Alliance in Bible Translation

00:00
John Chesnut
It takes multiple ways of working. It takes multiple models. God is working in multiple ways globally. And so how do we embrace multiple ways of working and carrying out the work on the field and yet still be highly committed to this is God’s Word. 

00:25
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the Essentially Translatable Podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. I’m Rich Rudowske. 

00:30
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. And today we have the opportunity to interview president and CEO of Wycliffe Bible Translators, John Chesnut. And it is amazing how our partnership with Wycliffe Bible Translators USA has existed over the years. They’re celebrating their 80th anniversary this year, and we’ve been partnered with them since our beginnings in 1964. Our earliest missionaries, when they went out into the field, they were partnered with Wycliffe Bible Translators programs. And you’ll hear in the course of the interview how we are still partnered together in the Bible translation movement. 

01:10
Rich Rudowske
And one of our key partnerships finds its expression in the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance, which we’ll talk about also. So we hope you enjoy this interview with John Chesnut. We are glad to welcome today to the podcast John Chesnut, the president and CEO of Wycliffe USA. Thanks for being with us today. 

01:31
Emily Wilson
Welcome to the podcast. 

01:32
John Chesnut
Thank you for having me. I’ve been looking forward to our time together. 

01:35
Rich Rudowske
All right, we’re going to launch in and have our listeners just get to know you a little bit better. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved in the Bible translation movement where you served. 

01:44
John Chesnut
Yeah, so my wife and I, Kelly, just a little bit about our family. We were in the pastorate for several years and then joined Wycliffe in 2001. We have a large family, seven children to stop and count here again, but three by birth, four by adoption. So adoption is very much part of our journey as well, too. And actually, the way that we got into Bible translation, it was a little bit almost backing into Bible translation. Our early years of ministry was focused upon church planting, and that was really our heart, was church planting. And so people may ask, so how did you get into Bible translation? Did you get in the wrong line at a job fair or what happened there? Actually, what happened is that our church adopted a unreached people group in Asia. 

02:30
John Chesnut
And as we began to engage, it was a very sensitive part of Asia, as we began to engage, understand the community and such there. What we found is that there were multiple ministries that were attempting to reach this unreached people group. But the barrier was that there was no scripture in a language that this community could understand. And so it really came down to these other ministries were really stymy. They weren’t able to move forward. And so, because of my heart, really, for church planting and wanting to see churches planted among all the communities that yet that don’t have it, we got into Bible translation because we felt that was so critical in order to see churches planted, evangelism, discipleship to take place, that you have to have scripture in a language informed that the people understand. 

03:23
Emily Wilson
So what role did you serve in? Because now you’re president and CEO of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. How did your journey with the organization start out? 

03:35
John Chesnut
So, yeah, we ended up stepping away from the church in the US that we had co-planted, actually, and in 2002, went to the Philippines. We served in the Philippines for nine years, and originally, part of, really, our initial calling, what we thought we’d be doing in the Philippines was the Philippines, as a country had been on the receiving ends for missions, literally for decades, and now what God was doing was the Philippines was becoming a sending country. And so what we wanted to do is to say, okay, so how do we work with the church in the Philippines, really, to see more translators and others sent out from the Philippines into Asia and beyond? And so, because of being a pastor, that connection of being a pastor, then connecting with other pastors there in country, was really important. 

04:30
John Chesnut
And so that was kind of our initial linkages there that then led to, as often happens on the field, other needs that I picked up worked with HR as kind of leading our human resources area, and then for the last almost five years, they’re moved into the role of field director, and so finished our term there, really, in the role of the country, serving as the country field director for all of our work in the Philippines there. 

04:56
Emily Wilson
So overarching, really a networker of people and making sure that the systems are communicating to one. Awesome. 

05:05
John Chesnut
That’s right. That’s right. 

05:07
Emily Wilson
And it is a very large organization. Can you share a little bit about Wycliffe Bible translators for those who maybe don’t know, what’s the origin and what’s the scope of the organization? 

05:20
John Chesnut
So, yes, Wycliffe USA just celebrated our 80th year, so I think we’re in our 81st year, technically now. But really, the reason for the start of Wycliffe 80 plus years ago was that our primary partner organization, SIL, historically, they were started first, and they were really the field side. That’s where the work was taking place globally and such. And obviously, back in the day, where communication took a little while longer, to get across oceans and such. But Wycliffe was really formed in order to engage with churches here in the US and to be really the sending kind of arm of the greater partnership with SIL and engaging basically the recruitment, sending financial resources and such moving forward. 

