Wycliffe, the world’s leading bible translator, is going to hold a series of conferences to highlight the role of Information Technology (IT) in advancing world mission.

To be held in three cities across the U.S., the first conference will start in Castro Valley, San Francisco on Feb. 24-25. The other two separate conferences will be held at the U.S. Center for World Mission in Los Angeles on March 3-4 and Seattle later this year.

As the conference is called "Check-IT-Out," the theme is about how the mechanisms of the Great Commission can be made faster by using Information Technology (IT), thus bringing out the key message that IT professionals are central to modern Christian missions. Through the conference, Wycliffe wishes to inspire some Christian IT workers to consider using their gifts and talents for the work of God.

Wycliffe has utilized IT very well in its bible translation work. During the conference, a series of topics will be presented, showing participants the picture of IT world in Wycliffe. Some of the highlights include History of Computer Development in Wycliffe; Range of Language & Translation Support Software used by Wycliffe; Speech analyzer; the centrality of IT in Bible translation and among others.

Apart from the 12 topical presentations, the conference is a good opportunity for participants to meet Wycliffe IT missionaries and see how God is using them. Many of the speakers at the conference are not only experts in Bible translation, but they are also experienced missionaries serving in some challenging mission fields out of the U.S.

For those who are interested in joining Wycliffe, they will be given opportunity to sit down with Wycliffe representatives and chart a personal journey into one of the eight modes of involvement.

Meanwhile, Wycliffe continues working on the "Vision 2025" project, which aims to serve in partnership worldwide so that Bible translation can begun by 2025 in every remaining language community that needs it.

According to the progress report of 2005, the number of languages needing Bible translation work to begin reaches 2,529 (representing approximately 272 million people). On top of technical difficulties, there is ongoing demand for linguist/translators, literacy specialists, trainers, project managers, computer specialists, accountants, administrators and other support roles to assist the complicated translation work. Currently, Wycliffe has over 2,978 job vacancies worldwide.

"At the current rate, Bible translation will be in progress in every language group that needs it by 2038. Greater acceleration is needed to reach the goal of Vision 2025, but we rejoice in the progress being made," said John Watters, Executive Director of Wycliffe International, according to the 2005 report.

For further details about the conference, please visit the official website: http://www.wysite.org/sites/checkitout/Homepage.