Partnering to Reach 200 by 2025: A Snapshot of Wycliffe Singapore | Lausanne World Pulse Archives

When we hear the Bible read in Bahasa Indonesia, it is like the sound of birds singing among the tree branches—beautiful to hear, but we cannot understand what it means. But when we read God’s word in our language, we are like a man suddenly being woken up and rubbing his eyes, he could see clearly and understand what God is saying to him!

A leader from the Orya people group, who live in Papua, Indonesia, said this at the dedication of the Orya New Testament in November 2005. For this man and his people, the word has come alive because God now speaks to them in a language they understand.

Imagine a world where you cannot access God’s word simply because there is none translated into your mother tongue. This is the reality for some 340 million people speaking 2,078 languages.¹

In contrast, many of us who speak the major languages of this world have enjoyed the privilege of more than one version of the Bible. A quick look at the Christian book rooms in countries which use English as a major language would show that there are more than ten versions with derivatives, as well as numerous dynamic translations, and the numbers keep growing!

In a society like Singapore, where the literacy rate is 95.9%², how does one convince believers that the world has some 340 million people with no access to God’s word in a language that makes sense to them? Singaporeans learn English and a mother tongue in school and these are majority languages with an abundance of published literature to feed the mind and soul.

Singapore is home to five million people, of which some eighteen percent of the population is Christian. For these believers, there are some seven hundred churches they attend. The Singapore Church enjoys freedom of worship and material blessings. For the many blessings given to it, there is a responsibility to forward those blessings to others as God leads.

Such is the situation Wycliffe Bible Translators faces in Singapore. Churches are willing, even eager, to take up their responsibility in world missions, but what they need is information and a sense of conviction with regard to what forms missions would take.

Vision 2025 in Singapore In 2007, after a time of protracted corporate prayer and intensive meetings, Wycliffe Singapore decided to concentrate its efforts more intentionally in ensuring that the team was pushing toward Vision 2025: the vision to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by the year 2025.

Before Vision 2025 was adopted by Wycliffe organizations worldwide, statistics showed that the last of the more than two thousand people groups would not even see a translation program started until the year 2150. And thus was born the Wycliffe Singapore response to Vision 2025—“Reaching 200 by 2025“:

By 2025, in partnership with the Singapore Church, we will be engaged in 200 languages needing a Bible translation program.

Beginning from the Go Forth 2008 National Missions Conference, Wycliffe Singapore launched “Reaching 200” by informing churches and individuals of the vast needs of the 340 million people. The major launch was in February 2009, when Wycliffe Singapore hosted an anniversary banquet to thank supporters and issue a fresh challenge to continue their faithful support toward new translation projects.

The End Goal of Bible Translation
However, Bible translation alone is not the end goal. Church leaders need to see that the translated word is for a purpose—to transform lives. To this end, Wycliffe Singapore works hard at explaining how translation is not what defines Wycliffe, despite the fact that it is wrapped up in the name of the organization. Translated scriptures is for the greater purpose of seeing lives transformed as hearts are confronted by God’s word and his Spirit convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

God, ever faithful and gracious, has opened doors to new partnerships. Since the start of the Reaching 200 campaign, more than seven projects for seventeen language groups have received some form of support from Singapore churches in partnership with Wycliffe Singapore.

These projects cover almost 2.9 million language speakers in Asia. Church leaders are excited as they come to understand that the availability of mother tongue scriptures is vital to the discipleship and development of the local churches in the field. The projects launched under Reaching 200 are full translation projects. The amount raised to date is about SGD 85,000.

Overall, the involvement from Singapore churches has been far-ranging. Some adopt a people group for prayer. Some get involved in community development. Some send leaders on prayer walking trips. Some members have also gone for short-term trips. Others give financial support. As of today, the team continues to engage more and more church leaders through visits and giving them prospective field projects to help them come to a decision as they seek God’s desire regarding their mission involvement as a partnering church in Bible translation.

Networking with other mission agencies is also an important aspect of partnership. Wycliffe recognizes that they cannot accomplish everything by themselves. Through other agencies, information can be found that will help the cause of missions, especially since Wycliffe does more than Bible translation.

Many Wycliffe members are engaged in literacy work, such as teaching and curriculum development, community development, information technology support, and countless other types of ministries. When networking happens, the field is much better supported as the Body of Christ complements one another in seeing God’s purposes fulfilled.

As an outflow of such a ministry philosophy, Wycliffe and fourteen other mission agencies form the Fellowship of Missional Organizations of Singapore (FOMOS). Several mission education seminars were conducted in the past three years, largely for believers who want more in-depth understanding of mission issues.

One such event was in October 2010, when Wycliffe Singapore invited Mary Lederleitner whose book, Cross-Cultural Partnerships: Navigating the Complexities of Money and Mission (InterVarsity Press, 2010), has garnered high commendation for her insights into the complexities of financial matters in missions. Another fruit from the collaborative efforts of FOMOS members was the publication of a Singapore Missions Series, a series of booklets that address missions from a Singaporean perspective.

At the end of time, as in the vision of the Apostle John recorded in Revelation 7: 9-10, we will see

…a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

This is the day for which we all yearn, as we see people of all languages come together, saved and redeemed by God, to worship him. For Wycliffe members and supporters who have partnered in this mission endeavour, what a thrill it would be to know that God had worked through our meagre efforts to draw people to himself as he spoke to them in their mother tongue!

Endnotes

1. www.wycliffe.net. Linguistic research shows that there are 6,860 languages spoken around the world by 6.9 billion people. Of these spoken languages, the Bible is already available to 2,500 languages. What this means is that about 4.7 billion people have a Bible available in their first language, a further 542 million people have at least the New Testament but only portions of the Old Testament.

2. www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/keyind.html