Wycliffe Bible Translators does more than just translate the Bible. Through our work in the areas of Bible translation, literacy and Bible use, we see God opening minds to understand Scripture and see lives transformed by God’s love and word expressed in languages and cultures all over the world.
This post is the fourth in our Bible Translation 101 series, giving you a window into our world to learn more about our main focuses: Bible translation, literacy and Bible use.
You might think Bible use, also known as Scripture engagement, is a focus area for after the full Bible has been printed – in fact Scripture engagement is necessary before anything is translated and throughout the whole process!
So what is Scripture engagement? It’s more than telling people to read their Bibles! Scripture engagement is:
- building relationships with people in the community
- promoting local ownership of a Bible translation project
- deciding what format to produce and distribute Scripture in (whether a book, videos, recordings, etc)
- teaching and modelling how to engage with the Bible and put it into practice in our daily lives (this may include teaching about how to meditate on God’s word, how to lead a Bible study, how to use listening devices to listen to audio recordings of Scripture, etc
- identifying needs for, developing and distributing materials that will help people engage with the Bible
- working with local musicians, actors, storytellers and artists to create ethnically authentic worship songs and Scripture presentations (EthnoArts)