Worthy Christian News > Christian > Wycliffe Associates Receives a Boost from Volunteers in Orlando and Elsewhere As Organization Looks to Accelerate Bible Translation Efforts Worldwide

Wycliffe Associates Receives a Boost from Volunteers in Orlando and Elsewhere As Organization Looks to Accelerate Bible Translation Efforts Worldwide

Orlando, Florida, USA (Worthy News) – Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, welcomes short- and long-term volunteers at its Florida-based headquarters and even offers an on-site RV park to accommodate long-term volunteers. Some volunteers spend between two and four months during the winter months.

“The depth of wisdom and experience the volunteers bring to our team cannot be overstated,” says Tabitha Price, Vice President of Translation Services at Wycliffe Associates. “Their servant’s heart and flexibility mean they are perfectly suited to short-term and short-notice opportunities. However, we also greatly benefit from long-term volunteers, many of whom come from other countries and serve as one extension of our ministry in their own region.”

Volunteers enable staff members to focus their attention on key responsibilities and free up financial resources. Even Wycliffe Associates President and CEO Simon Ung is a volunteer; he does not draw a salary.

Shirley Nutting has served as a volunteer for six years in the SUN (Symbolic Universal Notation) department, where she donates her expertise and efforts for 32 hours every week at the Orlando headquarters. After her husband passed away, she sold her home in Washington and left a career in finance and accounting to move to Orlando and volunteer with Wycliffe Associates.

Since then, she has created a comprehensive dictionary for SUN, which includes 100 basic symbols that result in more than 3,000 words and names. She also has converted SUN’s hand-drawn flash cards into digital form and has learned a new language.

SUN is a universal, written, concept-based language developed in 2019 by then-volunteer Emily Wang. After researching how to print Braille Bibles, Wang, inspired by the symbols of Mandarin, began developing universal symbols that could be easily recognized and understood.

“I feel that I have been blessed by being part of the SUN team,” Nutting says. “I love the part of being immersed in God’s Word in order to bring Scripture to the Deaf—of whom many have never had Scripture. I love seeing people come to know Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord through the SUN program.”

As John Piper wrote in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, “Whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts.”

Wycliffe Associates has both short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities available, including volunteer-from-home roles. A list of opportunities is available at wycliffeassociates.org/volunteer/.

About Wycliffe Associates

One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates, was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.

Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently accelerating Bible translations throughout the world. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org.