As we head into the last week of May, a lot has happened in the last week. In last week's update I gave you the news that we were beginning to hear some concerns that were surfacing amount our international translation partners around the world regarding the economic impact to their teams into their families and communities. This week we have a lot more specifics and as the details come together it really becomes stressful and difficult to figure out how to most appropriately respond...
Video Transcript:
As we head into the last week of May, a lot has happened in the last week. In last week's update I gave you the news that we were beginning to hear some concerns that were surfacing amount our international translation partners around the world regarding the economic impact to their teams into their families and communities. This week we have a lot more specifics and as the details come together it really becomes stressful and difficult to figure out how to most appropriately respond.
So far we've heard back from 21 countries, which sounds like a lot, but it's still only about 20% of the countries that were working in, so only a small fraction of the partners that were working with around the world have been able to respond so far. But we can expect that the results and the issues in these other countries are going to be very similar to the ones we've already heard from.
Many of the translation teams are struggling to provide for their families.
In one specific case in India we heard of two translators who literally are being described as starving to death. One of our partner organizations in Africa has described that they've not been able to pay salaries to any of their staff for three months now. Churches in the area aren't able to help because they are facing similar financial difficulties. The government is not responding at all. And they just say there's no room for exaggeration in describing how bad things have become already in just such a short period of time.
One of the other things for the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, they're also dealing with an upsurge in terrorist activities right now. The terrorists seem to be using this particular season as an opportunity to advance their causes as well while people are preoccupied with things like survival. And so, again, also with the transportation shutdowns, we've heard stories of people having to walk hundreds of miles to try to get back home from where they were stranded when the transportation shutdowns happened. So, serious physical hardships, shortages of food, price inflation, all of those things combining together to make a really increasingly desperate situation for many of our partners around the world.
Last year we had over 7,000 translators and volunteers working worldwide as a part of Bible translation connected to our work. Most of these people are local Christians working in their own communities working in their own languages and really just serving sacrificially already just to get God's word to their people. Now they're facing shortages of rice, corn, cooking oil, flour, soap, you know just basic staples for survival. It's just a heartbreaking situation to continue to hear their reports.
Wycliffe Associates has already been able to respond because of our Emergency Fund and we are in the process of putting out a communication to let people know that this is a growing need. And so we pray that God will lead people to respond.
Jan and I are responding as well. It’s just a situation where we can't stand by and watch things happen. We have to be a part of the solution at this point. So as you hear more communications from us on the subject, as you see things in the news in the coming weeks, realize that this economic shutdown is seriously impacting real people and and their families and their communities. And so any way that God leads you to respond, we appreciate that. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers and in your stewardship. God bless .
