About TWFTW
About TWFTW Bible Translators
TWFTW UK is a charity registered in England and Wales (No. 1098498). It is governed by a board of trustees, all of whom give their time voluntarily. The trustees appointed a UK Director in Oct 2021.
See a summary of income and expenditure on the Charity Commission website.
Our Team
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Steve joined the UK office on a full-time basis at the start of October 2021. His role is to promote the work of TWFTW here in the UK, and to fundraise for Bible translation projects overseas. He has a passion for preaching God’s Word and, having served in Tanzania using the Swahili language in his ministry, he is aware of the importance of people having the Bible in their own language.
In his early years Steve trained in horticulture and arboriculture, and worked for local government in Cumbria for seven years. In 2000/01, he spent eighteen months based in Zambia on a mission’s training programme called African Quest. Then followed a period of study at All Nations Christian College in Hertfordshire (2002-05), before he joined AIM (Africa Inland Mission) here in the UK as a missions mobiliser in the South of England (2006-2013). In 2013 he moved to Tanzania as an AIM missionary to work with the Institute of Bible and Ministry, where he served as a Bible teacher, helping to teach and train Tanzanian pastors. He and his wife Ruth returned to the UK at the end of 2020, and now live in the town of Corsham in Wiltshire. They are members of Corsham Baptist Church.
Steve's interests and hobbies include badminton, skiing, hill walking, birding, snooker and football. He also has a passion for leading and speaking on the occasional Oak Hall trip to Israel.
To contact Stephen click here
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Barry trained as a dentist, but changed his career to Bible Translation in 1991. He has a three year Licentiate in Christian Ministries specialising in Bible Translation at Africa School of Missions in South Africa and obtained a MA in Socio-linguistics from the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Barry is a Bible translation consultant and has worked with 40 languages in Africa and SE Asia. He is passionate about the Bible and producing quality translations. He has been substantially involved in the completion of the Sena Bible (Malawi) which was published in 2006 and started translation projects in 10 Tanzanian languages. The New Testament was published in these 10 languages in 2016.
Barry lives in Bedford, UK and was UK Director from 2009 - 2015. He is married to Julia and has three children; Lisa, Tim and Daniel.
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Paul joined The World for the World Board in Sept 2015. He has been actively engaged in Christian overseas work for the past 30 years, primarily as a supporter and funder of Africa Inland Mission International and as co-leader of a local group that takes an active interest in the work through prayer, financial support and meeting with mission partners.
Paul has been a member of Grace Community Church for nearly 40 years and is actively involved in a wide range of ministries there.
Professionally, Paul was a Director of R&D at Unilever, responsible for managing the innovation portfolio in the Foods and Beverages sector. He now lectures at Cranfield Business school and is involved in projects for the European Institute of Technology, as well as consulting. Throughout his career Paul has been involved in strategy development, programme management and delivery, and the development of role-specific training programmes - all of which are relevant to his role on the Board.
He has travelled extensively throughout his career which has given him a perspective on working cross-culturally.
Paul obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from The University of Bristol in the UK, and has 30 scientific publications and 20 patents.
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Originally a music graduate, Jane became a lawyer in 2000 and is now a senior solicitor in the Private Client team at Glover Priest Solicitors, where she specialises in charities and trusts, amongst other things. Jane brings experience of charity governance both as a legal adviser and as a trustee.
Jane is a member of Grace Community Church in Kempston, where she serves on the safeguarding, health and safety, and bereavement teams. Jane's love for Jesus forms the core of everything she is and does, and this is what drew her to The Word For The World. She wants others to have the chance to get to know Christ through reading the Bible in their own language.
Jane lives in Northamptonshire with her husband, Gary. Outside work and church, Jane enjoys playing the cello in local orchestras and singing in a chamber choir.
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Born and raised in Zimbabwe, John has spent most of his career in the commercial arena of the oil and gas industry with a three-year stint as COO of African Enterprise International. John and his wife (a fellow Zimbabwean) have lived in five countries – South Africa, Australia and the UK – in addition to the land of our birth, and France where they currently reside.
Their two adult daughters live in London. John has a passion to see God’s word (in print and preached) reach out to all people and to see Christian ministries operate effectively.
Our mission, vision and values
Our Vision
The vision of The Word for the World UK is to see the glory of God through transformed lives by the power of His Word (The Bible) in everyone’s heart language.
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The vision of The Word for the World UK is to bring God's Word (The Bible) to all people in his/her heart language.
Our ultimate vision is the glory of God through transformed lives by the power of his Word in everyone’s heart language.
The Bible states that people from every language will accept the message of salvation.
After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.' (Revelation 7.9-10 New International Version)
As part of the Forum of Bible Agencies International (FOBAI) our vision is to work together to maximise the worldwide access and impact of God's word.
The Word for the World envisages being instrumental in completing the translation of the complete Bible in 1000 languages by 2050.
Our Mission
The mission of The Word for the World Bible Translators is to enable persons, ministries and organisations from language communities that do not yet have the Bible in their own language to take responsibility for Bible translation and to ensure its availability and accessibility.
Our Core Values
We value: the entire Word of God, first-time Bible translations, respect for all cultures, servanthood, excellence in serving the Lord, and flexibility.
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The Entire Word of God – God desires to speak to people through the entire Bible. We believe in translating the full Bible for every language community.
First-time Bible translations – We are passionate about prioritising communities without any portion of the Bible, because that is where Bible translation is most needed.
Respect for all cultures – We honour all people and languages as unique expressions of God’s creation. Each people group is a blessing from God and has the right to hear God speaking to them in their own language.
Servanthood: We see ourselves as servants, working alongside and empowering indigenous translators and communities.
Excellence in Serving the Lord: Committed to maintaining integrity, innovation, and high standards in our work.
Flexibility: We seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in adapting our strategies to fulfill God’s mission.
Our Method
When determining where to work, we begin by conducting research to reveal where the need is the greatest.
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We then consult with other organisations doing the similar work in the field.
Networking is key to our method, particularly with leaders 'on the ground', to recruit prospective Bible translators. Also, with local churches to ensure effective utilisation of translated scripture.
We provide literacy programmes where necessary, to cultivate readership.
What makes TWFTW unique in its approach is that we train nationals where they live, providing employment and equipping them with transferable literacy skills.
Finally, we maintain regular contact with trainers and consultants in the countries where translations are taking place and receive frequent reports.
Our Faith
The Word For The World is an interdenominational Bible translation ministry. Our personnel come from a wide variety of Christian circles. We want to serve the Church in its broadest sense, to make God's Word available to all the nations of the world.
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We believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is infallible and authoritative in the original writings.
We believe in one God eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his virgin birth, in his vicarious death and atonement through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His personal return in power and glory.
We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Spirit are essential.
We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a Godly life.
We believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life eternal.
We believe in the spiritual unity of the Church, which is the Body of Christ, composed of all who are regenerated through faith in the Lord Jesus.