As we head into week three of the “new normal,” as we're starting to call it, I thought it'd be good time to give you another update on things at Wycliffe Associates. Thank you for many of you who’ve contacted us by mail, by phone, by email, who've been asking how our team is doing, especially. I'm going to give you an update on that to start off.
Video Transcript:
As we head into week three of the “new normal,” as we're starting to call it, I thought it'd be good time to give you another update on things at Wycliffe Associates.
Thank you for many of you who’ve contacted us by mail, by phone, by email, who've been asking how our team is doing, especially. I'm going to give you an update on that to start off.
First of all, this week we found out we have two of our international staff members that have contracted the coronavirus. They’re in France recuperating at home. The last report we had was it wasn't severe but they were in recovery mode right now, and we praying for their health and their recovery. We still have 18 members who have not been able to get across closed borders to get back home. They were facilitating MAST workshops when the travel restrictions came into place.
We did hear an interesting story this week from two of them who are stranded in Namibia. They just completed a workshop, and they weren't able to get back across the border back to their home country, so they started trying to circle back with some of the groups that they had previously met with in prior months that had started Bible translations. They connected with three different groups of people and invited them to bring some translators all together for another follow-up workshop this past week. So 15 of them have been at a hotel that is empty because there's no clients traveling right now, and so they get a very cheap room rate. Each individual translator has their own room so they’re able to work during the day individually and stay separate for health reasons. When they get together in the evenings and late afternoon for group checking, they do it outside on the lawn, spread apart in their chairs so that there safely distanced from one another. So they're definitely redeeming the time, making progress on these three language groups that had started last December, working to finish their New Testament.
Also this past week a group of translators in Russia have been getting together online using what we called Virtual MAST (VMAST). Basically all the same tools that are available on the Tablets that we give to national translators are also available in an online software program so that people who have good internet connections can stay connected, can do all of the same collaboration and drafting and checking--same process can happen in virtual space that happens in physical space. So we're glad to see that moving forward.
And I know that some of our other teams in Africa and the Pacific are also looking at VMAST as an option for continuing to make progress during these days.
I just want to encourage you to pray for these translators, along with about 1,200 other languages that are in process right now that have already launched their translations and are pressing forward to completion. Just pray for them as they persevere despite these new challenges.
We appreciate your partnership in Bible translation. I want you to know that you are in our prayers as well and we pray God's blessings on you during these days. Thanks.
