WYnet, Wycliffe’s youth programme, has ended after many years of engaging teenagers across the UK in Bible translation. Through WYnet, young people have learnt about God and mission, and have supported and visited the Bassar translation project in Togo.

The Bassar translation project has been tremendously blessed by the commitment of these teenagers and will be launching the whole Bible in the near future!

So why shut down a programme that has been working so well?

Wycliffe is as passionate as ever about getting young people in the UK involved in God’s mission, but we want to do this in a way that will bless the church in the UK. We will be helping churches to get their young people involved in the projects that the whole church supports. We hope we will see strong churches, unified across age ranges, proclaiming Jesus to all nations.

To find out how more about this go to www.wycliffe.org.uk/youth or contact me at stephen_thomas@wycliffe.org

Goodbye and God Bless

Steve

PS. A massive thank you to all who have been involved in making WYnet a success over the years!

As part of my preparation for the future, I came to Wycliffe to do a week’s work experience, and to get a general idea of a workplace. I started on 2011-09-05, going in everyday from 9am until 5.30pm and then finishing on 2011-09-09. During the week, I got to visit several departments and see what their part is in the organisation, learn about bible translation work going on all around the world, and find out more about the 6,909 languages on this planet!

Everyone I met at Wycliffe was really welcoming and friendly (some of them were hilarious!), and made the week a great experience for me. I was given a timetable, and a booklet containing all the information that I needed to know, so that I had an idea of where I was going, and the people that I would meet. I also got a chance to talk to some of the international students who were doing a language course at the time, so that was interesting as well. All the departments I visited explained their role in the Wycliffe organisation, and I was occasionally given a chance to try a bit of their work. I have to say, my personal favourite (department) was the response centre. They all got on really well, and showed me that work can be fun! Sometimes.

There are many reasons as to why I chose Wycliffe as my work experience placement. The first reason is basically my love of languages, and translation. As I’ve found out more about Bible translation, it’s interesting to see the process – it takes so many years, good language skills, and lots of co-operation and effort to complete a transcript of a book from the Bible, the New Testament and the Bible itself. I found it fascinating! I first heard about Wycliffe through some people at my church, who actually work at Wycliffe, and over the past few years, I‘ve heard more about this organisation from my family and friends, and what they do.

So, I will now say thanks to everyone who had to put up with me that week, and I’m really happy that I enjoyed the week, as I was fairly nervous at first! My week at Wycliffe has been a really valuable experience, so thank you!   

Scarlett

 Today there was centre fellowship where we heard from a guy called Kenny who works with language recordings. He told us all about the different recordings that are available these days and the different languages that he has helped with on short term trips. It was good to listen to all the work that is going on alongside the Bible translations.

 Keep looking here for updates on the Togo team and prayer requests while we are out there. Please be praying for the team in the next week as they prepare to go and that the last few things that need to be sorted will be.

 Hope you all have a good month

Elita

The day was split into talks by different people sharing about their jobs and experiences with Wycliffe and what a Bible Translation project involves and the different aspects of that. Some of the most helpful part of the day was being able to have lunch with the other participants and speakers and have an informal chat about their work and hear some of their stories from their travels.

Overall it was a really enjoyable day learning more about all the different things that Wycliffe does and the impact they have on the local community through the Bible Translation itself and the literacy and language work that takes place alongside it. It will be great going to Togo this summer and be able to bring back some stories of my own!

God Bless

 - Timo”

“I think I first considered myself to be a Christian in the summer between Year 10 and Year 11 in 2008. I had been going along to the Christian Union at school (which I apparently said was “part Christian and part fun” at the time) and On Top, both of which Caleb had brought me along to, since about Year 7. I had been to church when I was very young so I think that definitely helped me be more open to the ideas of Christianity but I’m pretty sure Jesus would have brought me to him anyway somehow. I didn’t really understand what being a Christian meant until the first WYnet camp I went to in that summer of 2008 however. I don’t really remember what it was about that year or that camp but as far as I remember that was when I realised that Jesus died to save my sins.

1 Peter 3:21 says “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It is for this reason that I want to get baptised. I can really feel Jesus working in my life and also I want to show that I am ready to completely accept Jesus as my saviour. I’m getting baptised because I feel it is my next step in growing closer to Jesus and that is something that I am always trying to do.

At the moment in my life God is sending me to Togo in July. The decision to go there was something that just came to me. I’m not sure what changed my mind exactly but God did something that convinced me that it’s where I need to be going. Although I haven’t managed to raise all of the money to be able to go yet as I have school and exams I know that the Lord will provide for me and if He wants me to go then I’ll get there.”

May God bless you greatly Nick!

“I became a Christian in August last year. This was thanks to the love and support from Church and Momentum (a local youth event), and all my Christian friends and family.

It has changed my life for the better when I became a Christian. It’s changed how I interact to other people, my outlook on life is positively brighter, and I’ve been able to see God at work, even when the situation is really negative. I’m happier all the time knowing and feeling God’s love, and feeling all the change He has brought me.

I asked to be baptized after the Passion Conference at WYnet, the part of Wycliffe which encourages young people to mission work. When I got to the conference, which was held over the New Year, I encountered God in a way I hadn’t before. When I got home, I asked to be baptized.”

- Jenny

But, if everything goes to plan, on 1st July 6 of us will fly out to Togo, and meet up with Samuel (the main translator) and spend 3 weeks there doing our best to encourage those involved in the Bible translating and inspiring/challenging the local community that God loves them and wants to speak to them in their language.

I’ll keep you all up-to-date on how everythings going on this blog, but if you want more information about this trip and what we’re going to be doing you can find it all at www.wynetuk.org

God Bless

As usual we had New Year celebrations which involved yummy food, a game and worship. We played the game where you’re in groups and you have to send one or to people out to find a certain item(s) and the first one to bring it back gains the point. After this we watched the London celebration of the turn in of the New Year before going into an amazing time of worship.

So summary of Passion Conference – five days full of God, banter, laughs, dressing up in lovely clothes and spending time with awesome people. All this equals to an amazing and majorly fun time.

Elita

In WYnet we often say that Prayer is the most and least we can do for God, praying enables God to move into a situation. There are many Bible translation needs all over the world right now, Wycliffe is involved in around 1300 different language projects, but there’s still so much more to do.

Jesus taught us how to pray, “Lord, let your Kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Find time this week to pray for Bible translation, that we would see God’s Kingdom advance on the Earth.

Members of Wycliffe were invited to sit at, very oddly positioned, numbered tables, and have a nice little chat with someone they may not have known, perhaps a WYnetter, perhaps another Wycliffe member. Prompting these discussions were a mixture of light and personal questions that Stevo had written up! Drinks were provided by the lovely Elita and Chloe, and there were an abundance of bread sticks to keep us satisfied! Part way through this light jollity there was some worship kindly provided by Hannah, Helena, Timo and Sam, and short summary of what WYnet is, for the benefit of new people, by me.

After that the Cafe was closed, which just left us WYnetters, time for a bit of fun and games! Games ranged from the incredibly childish (but enjoyable) Duck Duck Goose, to the massively sophisticated Crab football, with some other games such as musical chairs chucked in!

All in all despite the rain a good time was had by all!

Caleb