After 30 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Jim has transitioned to a new stage of service. Wycliffe has assigned him to serve with Deaf Harbor to continue developing the Bible Hand concept for Deaf who use American Sign Language. He works with Deaf Harbor's Translation Resource Development team to gain natural signing input and feedback.
Bible Hand makes normal use of a signer's "weak" hand to display the timeline, books, geography and other information from the Bible. Bible Hand grew out of a request to develop training for Deaf Bible translation teams similar to the various "Walk Thru the Bible" seminars for people who use speech to communicate. Jim, who has been 'hard-of-hearing' all his adult life, bridges comfortably into Deaf communities. He is a member of a local Deaf church congregation.
Throughout Jim's ministry career with Wycliffe he has held significant roles to support the language development and Scripture access needs of minority communities. Jim helped to develop software tools for language analysis, trained translators in Africa to use the new software and led a project team to transition existing content into new systems. In 2006, Jim began working with the Deaf and over time helped train Deaf Africans to translate the Bible into their sign languages.
Wycliffe Ministry Budget
Wycliffe establishes a Ministry Budget for its members to reflect recurring expenses related to family factors and their geographic location of service. Giving to Wycliffe directly impacts members' ability to begin and remain in their assignment.
This monthly budget covers ministry-related expenses, insurance and retirement, social security and taxes, and Wycliffe administrative costs. The remainder is what the members receive as "take-home pay" for their daily living expenses.