March 2008 UPDATE
TOTAL VISION New Bible Translation Recruitment Event! Last year, the Wycliffe Recruitment Ministries department which Chuck supervises hosted a pilot project for a new recruitment event called TOTAL VISION. This spring the program was officially launched. TOTAL VISION is designed to provide participants with a fresh look at how Bible translation work is done today using new creative strategies to speed up reaching Bibleless people. This course attracts young college students and encourages them to join Wycliffe. Bible translation work today is taking on new dimensions. Many Bible translation projects started today are done in ‘language clusters’. A ‘language cluster’ is sometimes a group of related languages. However, sometime a ‘language cluster’ is a group of unrelated languages, but located in the same geographical area. These ‘language cluster’ projects work on numerous and simultaneous Bible translation projects for each language in the cluster. Thus when completing a translation ‘cluster’ project, 6-8 languages receive a New Testament at one time and each in their own language! When working in ‘language clusters’ often Wycliffe translators take on very specific roles. However, in traditional settings where we place one translation team in one language community, translators need to have a broad knowledge about a lot of translation areas. However, the number of these types of projects is less than 20% of the remaining 2251 languages. Many of the remaining languages can be done using the ‘cluster’ approach. In new ‘cluster’ communities, our members will take on specific tasks such as one team member becoming the Bible translation consultant, with another member serving as an anthropologist and still another as an exegetical specialist or a literacy specialist. Team members will add their expertise to each language in the cluster. When they finish working in their area of expertise in the ‘cluster’ many will move on to a new ‘language cluster’ and add their expertise to a new group.
www.wycliffe.org/totalvision Even though we have creative strategies for working, the fact remains that we will continue to have traditional approaches. Therefore, Chuck’s recruitment team has decided to also keep the program “Total It Up” (TIU) that we told you about a few years ago. The TIU event promotes the traditional approach and the TOTAL VISION event promotes the new cluster approach. Please pray that we will have over 300 young people attend these recruitment events this summer.
TOTAL VISION Participants Learning To Work In ‘Language Clusters’!
Focus On The Family The Truth Project Meeting Thanks for praying for Chuck’s meeting in February with Focus On The Family’s ‘The Truth Project’ (TTP). The meeting went well. Our two agencies continue to explore forming a partnership whereby Wycliffe promotes TTP to help increase the number of people with a Biblical worldview and people who go through TTP are exposed to opportunities to serve with Wycliffe.
Chuck Meeting Marc Fey with Focus On The Family’s - The Truth Project www.thetruthproject.org
According to the George Barna research group only around 9% of church members have a Biblical worldview and we recruit from that 9%. If those numbers don’t increase, but continue to decrease as they have been we will have much smaller pools of people to recruit from!
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For 240 people currently in various stages of application with Wycliffe. That Barb’s work with our GET Global trips for high school students continues to bear fruit with increased interest with participants. That Josh & Maria Mishler (our daughter and son-in-law) serving with Wycliffe in Germany are expecting a new baby in August 2008.
PRAYER •
Barb At Our Annual Next Gen Youth Planning Retreat
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Pray that we would reach the goal we have been praying for of 250 new Wycliffe members this year! (If this happens, it will be our best recruitment year in 15 years!) Pray that God would reveal His plans for our work for recruiting in 2009, 2010 and 2011. We have been asked by the Wycliffe Board to produce a three year recruiting plan. Pray that we would be able to fill needed recruiter positions in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ and a few other locations.
FOR PRAYER SUPPORT / OUR HOME ADDRESS Chuck & Barb Micheals 5167 Poinsetta Ave. Winter Park, Florida 32792 Tel: (407) 671-2817 (home), (321) 278-2225 (cell) Email: Chuck_Micheals@wycliffe.org Barb_Micheals@wycliffe.org Web: www.cbmicheals.com
Chuck Training Staff On How To Make Displays Effective For Recruitment Purposes
FOR SUPPORTING US - FINANCIAL SUPPORT Wycliffe Bible Translators P. O. Box 628200 Orlando, FL 32862-8200 Marked for ‘Chuck & Barb Micheals’ We would like to communicate with you via email. Please send us your email address.