USA (MNN) — It's taken over a year to plan, but two workers with Wycliffe Bible Translators will be biking across the United States in support of Bible translation.
Ed Speyers had a vision to take his love for cycling across the country for Vision 2025. About the same time, Doug Haag had been praying for a way to take his exercise regimen to a new level. Imagine the response when Ed approached Doug at a Wycliffe event in early 2006 asking him if he would be interested in joining the cycling expedition.
"It was a crazy idea," Haag said later, "but I knew deep down I had to be a part of it."
After some brainstorming and a few phone calls, Haag and Speyers joined up with WHEEL POWER Christian Cyclists, a home missions organization based out of Lynchburg, Virginia. Haag says, "Basically their objective is evangelism. Bicycles just open the doors to share your faith with folks. To have that home mission element, along with world missions and Bible translation, for me, a missions project could not get closer to God's heart."
Vision 2025 is Wycliffe's desire to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by the year 2025.
That task will be impossible without awareness, recruiting and funding. Haag says the task is incredible. "Only six percent of the world's languages have the whole Bible. Only 2,000 of the world's languages, approximately, have the New Testament, a book, or at least a portion of Scripture. Whittle it all the way down to the bottom, and there are roughly 2,300 languages in the world, representing 200 million people who do not have a single verse of Scripture in their language."
So Haag and Speyers, along with five others, will set out September 19 to bike from Los Angeles, California to Lynchburg, Virginia.
The trip will also be a fundraiser for Bible translation. Haag says, "We're excited to be shooting for $135,000 goal to raise for a Bible translation project." The money will be used for a project that would make translated Scripture immediately accessible for two people groups in Guatemala. A $25,000 matching grant has been made available to help."
Doug and Ed will partner with Faith Comes by Hearing (FCBH), an organization dedicated to dramatize, record and distribute an audio version of every New Testament that Wycliffe completes. The professional-quality recordings will help break down the literacy barrier and allow the hearer immediate access to the life-changing power of God's Word.
As Haag and Speyers spread the word of Wycliffe across the country, they pray that God will mobilize His people to spread HIS Word around the world.
