Training Archives - Wycliffe Australia

Sharing the gospel in three minutes

Bible storytelling in Tonga

by Ian Hutchinson | Wycliffe Today Spring 2025|

I had a special experience this June when I headed to Tonga with fellow Wycliffe Australia representative, Margaret Love. Two local Tongans joined us to train people in how to share their faith by simply asking, ‘Would you like to hear a three-minute Bible story?’

I was impressed with their boldness. Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, they went out to the streets and markets on Saturday afternoon to share their faith, using the newly learned tool of Bible Storytelling. I suspect that many of them had not previously known how to share their faith. It was a privilege to be there as they learnt to trust in God to overcome their fears as they witnessed to people outside the Church.

I went to the market with an older man named Peter who asked several groups if they would like to hear a story. They gave him their full attention as he shared with authority and conviction, and they thanked him at the end.

During our time on the island of ‘Eua, I came across a group of young rugby players, waiting for their game to begin. They agreed to listen to a Bible story and I told them about how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This was one of the stories we had trained the workshop group to share. They don’t have too many white men telling them a Bible story before a rugby game, so I’m sure they will remember that story!

Participants in the workshops said to us after their course, ‘We want to train more people for this! It’s exactly what Christians need!’ Jesus never taught without telling a story. We can’t get a better example to follow than his!

Margaret Love joined Ian as a trainer for the workshop. She shares:

My husband, Robert, and I have been involved in facilitating Story the Bible workshops in NSW on a regular basis. We have also run workshops in the Solomon Islands (2012), Fiji (2012 and 2013) and in Tonga (2013 and 2025).

A lot of people think that Bible stories are just for children but they are for everyone. We all start out as oral preference learners and then are taught literacy skills at school. After participating in Story the Bible workshops, I discovered that I still learn better orally. When you can hear, see, and experience something in community, the Bible is no longer dry and tedious to read.

I have discovered so much more about God’s Word from learning Bible stories. I listen to the Bible each morning as I do my devotional readings. I use stories at my Scripture classes, and when sharing at our little outreach church in one of the suburbs of Tamworth.

Suliana is a local Tongan who has participated in previous Story the Bible events. She helped lead workshops with Ian and Margaret and says:

It was good to see my people, on my island, knowing more about God’s Word. It helps me remember Bible stories, deepen my faith, and my journey with God, especially as my family is growing.

Reverend Sitaleki also joined the workshop as a participant. He says:

I came to the workshop because I wanted to know more of God’s Word. I am excited to know how the workshop would help us with our ministry here on ‘Eua Island.

Training future gospel workers

Alan Rogers is a storyteller. As a member of the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL), he connects with a range of different language groups in the Northern Territory and throughout the Top End. Alan has a passion for seeing Indigenous people connect with Jesus’ story through God’s Word. As many Indigenous people are from cultures that pass on stories orally, Alan and his wife Lucy have been helping them to record Scripture and worship songs in their own languages. Over 650 albums have been created so far. Some of the albums Alan has recorded have some incredible stories behind them.

Something that Alan and his team are passionate about is encouraging the use of Indigenous language in churches to help raise a new generation of gospel workers. There are 21 different translation programs in progress throughout Australia with a new inititiative, SAIL (Scripture for Australian Indigenous Languages), coordinating efforts from a number of interested organisations. Alan says that the best way to move forward with these projects is to train Indigenous translators in biblical studies:

We need to have more Aboriginal people trained in how to look for parallels in Bible passages to help make explicit that which is implied—otherwise, the people are just listening to a story. Nungalinya College currently has several cohorts of Indigenous students studying the Diploma in Translation. I think this course will be instrumental in training Bible translators who can connect with Scripture on a level that non-Indigenous people would not be able to.

Greg Anderson, Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory, agrees that ‘the best clergy we have here are people who used to be Bible translators’. The full revised Kriol Bible (2019) involved Indigenous people with a heart for keeping their language, culture and faith alive for future generations. Alan shares, ‘If we can inspire a new generation of translators, we can achieve similar results in other languages.’

In 2023 and 2024, many Indigenous translators were brought together from all over Australia to hone their skills in Bible translation workshops. Some are experienced, and some have less experience, but all cooperate in the task of translation. Our team at AuSIL joined with the Bible Society, Coordinate, and senior translators to work with our Indigenous brethren on selected Bible passages. They produced posters, booklets and videos of the material they translated. “The harmony of such people—distantly situated but with common goals—is a delight to see.”

Click here to help fund training for more Aboriginal translators

Trenem Tingting: Training the trainers

By Ross and Lyndal Webb | Wycliffe Today Winter 2024 Edition

John teaching

Meet Loui and John. These faithful leaders are good friends and from the same language group in Vanuatu. They are passionate about seeing their communities grow in their knowledge of God and his Word. Both attended one of the first ‘Trenem Tingting Kos’ (TTK ‘Train Your Mind Course’) which Wycliffe Australia members Ross and Lyndal Webb, seconded to SIL Vanuatu, began offering in 2011. Through working as a gardener for SIL, Loui became vitally interested in learning and teaching the course, particularly the Bible Overview portion.

SIL Vanuatu facilitates the course which is designed to equip those involved in Bible translation and local church and community leadership with critical thinking skills that can be applied to Bible reading, analysis of cultural practices, and other daily life situations. John never forgot his initial training and more recently was eager to train as a trainer for TTKs. He has grown in his ability to understand and apply Scripture and participates with infectious enthusiasm! Now both of these students have become teachers of the course.

