Endowment fund launched to honor Nobel Prize nominee By Arthur Lightbody Wycliffe Bible Translators Monday, September 14, 1998
The Ken Pike Endowment Fund will be used to strengthen the academic work of SIL by assisting personnel from SIL working in 50 countries. It will also assist personnel from its affiliate organizations located in 19 developing nations. Founded in 1934, SIL is devoted to the study of lesser-known languages and enriching the lives of people speaking these languages. SIL conducts research in over 1,000 languages. It works in partnership with host governments and people at the local level to promote linguistic research, language development, translation, literacy and other educational services. The endowment funds will be administered by SIL and used for language research, to organize professional seminars and workshops, promote participation in professional conferences, assist scholars in advanced study programs and in the publication of professional research. The fund’s goal is $4 million. A passion for missions While at Gordon College, Pike developed a passion for missionary work after reading the biography of Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to China. Intrigued by the complexities of the Mandarin language, and unsure of his own abilities to learn a language, he heard about Camp Wycliffe in Sulphur Springs, Ark. Camp Wycliffe was named in honor of John Wycliffe, who first translated the Bible into English back in the 1300s. The camp was founded by William Cameron Townsend and Leonard L. Legters, who shared a vision for translating the Bible into the languages of people who did not yet have it. The camp had courses that included the description of an Indian language, anthropology studies and phonetics. In the summer of 1935 Pike attended Camp Wycliffe’s second course along with only four other students. This launched Pike’s distinguished linguistics career that has spanned 63 years, a career that enabled the then-fledgling translation group to eventually develop the linguistic expertise necessary to work in almost 1,600 languages worldwide. Summer Institute of Linguistics The language institute was incorporated as The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in 1942, the same year it began an affiliation with the University of Oklahoma. Pike became the first president of SIL, a position he held until 1979. Soon after, Wycliffe Bible Translators was incorporated to provide resources for SIL. Research and translation is currently under way in 1,053 languages. Pike went to Mexico in the fall of 1935, wasting no time in applying what he had learned at Camp Wycliffe. He began to learn the language of the Mixtec Indians in the remote town of San Miguel El Grande located in the state of Oaxaca. In those early years he showed a great aptitude for learning and analyzing the language. In 1938 Pike married Evelyn Griset, also a linguist. Together they studied the Mixtec language and worked on the translation of a Mixtec New Testament. Pike received his Ph.D at the University of Michigan in 1942. During the years the Pikes lived with the Mixtecs, they divided their time between Mixtec language and culture studies and teaching new recruits at Camp Wycliffe. Upon completing the San Miguel Mixtec New Testament in 1951, he assisted SIL’s field linguists with their language analyses. The Pikes’ travels to consult SIL linguists took them to Latin America and Africa, and to Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, India, and Indonesia. Nobel Prize nomination Pike has written 20 books, 200 articles, and has lectured in 42 countries, including a Fulbright lectureship in Russia in 1988. David Moberg, of Marquette University, wrote when nominating Pike for the 1997 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, “Few, if any, people have played a more significant role in providing the foundation of commitment to Christian faith that has reduced misery and raised the level of living of preliterate peoples than Pike over the past five decades.” And in a nomination letter written by U.S. Senator Paul Simon to the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee Simon wrote of SIL and Pike, “No other individual or group has done more for some of the most downtrodden of the world.” Editor’s note: According to Arthur Lightbody, Wycliffe’s director of public relations, 129 members of the PCUSA now serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators, “For example, Steve Doty trains Kenyan translators in Nairobi, Anton Bucher is the VP for Administration for SIL International and Wycliffe International in Dallas, Marilyn Cathcart is a translator in Colombia, etc. All of these members are self-supporting, looking to God for support through churches and individuals.” To help support these Presbyterians, or to learn more about Wycliffe or SIL, call 1-800-Wycliffe (1-800-992-5433) or visit www.wycliffe.org and www.sil.org. |
||
| The Presbyterian Layman, current issue | ||
|
Home,
· Archives,
·News
Updates |
||
