How many copies of the Bible do you personally own? I’m embarrassed to say I have six, but I actually use only three. And while I’ve struggled to study the Word of God consistently at various times in my life, the problem has never been the lack of a Bible in my own language. Rather it’s been spiritual apathy or distraction with things of life. Yikes!
Chuck and Barbara Grimes are visiting BG today. They have spent their lives addressing the needs of numerous groups of people who yearn to have a Bible in their heart language. Barbara grew up in Brazil, and Chuck in Mexico. Chuck first started attending BG at the age of 2 when his father did his MA and PhD at Cornell, later serving as a full professor of linguistics at Cornell. Chuck went to Ithaca schools, attended Cornell, and started the Navigators program at IC after he graduated. He met Barbara in graduate school at the University of Oklahoma. Called to disciple others through Bible translation, they have worked mostly in Indonesia since being commissioned by BG in 1981.
For the past 30 years they’ve been working with local church denominations in Timor and surrounding islands, where 3.5 million church-goers speak over 70 languages. Their work focuses on training and mentoring local workers in diverse aspects of the task.
Nathan Birkett, a Cornell sophomore, spent three weeks working with them in Alor and Kupang. He spoke last week about what he experienced. He worked alongside many consultants and translators and found the whole team to be amazing. The teams are currently working in 22 indigenous languages. Lay people such as farmers, fishermen, housewives, students, and teachers are essential in assisting the biblical translations.
Chuck and Barbara are in the U.S. to visit family as they celebrate the life of and mourn the passing of Barbara’s father.
We hope you will stay for the educational hour today to hear more details about their work, to ask questions, and to hang out with these key workers for Christ’s kingdom. All are welcome!