By Don Erickson, President & CEO, Wycliffe Foundation
In 1999, Wycliffe adopted Vision 2025 to help speed the process of Bible translation, acknowledging that a large gap existed between known sources of funding and the cost of accomplishing Vision 2025. Where would these funds be found?
Among the many strategies that Wycliffe considered was the area of legacy giving. A few visionaries recognized that existing Wycliffe partners held valuable resources in their personal estates. How could Wycliffe help these donors recognize the opportunity to support Bible translation beyond their lifetimes?
In October 2002, the Wycliffe Foundation was officially chartered. By fall 2003, operations had begun and the process of helping donors establish estate plans was under way. Prior to that time, the process of planned giving did not exist inside Wycliffe. If someone asked how they could remember Wycliffe in their will, then a development representative stepped in to help accomplish that.
The creation of the Wycliffe Foundation established a professional, dedicated, full-time staff with the sole purpose of expanding legacy giving to Bible translation through Wycliffe affiliate organizations.
As of this writing, the Wycliffe Foundation has helped partners like you structure legacy gift plans that total more than $100 million. This has been possible in part because of a highly skilled and dedicated staff in the field and here in Orlando. They have assisted more than 1,500 people in the creation of a stewardship plan for their assets that meets their needs and desires and helps them honor God by contributing to the Kingdom work of Bible translation.
None of this would be possible if God were not leading and guiding the Wycliffe Foundation. From the beginning, we have characterized our organization as ministry. In the end, we are about helping fulfill the Great Commission.
Thank you for your partnership in that eternal work.
By Mary Tindall
ORLANDO, Fla.—As Marcia Millar looks across the landscape of Dodoma, Tanzania, she sees a dry, dusty land—in both the literal and spiritual senses.
Dodoma, the political capital of this East African country, is undergoing a population boom. Meanwhile, its churches are struggling, its pastors undertrained in the Bible.
Bible translators hope that when the people of Dodoma receive the Bible in their mother-tongue languages, the spiritual climate will improve. Yet as translators pursue this goal, high rent prices stemming from the population influx are setting back their efforts.
Marcia helps administer the translation efforts in three indigenous languages—Burunge, Rangi, and Sandawe—as the Dodoma office coordinator for the Uganda-Tanzania branch. Previously, she spent 17 years traveling across Kenya and Tanzania, teaching children of Wycliffe translators.
Every month, she hears anxiety in the voices of translators who worry about making their next rent payment. One office’s rent recently jumped from 1,400 U.S. dollars to $5,000 within one month. Residential rents have risen exponentially, too.
“It’s a distraction for our translators,” Marcia, 56, said. “Their need is to take care of their families. They get really discouraged about it.”
Soon a new crop of Wycliffe personnel will begin a four-month Swahili language-acquisition session, the first step in translating a related language that has defied two translation attempts before.
This language is termed a “last language” by Wycliffe Bible Translators, because it is one of thousands of languages yet to receive the Bible. Because of the sensitive religious climate, this language will remain unnamed.
The project has been started, and halted, twice before. In the 1990s, a married couple leading the translation was forced to leave the mission field after the wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. The second attempt at translation never gained momentum.
Now, in the third pass of this translation, its success stands in question.
Even as the financial problems for this project look insurmountable, the audience for newly translated scriptures continues to widen.
Two universities—St. Johns University and the University of Dodoma—have opened in Dodoma within the last two years, bringing with them thousands of students, faculty and staff. This surge of people has transformed Dodoma into an intellectually vibrant city—and sent rent prices soaring.
Despite the financial and spiritual hardships, hope endures among the Tanzanian translation team.
Marcia recalled the story of a young Tanzanian translator named Paulo Kijuu who attended a family funeral two years ago, bringing with him the first three chapters of Mark in the Rangi language. All the funeral guests wanted to hear the chapters read aloud.
After they heard the words in their own languages, every listener wanted to take Paulo’s only copy home with them. Finally, they agreed that each person would take one sheet from the three chapters to take home in the village.
It is because of stories like this—stories that demonstrate the thirst Tanzanians have for the Bible in their mother tongues—that Bible translators in Tanzania persevere.
By Steve Davis, Director of Gift Planning, Wycliffe FoundationMany people today are struggling. They are struggling with the decline in value of some of their assets, such as certificates of deposit earning 1 to 2% interest, or a decline in the market value of their portfolio and decreasing dividends.
Additionally, many individuals face uncertainty about what their future needs will be. They may hesitate to use some of their assets to make a gift that will impact the work of Bible translation, for fear that additional income may be needed at some future point. So they wait.
