South Asia (MNN) — Wycliffe
Associates is launching an eight-language outreach in South Asia through
"Project Storyteller." Wycliffe Associates President/CEO Bruce Smith says, "Telling stories is
the culturally appropriate way to communicate wisdom and truth in these
areas."
The project's aim is to put God's Word into the
hands of people crying out for the Scriptures in an area hostile to the Gospel.
The team is choosing Bible stories that communicate the fundamental concept of
redemption, "like the story of Creation, the story of Noah, the story of Joseph, parables from the New Testament, and of course
the story of Christ and His work on earth as well. The idea, again, is to get the truth of Scripture
in as quickly as possible," explains Smith.
These are stories that can be most
quickly translated, most easily read, most easily shared, most easily
remembered, and most easily repeated.
Sharing the Gospel through oral
tradition can have a strong impact and is less likely to subject the
storyteller to persecution. Smith adds: it won't stop there. "The project overall is going to be a
couple of years in length from start to finish, and we're trusting it will
transition then into strict Scripture translation, as well."
This is a "cluster project," a
technique that brings translators and trainees together to work on
multiple related languages simultaneously. Bible translators have found that
this approach dramatically increases the speed and effectiveness of the
translation process. This particular project will deliver God's Word in the
heart language of eight indigenous groups with a combined population of more
than 64 million people.
During 2008, some 4,124
Wycliffe Associates volunteers served in 49 countries as part of the worldwide
Bible translation team. Wycliffe Associates plans to mobilize more than 4,800
volunteers to serve in 41 different countries this year to build and renovate
facilities, construct roads and airstrips, teach Vacation Bible School, help
with language development and office work, oversee projects, use their computer
skills, and much more. You can help. Click here.
