William Cameron Townsend was inspired to become a missionary after hearing John Mott speak. While preparing for WWI, he was challenged to go to the mission field instead of the battlefield. In Guatemala, a native asked why God didn't speak his language, motivating Townsend to found Wycliffe Bible Translators to translate the Bible into many languages. Starting with only a few students, it grew into a worldwide organization translating the Bible for thousands of ethnic groups around the world, fulfilling the Great Commission to reach all nations with the gospel.

1. The Best MISSIONARY
is the BIBLE
by Dr. Peter Hammond

3. The Best MISSIONARY
is the BIBLE
by Dr. Peter Hammond

4. "The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue.
It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner."
William Cameron Townsend.

5. From the Battlefield to the Mission Field
William Cameron Townsend was one of the most influential
mission leaders in the last century.

6. Born in California in 1896, raised in a Presbyterian
Church, he was inspired to join the Student Volunteer
Movement after hearing missionary John Mott speak at
Occidental College in Los Angeles.

7. In 1917, as William Townsend prepared to join the army and
participate in the war, he was challenged by a missionary on
furlough to make the Great Commission his priority and go to the
mission field instead of the battlefield.

8. Does God Speak My Language?
He departed for Guatemala, August 1917, with a Bible Association
that sold Spanish Bibles in the field.

9. He had almost
completed his first
year of service in
Guatemala when
one of the
Kaqchikel Indians
approached his
table, looked at
the Spanish Bible
and asked
"If your God is so
smart, why doesn’t
He speak my
language?"

10. Cameron was shocked to learn that although this man lived in
Guatemala, he was one of the 200,000 Kaqchikel people who
spoke no Spanish.

11. The cutting comment of this Indian so troubled Cameron, that he
dedicated the next 13 years of his life to translating the Bible into
their language.

12. Wycliffe Bible Translators
He then began an organisation known as Wycliffe Bible
Translators, named after The Morning Star of the Reformation,
Professor John Wycliffe, who first translated the Bible into English.

13. Humble
Beginnings
In 1937, Cameron Townsend
opened up Camp Wycliffe in
Arkansas to train young people
in basic linguistics
and translation methods.
Two students enrolled
in that first summer.
The following year,
five men attended.

14. From these small beginnings grew the worldwide
ministry of the Summer Institute of Linguistics,
Wycliffe Bible Translators and Wycliffe Associates.

15. No cultural group is considered too small, no language too great a
challenge. Today thousands of mission workers are engaged in
Wycliffe Bible translation projects.

16. Every Nation
William Townsend has been credited with launching the new
Missions frontier which no longer focuses only on reaching
continents and inland countries, but on
every distinct ethnic group, or people group in the world.

17. Jesus Christ focused on ethnolinguistic people
groups in the Great Commission.
When the Lord commanded us to make disciples
of every nation, He used the word ethne,
from where our word ethnic comes.

18. The Great Commission is not merely to take the Gospel to every
one of the 222 countries in the world, but to each of the, at least,
12,000 ethnolinguistic people groups in the world.

19. Confusion About What a Nation Is
Unfortunately, many are today confused about
the concept of nations

20. because there are a group of state representatives in
New York calling themselves the United Nations.

21. Of course, most of them have no legitimacy at all.
UN members are mostly gangsters with flags.

22. The United Nations is today the largest collection of unelected
dictators, mass-murderers, drug-traffickers and human-traffickers
on the planet.

23. A Biblical Nation is an Ethno Linguistic
People Group with a Shared Faith

24. The Scriptures make it clear that the Hebrews remained
Hebrews,

25. even after 480 years in Egypt.

26. They never became Egyptians.

27. We are not geographic accidents, but demographic descendants.

28. The Scripture emphasises that all the families of the nations of the
earth are to sing the praises of the Creator in every language and
tongue.

29. “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take
the scroll and to open its seals; for You were slain and have
redeemed us to God by Your Blood out of every tribe and
tongue and people and nation.” Revelation 5:9

35. Demographic Realities
that Challenge Missionaries
As examples of how demographics have changed and present
challenges to missionaries:

36. There are 250,000 Arabs and 40,000 Iraqis living in Detroit.

37. There are more than a million Japanese living in Sao Paulo,
Brazil.

38. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a city of 8 million,
10% of the churches are Korean speaking.

39. In Marseille, France, a city of 2 million inhabitants,
31% are from Africa, mostly of Arab origin.

40. In Minneapolis/St. Paul, there are 136 languages
and more than 70 ethnic groups represented.
More than half a million people in the twin cities are immigrants.

41. There are now more Buddhists, (56,000), living in the twin cities,
than Assemblies of God adherents in the whole state of
Minnesota.

42. There are twice as many Muslims (111,000) living in the twin cities
than Assemblies of God adherents in the whole state of
Minnesota.

43. There are more Bulgarians living in Chicago,
than in the capital city of Bulgaria, Sophia.

44. The Mission Fields Next Door
World Missions are no longer only across oceans, deserts and
mountains.

45. Many nations have moved into our own neighbourhoods.

46. Some Mission frontiers are no longer that geographically distant,

47. but culturally different
and literally in our own neighbourhoods.

48. The Power of the Printed Page
To reach these many nations,
we need the Word of God in every
language. "The Lord gave the Word;
great was the company of those who
proclaimed it." Psalm 68:11

49. “The harvest truly is plentiful,
but the labourers are few.”
Matthew 9:37

52. www.FrontlineMissionSA.org

55. FRONTLINE FELLOWSHIP
PO Box 74
Newlands, 7725
Cape Town
South Africa
Mission@Frontline.org.za
www.FrontlineMissionSA.org
Dr. Peter Hammond