The Essence of Vision 2025 ■Wycliffe is currently involved in more than 1,400 translation, literacy and language-development programs, touching nearly 600 million people in over 90 countries.■But there are more than 2,200 languages, representing nearly 200 million people, that still need the Scriptures.■More than 2.4 million people die annually in these language communities without hearing or reading God’s Word.■At the historical pace of translation, it would take nine generations before the last remaining language community would have access to any Scripture—the year 2150.■If it took that long, over 350 million people might never know of God’s love. ■That is why Wycliffe and its family of organizations has made a commitment to accelerate the pace and rate of new language translations.■Eleven years ago, Wycliffe made a commitment to begin the last Bible translation program by the year 2025. That was adopted as our mission. Our commitment. That is the essence of what Wycliffe calls Vision 2025.■592 new Bible Translation programs have been started in the past eight years. Wycliffe is involved in 490 of these (83%). This is an increase never before experienced in the 2,000-year history of Bible translation. Just this has reduced the timeline for reaching remaining language communities by 112 years.■Think of it—112 years. But we must do better. ■Wycliffe now faces unprecedented resource needs (people, prayer and finances) to sustain our present translation commitments and continue to accelerate new language translation starts.■Expenses for all remaining language programs will exceed $1 billion. You will read about this in the pages that follow.Wycliffe Bible Translators and its affiliates are dedicated to focusing all of its resources, prayers and energy to raise gifts and pledges of $1 billion by 2018. That is our commitment.

Our History Wycliffe was founded in 1942 by William Cameron Townsend. A missionary to the Cakchiquel Indians of Guatemala, Townsend caught the vision for translation after Cakchiquel-speaking men expressed their concern and surprise that God did not speak their language.Townsend resolved that every man, woman and child should be able to read God’s Word in their own language. Borrowing the name of the Reformation hero, John Wycliffe, who first translated the Bible into English, Townsend founded "Camp Wycliffe" in 1934 as a linguistics training school. By 1942, "Camp Wycliffe" had grown into two affiliate organizations, Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).Today, SIL and Wycliffe Bible Translators work together to translate Scripture, train field personnel and promote interest in translation. More than 700 translations have been completed, and hundreds more are in the process. With God’s provision, Townsend’s vision will be realized. Estimates suggest that more than 2,200 still need a Bible translation program started. Some speakers of these languages are Christians, struggling to unlock the truths of the Bible in a language not their own. Others live without knowledge of Christ at all.Each day that passes, people all around the world die without God’s message of hope in their own heart language. Because of the urgency of this situation, Wycliffe has adopted Vision 2025—an initiative to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by 2025.Reaching the last languages with God’s Word requires an enormous amount of resources. In response to these needs, in November 2008 Wycliffe USA launched the Last Languages Campaign—a strategic commitment to raise our share of the resources needed to accomplish Vision 2025. More than $1 billion is needed to reach these last languages with God’s Word.

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