Someone once said that “waiting will cost you,” and that is often true. If you wait to buy a car, it may cost you more. However, in exchange for some flexibility and a willingness to wait, a flexible deferred charitable gift annuity can actually provide you with more income for the future.
The concept
A charitable gift annuity (CGA) is one of the most popular gift-planning tools people use to support Bible translation and serves as an agreement between Wycliffe Foundation and a financial partner.
With a CGA, you can make a gift of cash or marketable securities and receive fixed payments for life at attractive rates by transferring some type of asset to Wycliffe. In return, you receive an income stream for the rest of your life, or two lives in some cases. At the end of those lives, the remainder of the gift will support the work of Bible translation.
A deferred gift annuity defers the income stream until some point in the future. The value in waiting results in a larger payment—one that is fixed and won’t be influenced by market conditions.
The flexible deferred charitable gift annuity simply adds one more component: In exchange for a degree of flexibility, you can select the payment to start at one rate and increase that to higher fixed rate at a later date. In essence, you can defer your payment twice, providing a larger annuity payment and more income over a lifetime than if it was established now.
The benefits
- Gift and tax deduction
- Tax-free income
- Value grows tax-free till payout
- Flexibility
- Gift to Wycliffe now
- Secure source of future income
The impact
- Peace of mind
- Impact future of Bible translation
- Replace your giving upon death
- Taxes reduced or eliminated
Here’s an illustration of the concept:
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, ages 65 and 64, would like to have the option of establishing a future retirement income. They are uncertain about when they will need this. They would like to begin to lock in a fixed rate now, just in case the value of their assets declines.
The Smiths decide to transfer $100,000 cash to Wycliffe Foundation to establish a flexible deferred charitable gift annuity. They select the target date as John’s 70th birthday. The deferred rate is 6.4%, and their payment will be $6,400 per year.
As a result, the Smiths will receive a charitable income tax deduction of $28,972.16. Their annuity contract allows them the flexibility of starting to receive their payments anytime between ages 70 and 80. If they decide to wait until John is 80, their rate will be 11.4% and their annual payment will be $11,400. If they select the latter option, their tax-free income may increase as well.
ORLANDO, Fla.—Wycliffe Foundation is honored to announce the production of $100 million in new planned gifts since inception in October 2002. The $100 million figure represents more than 1,500 donors across the United States who have committed a portion of their assets to the work of Bible translation in the future.
Upon their receipt, these gifts will be used to support the work of the Wycliffe family of organizations in the U.S. that serve the recruiting, training, and logistical operations for approximately 3,800 missionaries, translators, aviators, literacy workers, and administrators around the world.
“We are humbled by the resources God has entrusted to Wycliffe Foundation over the past seven years,” said Don Erickson, president and CEO of Wycliffe Foundation. “We praise God for the work He has done so far through our organization and look forward to our continued service to the overall task of Bible translation.”
In recognition of this milestone, the Foundation will host Celebrating legacies…changing lives on November 18, 2009, in Orlando, Fla. The morning event will feature stories from partners across the country, along with discussions and presentations from Foundation staff and leadership. The celebration will conclude with refreshments and a Biblical stewardship seminar in the afternoon.
For information on the celebration on November 18, visit http://WycliffeFoundation.org/events.
By Jeff Lydenberg, Guest columnist
Many of you are supporting aging parents, dependent children, or Wycliffe missionaries. There is a tax-efficient way to continue to meet financial obligations to those and others so important to you, and impact the work of Bible translation.
A charitable gift annuity (CGA) is a simple contract; in exchange for a contribution of cash or an appreciated asset, Wycliffe Foundation commits to making fixed payments for life to one or two named beneficiaries. The amount of those fixed payments is based on the age of the annuitants—the older the annuitant is, the higher the payments will be.
You can establish a CGA for the benefit of a relative, friend or Wycliffe missionary. If you establish a gift annuity and name any of these as a beneficiary, their payments will be partially tax-free.
Wycliffe Foundation invests and manages the contribution, and when the last annuitant has died, the remainder of the contribution is used to advance the mission of Bible translation, linguistics training, and literacy efforts. A gift annuity is safe and secure legal contract backed by the full resources of Wycliffe.
As the donor, you are entitled to a charitable deduction for the gift portion of the contribution. Payments to the annuitant are partially tax-free, and if long-term appreciated securities are used to fund the annuity, tax on any capital gain is reduced. You may also be able to avoid any gift tax consequences.
