We hope you endured any of the especially cold and snowy weather that may have happened where you are. After a record snowfall here in January, we’re glad February 1 is the halfway point between winter and spring. Lyneé and I often go to Dallas near the start of the year for my team meetings, but this year, we are going February 15-22 for her to attend an MK conference with her team. We are looking forward to the break from our routines in Nashville where we are still helping care for her mother. Please continue to pray for her mom and all of us as we grieve the passing of Lynée’s father.
My team is close to releasing a new version of the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek fonts I work on, which are used by hundreds of Bible translation projects around the world. This version extends the number of weights and styles from four to eight (e.g. adding medium and semibold). The extra four make the fonts more usable on the web and phones. We’ve also greatly enhanced the support for Greek (NT and modern) and improved the spacing between many combinations of letters (kerning). There are 29 additional letters.
The fonts can now handle more complex diacritics where a mark extends over two base letters with optional marks on either of the bases or on the bridging mark. This has been requested for languages in the Pacific for quite a few years. It’s amazing to realize we’ve been continuously developing these fonts for 23 years, modifying them for changing technologies and adding to them as new needs are found.
2025 Has Arrived!
This year is a major milestone for Bible translation. In 1999, Wycliffe adopted Vision 2025, which included a goal of starting Scripture translation in every language needing one by 2025. The statistics from January show work is in progress in 4,136 languages with a new translation starting every 15 hours. There are 844 languages left with no Scripture where there is a need. We may not start all of them by the end of 2025, but there has been enormous progress by Wycliffe and many partner agencies. Praise God for all that’s been acomplished by His grace, and please pray in the upcoming year for the remaining work. (Wycliffe’s annual report is available.)
We are so thankful for all who partner with us in this work through prayer, giving, and other means. Our pledged financial support is at about 79%, but as of January, our twelve-month average is at 100%, thanks to some large yearly gifts. Thank you!
