Thoughts of a Wycliffe Bible Translator on “Vision”
By Mike Miller
Mike and his wife Heather are a missionary Wycliffe Bible Translator team in Huaraz, Peru. To see more about their work and family and how to contribute to their ministry, go towww.mike-heath.com.

When I think of the word “vision” in its Christian context my mind quickly thinks of the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, the organization for which I work. Cameron Townsend was a man who pursued his vision to make God’s word available to the minority languages of the world. When he was a young man in Guatemala during World War I and selling Spanish Bibles, he was challenged by a native Cachiquel speaker, “If your God is so great, why doesn’t he speak my language?”

To the visionless, the words might have disappeared into the black hole of excuses that are easy to find in the face of formidable obstacles. But to Uncle Cam they became that glorious challenge that drove him to seek to do the unthinkable for love’s sake. As a result 89 years later, Wycliffe Bible Translator is working in 1,376 languages translating the Scriptures. It is marvelous to think that the vision of one man could have started something so big.

It has been inspiring to me to think of Uncle Cam’s vision. Especially in the times when I have felt overwhelmed by the challenges of translating the Word for the Quechua people with whom I have lived and worked over the past 20+ years.

I remember when I was a young missionary candidate thinking about the daunting task of raising our own support to come to Peru to begin our work as missionaries. I wasn’t a great public speaker and didn’t have a lot of stories to tell like a veteran missionary, nor did I have a lot of contacts. I only had a heart that was willing to go and a faith that believed that God could help us raise the support that we needed. But inside, I was overwhelmed with questions of how He would do it and through whom.

Today as I look back, I am amazed and have greater faith in God because we made it to Peru. Somehow the people and churches came through, and the finances were there for us that made it possible for us to come. God made his greatness and power known to us in the face of our weakness, like what God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”(II Corinthians 12:9)

In those first years of living with the Quechua people, I remember praying and thinking “God, how in the world will you reach the 350,000 Quechua speakers that we are translating for? Even if we finish the translation how will it ever get out to the villages that dot the gigantic mountains of the Andes where this people live? God, can you raise up Quechua men who will have a heart and a voice for taking this message once we translate it? Questions, not unlike the question of the Cacchiquel man who challenged Uncle Cam… “If your God is so great…”

If love is the thread that binds us together as Christians, faithfulness must be the bricks or mortar that God uses to allow us to see our visions come to pass. Uncle Cam didn’t give up and God eventually used him to help translate the New Testament for the Cacchiquel Indians in Guatemala. We stuck to our work and God eventually provided three wonderful Quechua men to help take the translated word to their people in person, via radio, music and even film. And I can say now that God has truly raised up those men I prayed for years ago to take the translated Word to their people! Hallelujah!

So, immense challenges in our lives can create great vision if we will walk hand in hand with our loving God. Step by step our faithfulness coupled with his grace will bring the fulfillment of those visions. God truly is able to do marvelous things with the weak, so hang in there my dear brothers and sisters!

<<Return to Archive

View for Printing
Contributors
Staff
Advertising
Internships