Editor’s note: Jeff Lydenberg serves as vice president of consulting for PG Calc, and works with nonprofit organizations on gift-planning needs. He is a frequent speaker at local, regional and national planned-giving events and is a member of the Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council.
It was almost straight out of the recently translated stories of Jesus. One Sunday an elderly, blind woman, one of the Tharaka people of Kenya, made her way to church to give her offering: a small bag of corn.
It would hardly seem amazing—except that the Tharaka people were in the midst of a serious drought. Few people had much to spare. Clearly, Tharaka believers highly value God’s work.
The generosity and diligence displayed by these believers is not an exception. Ever since the Tharaka New Testament was published in 2001, local Christians have been doing all they can to make further translation possible.
In 2006, they beganwork on the Tharaka Old Testament, which they hope to complete in just three more years, bringing God’s Word to about 112,000 Tharaka speakers. Learn more about the Tharaka people at www.theseedcompany.org/project/tharaka-ot.
The Seed Company is a Wycliffe Foundation affiliate organization.
Filed under: #23, P2 | Tags: Affiliate News, Bible translation, technology
Now in its third year, the Outilingua software training effort has turned this assumption on its head. Currently, 21 participants from 11 countries—many of whom started with only basic computer knowledge—are being trained as the consultants who will deploy software tools across Africa and train translation teams to use them. These new consultants are beginning to master complex operations that even seasoned consultants find challenging.
Through the Outilingua training, translators are able to bypass the years of experience usually needed, thrusting Bible translation work in Africa into the 21st century and putting technology into the hands of every linguist and translator to make their work more effective.
Praise the Lord for this training, and pray that the word of the Lord would triumph through the ministry of these consultants.
Wycliffe is a Wycliffe Foundation affiliate organization.
Filed under: #23, Charitable Gift Annuities, P2, Planned Gift types | Tags: Bible translation, Charitable Gift Annuities, family, Papua New Guinea
Thirty years ago, Robert Bugenhagen set off on an adventure. As a trained linguist, Robert planned to help translate Scripture in Papua New Guinea, a nation where more than 700 languages are spoken.
At the time, Robert’s parents, Roger and Shirley, of Annapolis, Md., were skeptical of their son’s plans. They thought he would probably return to the U.S. in a few years, perhaps disillusioned by the enormous task he had undertaken.
Robert stayed in Papua New Guinea much longer than his parents anticipated. It was where he met his wife, a Finnish nurse named Salme. The couple, based on Umboi Island, has since helped translate the Bible into two minority languages and is now working on a third.
"It was really quite moving to hear how the people really appreciated having the Bible."
His son’s lifelong devotion to Bible translation has shaped Roger’s financial goals.
The senior Bugenhagen wants to support his son’s work—mostly because Robert is his son, but also because Roger has seen the effect that a new Bible translation has in the hearts of those receiving it for the first time.
Roger first realized the impact of his son’s work when his son’s team hosted a ceremony in their village to celebrate the completion of a Scripture translation.
“They had a video tape at the time that I saw, and it was really quite moving to see how the people really appreciated having the Bible,” Roger shared.
Roger, who became a widower when Shirley died in 2000, began to think about how to incorporate Wycliffe into his estate.
During his career at the U.S. Census Bureau, from where he retired as assistant director of economic programs, Roger had learned the importance of sound investments. As he began looking at his assets, he decided to make some changes.
“I was trying to lessen my exposure to the stock market, I was looking for some alternatives, and I had read something about charitable gift annuities, and I decided to explore that directly with Wycliffe,” Roger said.
Roger eventually established two charitable gift annuities through Wycliffe Foundation. With these charitable gift annuities, he made a gift of cash and now receives fixed payments for life.
“It worked out very well for me in several aspects because I donated appreciated stock, which is transferred,” Roger said. “By not selling it, I save myself a lot of capital gains taxes.”
“The income from my annuity was far greater than I was receiving in dividends from the stock,” Roger explained.
Upon Roger’s passing, the remainder of the CGA will benefit his son and daughter-in-law. This decision was an easy one for Robert.
“As they get older, a lot of their support that they’ve gained over the years has dissipated,” Roger said. “People die off, so it’s not an easy situation. So I felt really good that this would probably help them in their later years. I’ve seen the work, I’ve seen the results of the work, and I’m able to support them.”
By Emanuel J. Kallina, II, Guest columnist
A charitable lead trust (CLT) is a vehicle by which a donor irrevocably transfers assets to a trust; the trust then makes income payments no less than annually from those transferred assets to a charity for a set term.