Loui preparing for a talk

The TTK is conducted over three two-week residential sessions. Each intake of the course is offered to up to 15 participants from around the country. However, there is more demand than opportunity with the course in that format, so Loui and John recently led a shorter three-day version of the course for church leaders on their own island (Epi). They also accepted invitations to teach Sunday School teachers a Bible Overview and run a similar seminar at a local high school. Loui led them through a few verses of Psalm 100 to demonstrate how they can read a text carefully and determine the meaning the author had in mind when he wrote. He was excited to pass his knowledge onto others, sharing with Lyndal ‘I taught everything, just like we teach at TTK!’

To support the work of the TTK, visit https://wycliffe.org.au/projects/translator-training-vanuatu.

Capacity building for PNG leaders

Wycliffe Today – June 2019 | PHOTO BY GARY McMASTER

It’s an overcast day in Kangaroo Ground but the warm smiles that greet me at the SIL Australia campus near the Wycliffe Australia National Centre are enough to light up the room. Behind these smiles are two men from Papua New Guinea dedicating their lives to Bible translation. Stephen Moyaru and Kidu Magi are in Melbourne for one year to further their studies so they can contribute more to the work of PNG Bible Translation Association (BTA). Stephen is working as a Program Coordinator and Kidu has translated the New Testament into the Sinaugoro language and now contributes to a range of other projects as a Translation Consultant. Their schedule involves a full-time study load to complete a Diploma of Ministry with SIL Australia through Melbourne School of Theology (MST), including a couple of subjects at MST.

PNG is home to around 12 percent of the world’s languages. There are 838 living languages in PNG and 462 of those languages are still without any Scripture of their own.* The needs are great but there is currently a worldwide shortage of translation consultants and checkers to continue the work. Stephen explains that more specialised local translators are required to help keep momentum going:

Our strategy for the next three years involves strengthening nine languages and publishing six completed Bible translations. The only way we can do that is to have workers who understand the language and the culture – but they also need the right level of training. That is why we’ve come to Australia to be further trained in theological studies so that we can continue training future translation teams in PNG.

Kidu adds that there is also a need to increase the sense of ownership among the people to help move into the next phase of translation:

We not only have to increase our training – we also have to increase partnership with the communities and church leaders, as the people must own and invest in Bible translation and not think of it as white man’s work. It’s our language and we need to ensure that there will be more people to carry on the task for the future. We are praying for God to bring about this change.

Despite the long hours of study and challenges of Bible college, Stephen and Kidu are excited about what God will do through their time in Melbourne. They are trusting God to guide them but they have asked for prayer for the following:

PRAY

for the Lord to help them to focus on their studies and manage their time well
that they will be able to communicate with their families and provide for the needs of their families while they are away
that Kidu’s wife will soon be able to join him and that the visa paperwork and finances will soon be sorted

* Wycliffe Global Alliance statistics current as at October 2018

Communities of grace

|Wycliffe Today – March 2019|

Graham Scott is the Principal Executive Officer of the Summer Institute of Linguistics Australia (SILA). He and his wife, Ellie, have been members of Wycliffe since 2000. They met in the United States and have worked cross-culturally throughout the US, Indonesia and Australia. We caught up with Graham to discover what it means to be a ‘community of grace’ when training and equipping leaders.

Thanks for sharing with us, Graham. Could you tell us a bit about the journey that led you to Wycliffe and your current role with SILA?

Ellie and I were both students at SILA in 2003. We then followed God’s call to serve him in West Papua. While we had been well prepared for the work we were involved with in Indonesia, we soon realised that many others had not been. Many more leaders were required to be trained in Australia to work alongside and partner with local leaders in translation projects in Papua and throughout the world. We first taught at SILA’s Summer School in 2004, and since then we have been regular visitors to SILA to teach. In 2018 we relocated to Melbourne, so I could take up a leadership role with SILA.

How does SILA’s training program operate?

SILA is able to offer graduates qualifications that meet international benchmarks for translation and literacy workers anywhere in the world. The studies are uniquely geared towards empowering students to partner with local organisations and communities. It is our mission to prepare people to take on roles as trainers and facilitators in language projects.

You recently attended a global leadership conference. Why is it important for leaders from different contexts and backgrounds to come together?

I enjoyed connecting with SIL leaders from across the globe. There was a warm sense of fellowship and it provided a deeper appreciation for the diversity around us. The approach Wycliffe and SIL Australia have taken over recent years has been to increase our level of partnership with communities. We believe in working alongside what is already being done, partnering with local churches and ministries to achieve outcomes together.

How would you describe positive leadership development within a community?

Spiritual formation of leaders leads to the transformation of communities. That transformation leads to a healthier community. And being a healthy community means being a community of grace. In a more complex, challenging world, we need more grace. There will always be challenges working with different people from different backgrounds. We need to learn to be patient and gracious with one another as we come up with creative strategies for engaging in translation and creating new partnerships.

How can we involve communities more in the work of translation?

Communities play a key role in determining what happens in translation work. We need to come alongside them and continue asking questions about what they need and the outcomes they want to achieve. But that kind of contribution is only possible when the local communities have strong local leaders and we have learnt to listen well.