06:11
John Chesnut
So it really started with that focus of we would be kind of the home organization, and then the field organization was on the other around the globe, literally. Today that has now expanded to our work as SIL continues to be our largest partner, particularly in sending people towards. But now we have over 30 organizations that we actually second people to or send people to work in and around the world today. So it really has continued to grow and expand. 

06:43
Emily Wilson
That’s amazing. The origins are all Bible translation, and I know that really it’s been the partnerships. How is it that you actually build those partnerships, and where is the emphasis and the real scope of Wycliffe Bible translators? 

07:01
John Chesnut
So, yeah, you’re right. Our focus has always been around Bible translation and then other supporting activities that help to see scripture really get into the hearts and minds of people. We want to see transform lives. And over our first really 60 plus years, seven years, that focus really was upon sending out missionaries, that they were really often the gospel presence. And many times the very first gospel presence in any of these communities, the global church, was much smaller than what it is today. That really was kind of the way that we worked, and we still work that way some more and more. What we’re seeing is that we’re actually engaging with what we call local expressions of the church. 

07:50
John Chesnut
That’s just kind of a fancy name to say believers in various regions of the world that are also focused upon a particular community and seeing them reach. Sometimes those are people that are actually from within a community. Individual believers, sometimes established churches, denominations and such. If they have been around longer, other times they are people that would be ministries, churches, and things that would be looking to engage with the community that would be completely unreached, where there’s no form or known believer Gospel presence in these communities. And so really what we’re working towards more and more today is partnering with those different expressions. They take all shapes and forms, literally today, to see the work carried out more and more. And so I think specifically right now, we’re up over 1000 partners that we’re working with globally today. 

08:48
John Chesnut
Now, before you get kind of OD by that, sometimes a partner literally can be one or two people that are in an area that are really focused on. So these aren’t big groups, they’re really all shapes and sizes of the global church that we really have the privilege to partner with, to see these communities have God’s Word in the languages and forms that serve them. 

09:08
Rich Rudowske
So we’re going to talk about the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance a little bit here. But I actually wanted to take a step back from that. And I’m remembering 2003 was my first contact with Bible translation, and I was talking with Lutheran Bible Translators as a seminary student. And already then they were talking about Vision 2025, which comes out of the Wycliffe SIL environment. So let’s talk a little bit about Vision 2025, what that is when it started and how that kind of maybe leads into the, or at least has a part in the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance. 

09:40
John Chesnut
Yeah. So Vision 2025 began to, I think that it goes back many years, but really towards the late ’90s, ’98-’99, we began to look at the current work the best that we could see, and looking particularly among the smaller languages around the world, which is historically where Wycliffe has focused. Wycliffe and partners have focused. And as we began to look at the current pace of translations that were starting at that time, collectively, the best of our knowledge of all agencies kind of working together was about 25 a year. And as we kind of played that out and looked at the known number of languages that were aware of at that point in time, it looked like even before some of these would even be started, would be 150 years at the current pace. 

10:28
John Chesnut
And we just said, “I don’t think that’s acceptable to God.” It certainly is not acceptable to us. We just didn’t feel that’s what the Lord wanted to see happen. And so began to really ask the Lord, are there ways that we can work differently and look different, engage differently than what we’re doing right now? That was really kind of the DNA of Vision 2025. And so really before the Lord knowing that this is way beyond anything we could do, that we began asking the Lord that by the year 2025 that our prayer is that we could see these remaining languages at least started. So Vision 2025 was really about starting. And so we have seen that pace now go. The overall number has gone way down. The challenging part is that we’ve also learned of new languages that weren’t on our list back then. 

11:22
John Chesnut
And so it’s a little bit of growing one side and you keep after it. But today we are hovering just around just below 1400 languages. Still to go back in that day known was about 3000 languages. But there’s been a whole lot more coverage other than just those 1500, because like I said, the list grew from what we knew back in 99, 2000 time. 

11:47
Rich Rudowske
Right. Yeah. And that’s part of the catalytic nature of a goal like that, is that you begin to work and look differently and approach things differently. Right. And then that does yield maybe a faster pace of stars, but also yields discovery of things that you might not have discovered or might have taken hundreds of years to find out. Right. 

