Beginning of a Movement

Full Article: Article 2 – Beginning of a Movement

Introduction

As mentioned in the introductory article, Wycliffe Bible Translators started in 1942 as a resourcing organization for the Summer Institute of Linguistics (now called SIL International). While these two organizations had a common beginning, the last two decades have fundamentally redefined both organizations, but especially Wycliffe. Its character has been shaped by the changing dynamics of the global church.

The past seven decades of changes in church and mission agencies across the world include structural challenges for Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL.

The Beginning – 1914-1933

William Cameron Townsend, Wycliffe’s founder, was not the kind of person one might have imagined for such a task. As one of Townsend’s biographers, William Svelmoe observes, Townsend was “not the typical evangelical Bible institute graduate burning with a long and zealously nurtured passion for the lost heathen” (2008:1). Nevertheless, the agencies he birthed have outlived him by more than 30 years and show no signs of ending.

Townsend’s parents had moved to California from the East coast of the U.S. in 1893 in search of a better life and to find relief from poverty. Townsend was born three years later and was eventually joined by five siblings. His industrious father committed himself to raise his family as fundamentalist Christians (Svelmoe 2008:3).

In 1914, Townsend chose to attend Occidental College in greater Los Angeles. It had Presbyterian roots but made no claim to be a Bible institute. At the college Townsend attended Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) meetings that made him restless because he was fascinated by the students’ stories about their jaunts in overseas cross-cultural mission. This became the primary influence on Townsend’s desire to experience something of the world beyond California. This quest for something new stirred Townsend, now just 21 years old, to board a ship headed for Guatemala in September 1917.

The SVM, along with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), had played a major role in broadening Townsend’s horizons. While both groups were criticized by fundamentalist Christians as succumbing to post World War 1 liberal theological influences in the U.S., these two institutions did not seem to shape Townsend’s theology of mission.

Townsend himself admitted he was not a serious student of missions. He had read a pamphlet and the biography of David Livingstone, but that was about it (Svelmoe 2008:8). However, Townsend did believe he was obligated to go to Guatemala. He understood that he was obeying a calling from God and that was all that mattered. He felt so strongly about this that he suspended his undergraduate studies with only a year to finish.

Townsend felt led to serve with the Bible House, a publisher of Spanish-language Bible portions and gospel tracts. Upon arrival in Guatemala he became a colporteur (a person who sells or distributes books) and handed out tracts and Scripture portions in Spanish to anyone he met who would accept his gifts.

He was looked after by missionaries and administrators of the Central America Mission (CAM) – an arrangement negotiated by the Bible House. Young Townsend thought of these people as spiritual giants in his life.

Townsend had no formal cross-cultural missionary training and spoke only minimal Spanish that he learned in high school. His knowledge of the Bible was learned at church and from his parents. Svelmoe explains Townsend’s lack of training by today’s standards: “Years of college and seminary were not required to tell the simple gospel story to souls perceived as lost. Linguistic and anthropological training was therefore virtually nonexistent for prospective missionaries” (2009:630).

Francisco Diaz, a Cakchiquel about 35 years of age, who had recently given his life to Jesus, was paired with Townsend to help him sell Spanish Bibles and tracts. Diaz helped Townsend see that the needs of the indigenous Cakchiquel were very different to that of the Ladinos. This was an important insight for Townsend since his focus had been limited to Spanish language literature and Bibles.

Diaz, with Townsend’s help, soon started a school for Cakchiquel children. About this time Townsend met a fellow missionary named Elvira, and after marriage they settled at the school Townsend and Diaz had started. The friendship with Diaz came to an untimely end when Diaz died of malaria in 1920.

These first three years (1917-20) in Guatemala made Townsend realize the importance of the Cakchiquel language community and their unique identity. He discovered essential principles about communicating in their vernacular language. This and the influence of Diaz shaped his vision that every language group should have the Scriptures in their own language.

Townsend’s growing interest in the indigenous peoples and their native languages strained his relationship with CAM. The mission, at that time, was more interested in ministry to the Ladinos. But Townsend’s concern for the indigenous people would not go away.

In January 1921, Townsend and eleven other missionaries serving in Guatemala gathered for the General Indian Conference. They nicknamed themselves the ‘Chichicastenago Twelve’ after the town where they met. The focus of their conference was on the indigenous – the ethnic minorities of Guatemala and nearby countries – because they had received little attention from the mission agencies in the region (Steven 1995:40). The concerns of these agencies was more  aligned with long established agencies such as the British and Foreign Bible Society that focused on making the Bible available in major languages of the world.

