About

Brad and Elyse are two people who are committed to supporting language development and Bible translation for minority people groups.

Elyse works as a photojournalist for Wycliffe Global Alliance. Traveling regularly to remote parts of the world, Elyse brings home the stories of how language development, literacy and translation are affecting minority language communities.

Brad has just changed careers from an electrical engineer to a high-school maths teacher, and is a supporter of Elyse and other international language workers.

If you’d like to hear more about what we’re doing and why, or how you can be involved, we’d love to hear from you. Find us at: us@bradandelyse.com

Elyse’s photographic work can be found all over the web. Check out her new photography site – www.elysepatten.com

Why Bible Translation? You may think it a non-event, what with the 500+ translations of the Bible into English, surely most other languages have this same privilege.

Well, they don’t. There are still over 2000 language groups (that’s almost 200 million people) who don’t have the Bible in a language they can understand, their own language.

If you’re not a Christian, consider the fundamental principles that our free Western society is founded on, and how many of them come from a the wise old words of Scripture. The idea of Public Servant, for example, is an entirely Christian concept, radically introduced by the historical Jesus. Grace, forgiveness, charity, love your neighbour, take care of the poor, – imagine our society without these principals to guide us, especially our law-makers.

If you’re a Christian, think about what your life would be like if you couldn’t pick up the Bible and find something encouraging, challenging, comforting – to hear God’s word for you. Remember all the times in your life when you’ve done just that, and imagine if the only time you could hear God’s instructions, promises and blessings was from someone else’s perspective, in a foreign language, or a language that you only know enough of to buy and sell goods at the market.

The privilege of being able to make their own interpretations of this book, means that minority people can start lifting the oppression of centuries of western religious colonialism. Not to mention the advantage of being able to teach their children to read in their own language, which greatly increases their chance of an education. Language development also gives the minority group a voice within their nation, preserving their indigenous language and culture on the world stage.