12:05
John Chesnut
That really is true, and I would say almost embarrassingly so. One of those big discoveries is largely overlooking the deaf communities of the world. And we knew that sign languages, they were a real thing, but it wasn’t really a focus as much as it could have been, should have been, I think at that time. And then really kind of in the mid 2010s, we see a new kind of rising up of understanding of global sign languages. And from what we had on our list, at least in the 2000, mid 2000s there, we added some 245 plus sign languages that they were not on that list. And so that was just one area that, unfortunately, was almost overlooked by the Bible translation world up until that time. 

12:56
John Chesnut
Certainly wasn’t overlooked by the deaf communities, but it certainly was by many of the hearing communities around Bible translation. 

13:04
Rich Rudowske
So then when you go back about ten years ago, a little more than ten years ago, now, you have the genesis of what has become the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance. So maybe we’ll talk a little bit about what the alliance is, what its purpose and goals are, and who all is involved in that. 

13:20
John Chesnut
Yes. So the vision for this alliance really was, I think God placed it on the heart of our friend Mark Green. Actually, back in the late 90s, he was at a Bible translation dedication in Guatemala, and the Lord began to really work on his heart about as he experienced this community that they had been involved with in helping to fund the printing of this scripture in Guatemala, the Lord began to really deal with in his heart about what would it look like to bring multiple agencies together, rather than having a bunch of agencies that were just out there working independently, working hard, but what would it look like to come together? And might we be able to do more together than what we could do as a grouping of individual agencies? 

14:10
John Chesnut
And so that was really where God, I think, began to place that vision on his heart. It wasn’t until 2010 that there was the first gathering of some of these agencies, and I think at the time there was around four that started together and began to think and pray and dream together. That today has moved to where we have eleven agencies that sit around this one table anyway, there’s other things that happen outside of that, but that was really kind of how it got started and that’s now how we are operating today is eleven plus agencies and moving forward. And so for me, this has been one of the most exciting things I’ve been able to have the opportunity really to participate in my years of ministry. 

14:52
Emily Wilson
So the collaboration between these eleven organizations is really unique. And before we go into that broader scope, let’s take a look at also the partnership that’s existed since Lutheran Bible translators beginning in 1964 between Wycliffe and Lutheran Bible Translators. Can you share an example of how we not only come together and discuss Bible translation and increasing our innovation and partnerships around the world, but also how we just in general sharpen one another? 

15:30
John Chesnut
Yeah. First of all, say just my appreciation for Lutheran Bible Translators and the ability to partner together. One of the things I appreciate is many things, but one of them is just a like-mindedness of heart that we collectively have, a heart from the nations, and how can we collectively, along with other partners, work together to see that great picture that Revelation points towards that will happen someday of people from every tongue, tribe and nation that will be gathered around the throne. And LBT is a key partner in that. 

16:06
John Chesnut
I’ve appreciated the fact that as we have looked in various organizations, working together in countries where we share staffing, where we share even collaborating on projects and such, and working together literally around the world, and as were talking, know, before we started even looking ahead to new opportunities where we’re on the front end of looking at ways, particularly, say in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and others, that we’re really at the beginning stages of some new things that God is doing in that region of the world as well as other places around the world, but then looking at new ways to partner, and so with the local expressions of the church there, and so again, shared mind and heart areas where we’ve actually shared staffing and resources together on the ground, and then looking ahead of ways that we can continue to partner in working together again, that we can do more together than what we’re able to do as individual standalone organizations. 

17:08
John Chesnut
And so I’m really grateful for LBT. 

17:11
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, and I’ll jump in there too, from we, historically, over the decades, Lutheran Bible Translators personnel and partners have benefited from training and methodology development from the Wycliffe SIL world. I,myself, am a product of that as well, and so definitely have appreciated that ongoing partnership and that support. And then I just want to also say that in a meeting that John and I were at steering committee meeting in January, one of the goals that John said that Wycliffe had for this year to contribute and point toward the All Access goals of the alliance, which we’ll get to here, was that Wycliffe would use its formidable footprint and experience to support other movements and to give assistance to and to help where that would be necessary. And that’s what we have found to be true. 

18:02
Rich Rudowske
And again, you mentioned Papua New Guinea, as we’re having some of those conversations that the personnel involved in PNG have said, yeah, we have resources and influence and things here, but where it makes sense for Lutheran Bible Translators to be more of a leading partner with the partners on the ground, we want to behind you and support you, and that’s much appreciated. I think in the alliance, Wycliffe USA is one of the largest organizations, if not the largest, in the alliance. I don’t know how we count things like that, but I know we’re one of the smallest. And just the way we sharpen each other that way, as a small organization, we can think strategy and talk to the local expression very easily and share some of that learning for bigger organizations. 