Townsend and his like-minded Chichicastenago Twelve felt the pressing need to help the Indians find Christ through their own language and culture rather than having to do so through the Spanish language and Ladino culture. This concern became the seed for Townsend’s burden and vision to help minority language groups.

Meanwhile Townsend and Elvira proceeded with translating the New Testament into Cakchiquel. It was dedicated on 10 October 1929 at the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana, California. The momentous work came with great misunderstanding because Ladino missionaries amongst the Cakchiquel preferred to use Spanish and seemed threatened by the fact that the Cakchiquel people now had the Scriptures in their own language (Steven 1995:199).

After 15 years serving in Guatemala Townsend returned to the U.S. unsure about what he would do next. He felt a burden to help other indigenous communities in Central America. At the urging of his friend L.L. Legters, the two attempted to cross the border of Texas into Mexico to explore potential work there. However, the border officials put a stop to their entry stating that Protestant missionaries were not welcome in Mexico.

Attempts at a New Strategy – 1934-1941

Being refused entry into Mexico was a turning point that caused Townsend (the visionary) and Legters (the implementer) to found Camp Wycliffe in the summer of 1934. The purpose of the seven week camp was to train ‘pioneer’ missionaries with a particular focus on linguistics and Bible translation. The camp was held at an unfurnished rural farm house near Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. This simple environment helped the students learn basic survival skills that Townsend thought would be similar to what they would experience in the remote jungle areas where he wanted to send them (Stevens 1999:1). Three students sat under the instruction of Townsend, assisted by Cakchiquel speaker José Chicol. They used linguistic theory formulated from Townsend’s experience with the Cakchiquel language.

This was not a good time to try to start something new as it was the era of the Great Depression in the U.S. But this did not deter the faith of Townsend or Legters. In fact it was a pattern that Townsend became known for – trusting God for the impossible. It is worth noting that this theological foundation continues as a core value of the Wycliffe Global Alliance, stated as: “We depend on God and his sufficiency to equip and sustain for life and mission” (WBTI 2008:13).

Townsend returned to Arkansas in 1935 to hold the second Camp Wycliffe. This time there were five students and the subjects increased to include phonetics (the discovery, study and writing of previously unwritten and studying unknown sounds in a language).

As soon as the course was finished, Townsend, Elvira and several of the students put into practice what they had learned at Camp Wycliffe by going to an Aztec village near Mexico City. Within a short time Townsend’s work attracted the interest and support of key Mexican government officials. This too became characteristic of his mode of operating – building good relationships with leaders at all levels of a host government.

Townsend’s relationship with CAM had been deteriorating for many years due to its focus on Ladino ministry and because Townsend’s priority for Indian evangelism included Bible translation. It was only a matter of time before it would become an unworkable relationship. Not wanting to set up his own agency, Townsend found a new partner for his vision – the Pioneer Mission Agency (PMA) of Philadelphia, a small mission willing to provide U.S. sponsorship for his work.

Wycliffe Bible Translators is Born – 1942-1944

After the first Camp Wycliffe, Legters remained in the U.S. to raise funds and promote Townsend’s work in Mexico. Eventually, as more people took the training and went to Mexico, PMA decided they could no longer provide sponsorship for these two men.

In response to the PMA decision, Townsend formed two distinct organizations. The first was the Summer Institute of Linguistics in 1934. Initially, it provided the strategy and structure needed to place newly trained linguist-Bible translators in Mexico (and later other countries in South America, followed by Asia, the Pacific and Africa). The name was based on what the Camp Wycliffe courses became – an institute for linguistic training held in the summer months. The same organization also conducted the field work.

It took another eight years before there was any formal organization in the U.S. that did the fundraising and recruitment of personnel for SIL.

In 1942 Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. was formed with its headquarters in the small garage apartment in Southern California belonging to Townsend’s friend, Bill Nyman. Nyman was a businessman and served as a volunteer for Wycliffe. The funds that came into this little office were sent directly to the SIL field locations, although the Wycliffe office took five percent of the funds to pay for a secretary’s salary and office supplies.

William G. Nyman and Etta Nyman at their home in Glendale, California. Bill Nyman was Secretary-Treasurer of Wycliffe and SIL from 1943-1960.