Frequently Asked Questions
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Who Are We?
Wycliffe Associates, or WA, is a Christian organisation of volunteers who want to use their gifts and abilities at home to help mission work overseas. This is reflected in our mission statement:
Working here... Helping there!
Since its foundation in 1989, Wycliffe Associates (UK) has been doing just that. We began by serving Wycliffe Bible Translators, but our services have expanded to help other missions too. We now have well over 1,000 volunteers who work from home. They use all kinds of abilities and skills to help missionaries working abroad.
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What Do We Believe?
Wycliffe Associates (UK) is a member of Global Connections, a network of evangelical mission agencies in Britain. As such, we believe in the following:
- The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture (the Bible) as originally given, and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
- The unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead.
- The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the Fall, rendering man subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
- Redemption from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death (as our Representative and Substitute) of Jesus Christ the Incarnate Son of God.
- The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
- The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, granting him repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ.
- The indwelling and work of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
- The expectation of the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Who Funds Us?
WA is funded by the subscriptions of its members. It is an opportunity for ordinary Christians to use their time, talents and skills for God. If they can afford it, we ask members to make an annual membership donation of £20. This is used to cover office expenses such as stamps and telephone calls but not salaries. Apart from members' subscriptions, WA has no external sources of funding. All our efforts are entirely supported by members' contributions. We offer our work freely to missionaries. If missionaries ask us to purchase something for them, then we do expect them to pay for that item but our own services are free.
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Who Regulates Us?
Wycliffe Associates is a registered British Charity, number 1007772. All British Charities are regulated by the strict requirements of the British Government's Charities Commission. The Commission ensures that British charities use their funds as the donors have requested and that charities fulfil the requirements of their trust deeds. You can see our details on the Commission's website by clicking here.
A Board of Trustees administers the affairs of the Wycliffe Associates (UK) Charity. The Trustees do not receive any salary from WA, and are personally liable if the charity is not run properly. This means that the personal assets of the Trustees are at risk if they do not administer the charity prudently.
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Who Are We Linked With?
Wycliffe Associates is a sister organisation of Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) in the UK and associated with Wycliffe International. Their sites will give you more detail about the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators around the world.
There are also other "Wycliffe Associates" in other countries around the world, such as the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. WA organisations are also being formed in Singapore, South Africa and elsewhere. Each organisation has its own special activities and services.
Many of the services which WA (UK) offers are not available through other Wycliffe Associates organisations. Each one varies in how it is related to WBT and in the type of work it does. WA in the USA, for example, does a lot of mission construction work around the world, as well as much fund-raising.
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Who Do We Serve?
When we began, we only served Wycliffe Bible Translators. But the WA leaders gradually saw a wider vision. Other missions could also use the services we offer, and the members of WA were keen to help.
Although we still do most of our work for Wycliffe Bible Translators, we co-operate with many other mission organisations and Bible Societies, including WEC International, SOON, Operation Mobilization, the United Bible Societies and many other mission individuals and organisations. We are glad to serve each of these groups and we will be glad to serve missionaries from other organisations too.
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What Services Do We Offer?
For a full list of the services we offer, have a look at our Guide For Potential Volunteers by clicking on the link immediately below.
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How Can I Contact WA?
You can find our postal address, telephone number and email address on our Contacts Page. Feel free to get in touch with us about anything published on this site or simply if you're interested in joining us.
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How Can I Support WA?
If you would like to make a donation to the work of Wycliffe Associates, you may do so through our secure link with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) using a wide range of credit or debit cards. This can be anonymous but if you are a British tax payer, we are also able to reclaim the tax element of your donation when you provide your details.
Click here to make a secure donation.
Alternatively, if you have a CharityCard account with CAF, you may click here instead.
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Why Support The Translation Of The Bible Into Other Languages?
We believe that the Bible contains God's message to every person in the world, regardless of sex, age, religion, nationality or ethnic background. We also believe that every person should be able to read this message in his or her own language. We now support Christians working overseas in a wide range of activities but the translation of the Bible (and everything that is needed to prepare the ground for that) is still very much at the heart of what we do.
There are nearly 7,000 living languages in the world today that have been identified and catalogued. As things stand, the Bible (or parts of it) has been translated into about a third of these languages. If you are interested in finding out more, we recommend that you start with the Ethnologue. This site is maintained by SIL International, an organisation that works with people who speak the world’s lesser-known languages. The Ethnologue lists all the languages of the world (and their need for Bible translation).
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What Bible Translations Are Available?
People often ask us "Where can I find a Bible in a particular language?" For Bibles in many languages, you can try one of the following sites. We have not ordered anything from any of these organisations, so we cannot recommend them: we are merely providing the information for you.
This site has a listing of many Bible suppliers in different countries.
These are the people who publish the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. They are based in the United States and, although Bibles can be bought online and shipped overseas, they do not specify in advance what the shipping costs might be.
Again, this site is based in the US. It offers Bibles, Christian books and Bible study resources in many foreign languages but, although there is an on-line catalogue, you cannot order materials directly online.
This mission is based in the UK and supplied Bibles and other material in a wide range of languages. You can order materials directly online from them.
This site offers a search facility that lists a number of other internet sites which offer translations of the Bible in various languages.
The Bible Societies publish the Bible in many languages around the world. They have no online catalogue as yet but they do have a searchable database of all the languages in which they are aware that bibles exist. This catalogue can also be bought from them.
Ethnic Harvest is a nondenominational, evangelical, not-for-profit organization that works to help churches become more effective at cross-cultural ministry. The name and vision grew out of a network of ethnic churches in the Seattle area of the USA. They provide audio and print Bibles in more than 140 languages.
What Is HELP! Magazine?
HELP! Magazine is our in-house publication that keeps our own members up to date with what is happening around the world. It used to be available from this site but is now only provided on the members' area of the site. However, we also publish a regular broadsheet for anyone who is interested. It's called "Help International" and you can download a copy of the latest edition here.