18:45
Rich Rudowske
And we can benefit from these partnerships with bigger organizations that have resources and influence and connections. So it’s been really a rewarding partnership. 

18:54
Emily Wilson
That’s awesome, being able to see that micro level of how we are working together. So looking at the macro level and the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance, so if we can talk about 2033 and the vision and that goal, but also what makes this kind of collaboration unique in mission and ministry? I mean, the years that I’ve been working in Lutheran Bible Translators, I’m not hearing that kind of level of partnership between organizations all coming together. So let’s talk a little bit about illumiNations. 

19:31
John Chesnut
For me, as I mentioned earlier, illumiNations and this alliance has really been one of the most exciting things I’ve had the opportunity to participate in, really, certainly in the Bible translation space, but really in all areas of ministry, I would just say, and I really believe that what we’re seeing before eyes is God doing something unique, maybe unique in this space anyway, but I would say growing. I think we’re seeing a movement of God where around the world, that he is bringing together partners that historically have not partnered together well, at times even been at odds with one another. And it’s bringing together literally partners of all shapes and sizes, denominational blends and such. And I really see that this is one of the movements of God that we are seeing around the world today as never before. 

20:29
John Chesnut
I think maybe in the history of the world, the e ten, we call it a collective impact alliance. And you can google that. There’s some papers out there about how that all kind of works together. But in essence, it really is how can we work together through synergy to do more together than what any of us could do or a combination of us could do individually. And in this particular case, we really have kind of two main domains that we’ve been partnering together, and both of them, at times, from a human perspective, can feel kind of risky. One is on the field side, looking at ways that we can partner better together globally, around tools, strategy, those types of things. 

21:08
John Chesnut
And that’s probably a little bit more digestible for some, but when you begin looking at raising funds together, that’s like, oh, wait a minute, now we’re actually sharing relationships, sharing in some way the purse strings and some of that. And I think our default setting as humans sometimes is a scarcity mentality. As I don’t get mine, will, I really get it where what we’ve seen actually happen is just the opposite, is that as there’s been this open handedness in generosity, that God has actually multiplied those that are participating in on providing resources. And so again, it’s been a hugely exciting time. I will say it’s also been one of the hardest things we’ve done as well too, because working together takes real effort as well, too. 

21:55
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I’d agree with that. The generosity on the donor side, the investor side of things, is stunning and is really myself coming through and reaching the CEO position here in this organization. From the fields, from the operations side, it’s encouraging and a challenge to me to say that open handedness and faith that is there on the investor side, both that God is going to do a new thing and then that these organizations and our leadership and our influence and our partnerships can make it happen with the Lord’s help. That’s really encouraging and challenging to lean into. And, yeah, the collaboration from the operational side is the goal is that now it’s ten years. So 2033. By 2033, every language community would have a meaningful portion of scripture. And for many of them, that’s the New Testament or the full Bible. 

22:48
Rich Rudowske
There are few, well, a number of smaller languages that would. The goal is some portion of scripture lower than that, but the objective is to reach that. And just like Vision 2025, it’s catalytic. Because once you say, that’s what we would like to see happen, and we pray for the Lord to give us wisdom and give us resources to make that happen. He starts answering that, then you discover new things and you start working in different ways. And as a leader, you hope to achieve that goal, but you also have it open handed in God’s hands and say, we know God’s going to accomplish what he wills to accomplish. And if nothing else, the goals of the collective impact alliance are catalytic towards something that the Lord is doing in this season. And so working in the alliance, it’s unique. 

23:40
Rich Rudowske
I think one of the questions we have is we think about collaboration between ministries being now in the Bible translation space. This collaboration is becoming more and more familiar. And then I take a step back and look at ministry world overall and see that collaboration like this is very unique. And for reasons that you said, some of which are the trust to collaborate on resource development is a whole different thing, but also the trust to collaborate on field work and bring different values to the table and find where there is the common ground instead of focus on the distinctives. That’s a thing that you also sort of find is possible in alliances like this, but is also one of the challenges. 

