ask him this important question: Can our church partner with Wycliffe South Africa to help them help more people to get a Bible, or even part of a Bible in their language? If he asks how then you could suggest that he checks out the ideas at https://wycliffe.org.za/wycliffe-links/resources. Some of the people from Wycliffe could come and visit your church and tell you all about their work and give you some more ideas about how you could partner with them. You could start to collect money to help Wycliffe do their work. You could have an event where you even invite other churches to maybe involve them in partnering with Wycliffe too.
I look forward to hearing from you about how you got on with our challenge. Hope you had a great chat with your pastor.
Love,
Aunty Gill
