Day 3 and 4 where great! The whole conference inspired me anew. It is SO important for us all to proclaim the Good News of Jesus – and to proclaim it in a way that communicates clearly to the person who is listening.

Another keynote speaker was Dr. Philip Jenkins – a church historian. Dr. Jenkins was able to show how important God’s Word in the language of the common person is to the growth and stability of the church. Without God’s Word, the church will not survive.

If you are investing your life in Bible translation, you are doing a Good Thing.

Mark Taylor, President of Tyndale House Publishing and son of Ken Taylor of the Living Bible, spoke today. He also strongly encouraged us to continue to give God’s Word in the language that speaks to the heart. He talked about the millions of lives that have been transformed through the Living Bible, and later through the New Living Translation. Tyndale has also given millions of dollars to the work of Wycliffe. That demonstrates his committment to reaching the minority groups of the world with God’s Word.

Dr Philip Jenkins, one of the leading church historians in the world today, spoke as well. He also spoke of the importance of translation in the life of churches throughout the ages.

In some ways, it felt like patting ourselves on the back. Yet these men, leaders from various sectors of the church today, are not insiders. Rather they are critical thinkers who want to encourage us to get the Good News out into the hands of the lost and those whom God is calling to himself.

Today we ended with the somewhat uncomfortable topic of fund raising. An outside consultant was urging us to speak up for the Bible-less peoples of the world. He said that if we don’t speak up and tell people of the opportunity to accept God’s invitation to participate in his Kingdom advance, no-one else will. That is true.

Today starts Wycliffe USA’s triennial delegate conference. Missionaries from around the world are gathered to reflect on what God has done and what He is doing.

The devotional speaker this morning was Loren Cunningham, the leader of Youth With A Mission (WYAM). Loren spoke on I Timothy 4 “…it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.” The Word of God and Prayer – overcomes the effects of the curse.

God’s Word is powerful to change, even establish, nations. God’s Word transforms not only the individual, but the corporate.

Loren spoke of Norway – a country that was transformed from 90% illiteracy to almost 100% literacy, from oppression to freedom, from poverty to one of the highest per capita income countries in the world. Loren attributes this to Hans …, who traveled years in Norway (and many years in prison) preaching God’s Word, stressing the importance of God’s Word for every day life, laying a foundation for Norway. Many of those people became leaders in Norway. Now Norway sends the most missionaries per capita of any country. This (lifting the Bible) is God’s Word, and it is for every area of life. It is not just to get you to heaven.

After Loren, the president of Wycliffe, Bob Creson spoke. He talked about many things, but one story he related was from a friend of Wycliffe. This person was interested in Wycliffe and supported Bible translation. But one day, while attending the dedication of a major portion of Scripture then published for the first time ever for a particular minority group said something like, “When I saw how the people wept when they received the Word of God, I made a commitment to read the Word of God every day.”