The trust may be structured two ways: as a charitable lead annuity trust (CLAT), where the charity receives a fixed dollar amount or a percentage each year of the fair market value of the initial trust assets, or a charitable lead unitrust (CLUT), where the charity receives a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the assets, determined annually. In either case, at the end of the trust term, the remaining trust assets pass to beneficiaries, typically the grantor’s children or grandchildren.
Benefits to partner:
- Provides assets for use by a favorite charity or ministry,
- Estate- or gift-tax deduction equal to the charitable income interest and possibly an immediate income tax deduction, and
- Ability to pass assets to descendants free of estate and possibly gift tax.
Benefits to ministry:
- Commitment by donor of an immediate income stream for a set term,
- Depending on how the CLT is structured, trust income can be taxed to donor and not CLT, thereby preserving principal.
CLTs are useful tools that not only benefit the ministry but also the supporter, making it an ideal vehicle for the charitably-minded who are also looking for a way to benefit family.
Emanuel J. Kallina II is an attorney in Townson, Md., specializing in estate planning and tax law.
GIAL, JAARS and The Seed Company are Wycliffe Foundation affiliate organizations.
A prescription for life
By Jenny Evans, The Seed Company
When someone comes to faith in Christ, everything looks different: fresh somehow. You experience new purpose, abundant grace and full forgiveness. A new believer may display an exuberant passion and a deep thirst for God’s Word.
In south Asia, a pharmacist recently came to faith in Christ. The ongoing translation of Scripture into his mother tongue is helping fuel his fervor. He witnesses to everyone: Patients, neighbors and strangers have heard his story. Twenty-one of those people have also accepted our Savior!
The pharmacist’s enthusiasm for Jesus earned him the nickname “Madman” from skeptical neighbors. But this hasn’t slowed him down. He’s also put several Scripture passages from Genesis and the Gospels into song. Local believers are singing them, and he’s eager to share the Gospel with many more.
Praise God that investments in Bible translation empower others to know God and to share their faith. People who never realized God could speak their language now have growing, personal relationships with the Master, thanks in part to the efforts of Bible translators.
Equipping the workers
By Dustin Moody
New missionaries arrive on the field eager to be a part of bringing God’s Word to all language groups. Experienced missionaries transition to the new role of leading “cluster translations,” using native-language speakers to work on several translations at one time. Veteran missionaries finish their translations and become valued consultants and mentors to younger workers.
All of them need the best training and education available to excel in their role in Bible translation.
And soon, thanks to a recent grant the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL) received from The Tyndale House Foundation, it will be much more convenient for missionaries to receive this critical education.
“Distance Education will allow translation specialists to continue to develop and hone the necessary skills without taking them off the field,” said Doug Tiffin, director of development for GIAL.
Missionaries serving in Bible translation are often unable to take time away from field assignments due to finances, time commitments and the urgency of the task, Doug explained. This new program should make it easier to continue developing translation and linguistic skills from almost anywhere in the world.
Eventually, students could receive up to 50 percent of the education needed for a degree through distance learning using tools like the Internet and social networking platforms. GIAL faculty are currently writing curriculum and developing materials that will become GIAL’s Distance Education program.
Bible translation booms in central Africa
By Mary Beth Johnson, JAARS
Translators are actively working in 80 language projects spanning seven countries in central Africa. And at least 200 more people groups wait for Bible translation work to begin in their heart languages. JAARS-supported aviation services for central Africa are headquartered in Cameroon, and the increase in Bible translation work makes the demand for aviation services greater than ever before.
But there’s a problem: There’s no reliable source in Cameroon from which pilots can buy fuel for their avgas-burning aircraft. Yet, ironically, pilots have access to about 15 central African airports that sell jet fuel.
So, to keep the avgas-reliant aircraft fueled, a 20-foot container full of 55-gallon fuel drums filled with avgas from the pump in Waxhaw, N.C., is sent by cargo ship to Cameroon about every four months.
Airplanes serving both Cameroon and surrounding countries have more than 10,000 hours of flight time and burn avgas. JAARS is working to replace these aging, pistonengine aircraft with turbine aircraft that burn readily available jet fuel.
The replacement aircraft chosen is the Soloy Cessna 207, which will use locally available jet fuel. And the Soloy’s faster speed and lower maintenance will be more efficient for moving people and resources quickly and safely in the task of Bible translation.
Editor’s note: To learn more about the Soloy Cessna 207 and the needs in central Africa, visit http://wycliffefoundation.org/JAARS.
