William Cameron Townsend,
who founded the Wycliffe Bible Translators, was
born in 1896 in Eastvale, California. Townsend was brought up in the
Presbyterian faith according to Winter and Hawthorne, [Townsend] “Starting out
as a student to distribute portions of the Bible in Spanish, he was overtaken
by the conviction that Spanish Bibles were inadequate for the Indian tribes of
Guatemala.” [1] This inadequacy leads to Townsend to engage in
linguistics to be able to reach others hindered by the language barriers in
proclaiming the gospel to all. Once Townsend had settled in with the Cakchiquel
Indians, he realized the importance in learning their language; after all, he
had Spanish Bibles among a tribe of people that were not Spanish nor understood
the language. According to Hibbard, Townsend’s secretary, “In 1926
Townsend made a structural analysis of the Cakchiquel verb system and became
one of the first men in the world to succeed in analyzing a complicated
vernacular language system in reference to its own structure.”[2] This not only opened the
doors to the Cakchiquel Indians but to other “Bibleless” people in other
regions in the world.
The structural analysis Townsend made was
by far his major contribution to global mission history. According to the
Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals,
In 1934, Townsend with colleague Leonard L.
Letgers, took over a small farm near Sulphur Springs, Arkansas and created
“Camp Wycliffe”. Within a short time Townsend had begun his Summer Institute of
Linguistics (SIL) and Wycliffe Bible Translators and by the beginning of
American involvement in World War II had nearly a hundred missionaries in place
in Central and South America working on translations for small language groups.
Aided by the rapid expansion of American involvement around the globe that
followed the war, Townsend was able to greatly expand Wycliffe’s potential
reach, even as it’s adventurous Gospel exploits appealed to many potential
missionary candidates back in North America.[3]
Without the dedication
and conviction to reach those people who were without the Word of God, many
mission areas would not be reached. Townsends work has been a platform
appealing to many. His dedication and obedience to the convictions he had is a
fruitful work continued to be seen today. William Cameron Townsend died in 1982
at the age of 85 years of age.
Bibliography
"Cam
Townsend." Cam Townsend. Accessed March 30, 2015.
http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/hall-of-biography/cam-townsend.
Hibbard,
Calvin. "William Cameron Townsend 1896–1982." Biographical Sketch of
William Cameron Townsend. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://www-01.sil.org/wct/wct_bio3.html.
"Tribes,
Tongues and Translators" In Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement: A Reader, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, by William
Cameron Townsend, 327-328. Fourth ed. Pasadena,, Calif.: William Carey Library,
1981
[2] Calvin Hibbard, "William
Cameron Townsend 1896–1982." Biographical Sketch of William Cameron Townsend.
Accessed March 30, 2015. http://www-01.sil.org/wct/wct_bio3.html.
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