Transformation South Africa: Wycliffe Trip 2025
- Tom Stobbe
- Mar 22
- 3 min read
I have the wonderful opportunity to serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators on a short-term missions trip to South Africa and Namibia in May 2025.
I’m excited about this trip because I’ve been praying about a potential career shift into Bible translation and I’ll be using this opportunity to discern God’s call into possible full-time translation work. The team consists of two Wycliffe Canada members who will lead the trip, and six participants who are considering future work in Bible translation.
As a group, we will taking part in a variety of activities such as:
Celebrating and hearing how the Word of God in local languages is transforming lives
Learning and practicing prayer walks in strategic areas of South Africa and Namibia
Serving the local church and translation teams through Scripture Engagement activities
Personally, I have several goals and motivations for going on this trip:
To offer to God intentional time and space for Him to direct my future career path
To gain experience in cross-cultural settings
To witness the work of Bible translation and its effect on minority language groups
To model a posture of obedience to God to my kids
There are two specific language groups we'll be engaging with: the Kaaps in Cape Town, South Africa and the Himba people in rural Namibia. I'm excited for the broad range of experience which will result from serving such different people groups.
The Kaaps are a large people group in an urban environment who have been historically oppressed. Because of its low status in Cape Town, there is a level of shame attached to the Kaaps language. For this reason, Kaaps speakers are quick to minimize their cultural identity. However, this sentiment is changing in large part due to a ministry of musicians who are translating the Psalms directly into songs in the Kaaps language. Our team will be learning from this group and taking part in songwriting ourselves.
The Himba people are wildly different from the Kaaps. They are a semi-nomadic pastoral people who live close to Namibia's northern border. There are approximately 50,000 Himba speakers and they have very distinct cultural practices. Our group will be helping the local translation team, and we'll also have the opportunity to distribute portable audio players which contain the portions of scripture which have already been translated into Himba.
It is widely demonstrated from Wycliffe's work around the globe that Bible translation transforms lives. When people engage with the Word in their heart, their faith deepens, their lives improve, and their communities flourish. Would you partner with us as we seek to amplify the work of national translators in South Africa and Namibia? In particular, I invite you to join us as we proclaim that God doesn't just speak English or German or Afrikaans, but that God speaks Kaaps and Himba, and His Word is for every person on earth.
The most practical ways to partner with me as I serve these people and discern my future are through prayer and financial support. Like any other missionary, I need a team of people who will pray fervently and give generously.
Prayer is a primary concern of mine for this trip. From the time that my application was accepted, I have been very aware of how much spiritual opposition there is to this type of work. Please consider how you could pray for me and our team throughout the duration of our trip. I have volunteered to coordinate prayer requests and updates on behalf of the team so I'll reach out in the weeks to come about how you can be involved in prayer.
If you're able to give financially to this trip, I sincerely thank-you. Your belief in this work gives me a dose of assurance as I consider a future in missions.
