Summary of Our Work

The Church .... Around the World!
Did you know there are now more Christians outside of North America and Europe than within? Christianity is spreading around the globe! To mature spiritually, these new churches need the Bible in their own language. In other regions of the world, there are still places that haven't really heard of Jesus. The Bible is needed there too. Clearly understood Scripture is foundational for evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development.

The vision of Wycliffe Bible Translators is for the Scriptures to be available in all the languages of the earth.There are about 100 million people speaking around 1,260 languages who have no Scripture in their language with no translation even started. There’s an additional 3,280 languages where translation needs to continue. (see www.wycliffe.net/resources/statistics/)

Alan's Work
Computers are great tools for Bible translators, but they were not originally designed to handle all the alphabets in the world. Many languages need extra letters that are missing from off-the-shelf programs. Sometimes the same letter is drawn differently in various parts of the world. There may be special marks which may form unexpected combinations with letters. [Sample letters removed but visible in PDF link below.]

Other alphabets are written backwards (right-to-left) or on a clothesline-like baseline. Some have to be written in cursive form - where letters have to be shaped and fitted together. Software is much better than it used to be at supporting these things, but the alphabets used by small groups who lack the Bible often have special needs because their spoken language is different. Alan works with a team that creates software and fonts to solve these problems.

Lynée's Role
Through prayer, training, and resources, Lynee’s team supports parents and teachers educating and caring for missionary kids overseas. This is vital for keeping missionary families on the field.

Revised Fall 2023
PDF (contains special letters not visible above, statistics have not been updated)