24:24
John Chesnut
I would fully agree with that. Yeah, I think that one of the things that the illumiNations Alliance came to about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, is a key phrase that we talk about is both and meaning that it really isn’t about one form or one model, that one’s better than the others. And sometimes when you kind of pair them against one another, then it can become competitive-ish of which one’s going to kind of win out. But the both and component that we’ve talked about is that really it takes multiple ways of working. It takes multiple models. God is working in multiple ways globally. And so how do we embrace multiple ways of working and carrying out the work on the field and yet still be highly committed to this is God’s Word we want. 

25:14
John Chesnut
Accuracy is so important, the integrity of God’s Word, and we’re going to work collectively to get there. But many times getting there is taking different pathways to those same shared values. I think that has also helped to maintain the unity where we can acknowledge that it’s not just one form, it really is God’s working in many ways to pull this together. 

25:39
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, I agree. And the Lutheran audience listening to this podcast will recognize that both and is something that we as Lutherans bring to the table. I don’t know if we brought it to the alliance or not, but it’s definitely the way that we think about things theologically and everything as well. But, yeah, I really appreciate that perspective, and I think that has been a very noteworthy development in recent years to just say that’s a possibility and to open up the category that is a possible way of thinking about the work and the abundance mentality that opens up instead of a scarcity mentality. 

26:15
Emily Wilson
So we’re looking at the next ten years to reach 2033 and this beautiful goal that the alliance has. What’s next? If we are able to accomplish our goal, Lord willing, that is our hope. How does it look for the future with the alliance? 

26:36
John Chesnut
Well, you know, I was asked this question a while ago and kind of looking at my age and tenure, I’m hoping to make it to 2033-ish in this role of the Lord. And my quick response is: not my problem, but that probably is not helpful where you’re going there. I think, practically speaking, what we’re going to see beyond, if we truly are, we collectively are truly successful in seeing God, if God answers our prayer in this area, is that more and more we are seeing the efforts of the Church of the global south and east that are really rising up more and more. Are they taking on more of the focus of the ownership and such? That doesn’t take anything away from the Church of the west because the great commission was given to the whole church. 

27:21
John Chesnut
But what I do see happening more and more is that as the global church is growing in their ability to carry out their own ongoing translation efforts, that our role from the west will continue to change and morph of coming alongside of and continuing to help and ask, are there gaps in what others are able to do that maybe we could come in and partner with and to help fill some of those may be in funding. I think we’re going to see that decrease over the next ten years because the global south will be raising up resources. They’ll look different than how we often have participated. But I think we’re going to see more of that happen. And I would say the same thing on the technical resources. 

28:06
John Chesnut
Certainly prayer and such is always going to be something that this is about the whole church. But I really see that over these next ten years, we’re going to see this movement become much more global, of which we are a part of and will continue to be a part of. But I think the form and the way that we engage will continue to morph and shift throughout these next ten years and beyond. 

28:30
Rich Wilson
Yeah, I think that’s true. Looking ahead, it’s hard to envision what things will really look like ten years from now and how we or our organizations will be part of that, or what our organizations even will be, is all. It’s in the Lord’s hands. It’s exciting. 

28:48
Emily Wilson
You were talking about your tenure, and maybe you’ll be there with 2033, Lord willing, but you’ve had many experiences throughout the course of your time with Wycliffe Bible Translators and seeing days of great joy and days of challenges. But what is it that sustains you? What is it that brings you joy in your…

29:11
John Chesnut
Know, you’re right. And I think the day and age that we’re in as globally leaders, we feel this uniquely, is that I really believe that we’re at a season in the history of the world, or maybe even more eternity. That we’re just seeing God’s spirit that’s being poured out on the earth in ways that, I don’t know, we’ve ever seen, we’ve ever experienced before, maybe ever. And just we’ve talked about some of this, the way God’s bringing together partnership and collaboration and things. And so that’s kind of one side of just incredible blessing and things that are happening there. On the other side is I feel like the heart is getting harder. And I don’t know, today, at least in my life, I don’t see as much living in between the two. 

29:58
John Chesnut
It feels like it’s often living more in these polar opposites of just incredible blessing and hard getting harder. And so for me, realizing that, continuing to walk in faith, knowing that God is not caught by surprise on any of these things, even the blessing side of the heart. And so I can rest in that. I think for me, the part of the real heart motivation, obviously, that picture that we see around Revelation 7:9, people from every tongue, tribe and nation over the history of the world that are going to be gathered around the throne, and we get to be part of that. We get to be part of seeing that day become a reality. And for me, that’s probably the biggest thing that keeps me going, is just the fact that God has allowed us. 

