In 1917, a young man named William Cameron Townsend went to sell Spanish Bibles in Guatemala. But he was shocked when many of the indigenous people couldn’t understand much Spanish. Their language was Kaqchikel, a language without a Bible. One day, a man asked him, “If your God is so powerful, why doesn’t he speak my language?”

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Townsend believed everyone should have a Bible in his heart language so that he could understand God’s word, so he began to translate the Bible into Kaqchikel, completing the translation of the New Testament in 1931.

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His experience taught him that having the Bible in the heart language was imperative for indigenous peoples to understand its message and form viable indigenous churches. He also realised that illiteracy and social marginalization were major causes of minority peoples’ extreme poverty and powerlessness. For Townsend, saving souls was not enough. A true Christian response included lifting the downtrodden as well.

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In 1934, Townsend started a linguistics school, the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), to train people in linguistics and translation. In 1942, Townsend officially founded Wycliffe Bible Translators (Wycliffe).

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Wycliffe has continued with the important work of working for life transformation through understanding God’s word. In 2018, the Keliko of South Sudan celebrated the 1000th New Testament completed with SIL engagement.