30:49
John Chesnut
God’s allowed me to participate in what he’s doing globally. And I cannot imagine any other job that has the opportunity to have impact like the roles that we’re in right now. And so I don’t take that for granted. I count that as a huge privilege and thank you, Lord. And at times, why me? But really, Lord, just what an incredible privilege. And that really is what keeps me moving forward day after day. 

31:18
Rich Rudowske
That’s awesome. How can we be praying for you and for the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance. 

31:25
John Chesnut
I think this is one for all of us, is that when out and about and talking with different groups and things, often, one of the questions that I get asked, the end, which is like a perfect set up question, is, what would you say is the greatest need for Bible translation? And particularly if you’re talking to donors, that’s like the perfect set up. And the way that I’ve answered that has been that obviously, prayer wise resourcing, we need more people. We’re looking for more financial resources. I mean, just to continue to keep this global movement going and participating with our contributions. We’re only part, obviously, of the whole. 

32:06
John Chesnut
One of the things from a donor perspective that I’m sure you have heard as well, too, is that as the donors have viewed this collective impact alliance of working together, it has inspired them to participate more. So the open-handed generosity that we have worked to, by letting go of names and people and things like that sometimes you want to hold on to make sure that we get our portion, as we’ve had that open-handedness and continue to work towards that. The response by those that are stewarding resources has just been overwhelming. And we hear that story over and over again. That’s been really reaffirming that we’re on the right track together. But I would say probably for me, the greatest need, as I see, for Bible translation, is pray for unity. 

33:02
John Chesnut
Pray for unity among the workers, down to the very teams, all the way up to these global organizations. Because I will tell you that what we’re seeing, the blessing, I think, is in and around unity and how God is working in that. But as you know, when disunity comes, it drains you, it sucks all the energy, it takes time. That’s what keeps me awake at night. The situations that they’re not going well, and you’re praying, Lord, how do we work through this? And so I would say, really a prayer request that I have, and I think really for all of us, is that continue to pray for unity, that God would keep our hearts and minds soft and tender towards him and to one another so that we can continue to journey together. 

33:44
John Chesnut
And we know that delights the heart of our father, and so that we would just be obedient that way and continue to die to self so that we won’t be a stumbling block to somebody else. I won’t be a stumbling block to somebody else. That’s probably my main prayer request. 

34:01
Emily Wilson
Thank you so much. We will definitely be praying for unity for Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Collective Impact Alliance as a whole. And we are so thankful for the unity that we have in being able to partner together. Thank you so much for joining us for the podcast. 

34:18
John Chesnut
Well, thank you for the opportunity and so grateful for what God is doing in and through Lutheran Bible Translators, and thanks for journeying together. Really grateful for all of you. 

34:32
Rich Rudowske
I really appreciated the opportunity to sit on the podcast with John and also as a CEO, talk a little bit about some of our collective partnership and really appreciated the perspective John brings as CEO of Wycliffe and having a much larger role, especially in fundraising than I do, that donor generosity component of how, as the alliance has grown and said to the investor community, there’s an opportunity here to do something big, and we’re not worried about which organization it is that’s doing it, but that we’re all doing it together. That that has resulted increased investment toward the goal. And that’s really the main thing is the goal that people would know Jesus because they have God’s Word in their heart language and that prayer for unity. 

35:14
Emily Wilson
I was reminded by in the Gospel of John of how Jesus prays for the unity of people in following him and just that beautiful image that we have of the throne room and that we are all going to be unified, even though we are all from different tribes, nations, tongues, we’re unified in having been covered by the blood of the lamb. And what we find in being unified in this Bible translation movement is on our own. We cannot accomplish this great goal for 2033, but together, sharing resources and trust, there is hope that the Lord is doing immeasurably more. So want to encourage you all to not only pray for us, for unity of heart and mind and spirit, but also to check out what the illumiNations Collective Impact Alliance is doing. 

36:18
Emily Wilson
You can visit illumiNations Bible and see a little bit more about the movement and who all is involved in this incredible journey. 

36:29
Rich Rudowske
Thank you for listening to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. You can find past episodes of the podcast at lbt.org/podcast or subscribe on Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible Translators social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s Word in their hands.

The Essentially Translatable Podcast is produced and edited by Andrew Olson. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was designed by Caleb Rodewald and Sarah Rudowske. Music written and performed by Rob Veith. I’m Rich Rudowske. So long for now.