History

“We (Wycliffe) give the Bible to the people, and you (BELT) open it for them.” Dr. Wayne Dye, Wycliffe Bible Translators

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Building Towards a Dream

Building today for the tomorrow we long for, our hope is to see this world reflecting more God’s dream and less our nightmare.

Our Story

BELT had its beginnings in 1995, when graduates from YWAM’s School of the Bible and Teachers for the Nations headed to Papua New Guinea to run the very first Bible immersion seminar following Wycliffe’s 400th New Testament dedication. The fruitfulness from this partnership, combining the strengths of Wycliffe Bible Translators and Youth With A Mission, along with God’s blessing, has inspired further cooperative projects of Scripture engagement around the world.

Since that time, BELT has grown its partnerships to include other Bible translation organizations, development organizations, national churches, and YWAM ministries. BELT has also expanded into areas of orality, producing audio Bibles and fully oral seminars, as well as creating materials appropriate for children and youth.

With the growth of the BELT network, our hopes are to see more teams in more countries able to multiply disciples who are making disciples.

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The Bible's Impact

Power to Change the World

“Picking (the Bible) up, you need to remind yourself that you hold in your hands not only the most famous book in the world, but one that has extraordinary power to change lives, to change communities, to change the world. It’s done it before and it can do it again.”

N. T Wright

The Challenge

In many places in the world, the church is expanding, yet is filled with unbiblical thinking and behavior due to its lack of scriptural understanding and application. This lack of discipleship in the ways of God has resulted in broken families, divided churches struggling with sinful habits, and communities marked by vice and lost in hopelessness and pain.

Our Response

For almost thirty years, BELT has assisted Scripture engagement endeavors around the world. The desire of BELT is to see God’s Kingdom expanded on earth through the transformation of individuals, families, churches, and communities by the Word and Spirit of God.

Our Strategies

Though originally focusing on the multiplication of international Bible teaching teams, our strategy has shifted to raising local teams. The result is quicker response to requests, easier adaptation to culture and language differences, fewer travel restrictions and international travel expenses, and the ability to develop long-term strategies and resources appropriate for the local context.

A Word from our Pilot Project

Peter Evans of SIL, host of BELT’s pilot project in 1995, shares the impact the seminars are still having amongst the Barai in 2024.

"29 years have passed since that first BELT course and I am glad to say that the training received during that first course and several subsequent courses is still being used. Barai Christians are still attending worship services in several villages. Some are still going on outreaches to share the gospel and encourage the use of the Scriptures. Old Testament translation is still going forward. Interest in Scripture engagement activities continues.

Though we retired in 2005, the work is in good local hands, especially because of the training of the BELT teams – training in the Word of God, training in leadership, training in reaching out to other languages, training in living out the Gospel in their daily lives. We are so thankful that the Lord is still working among the Barai people."

Training that Makes a Difference

“Church leaders in most local language groups greatly need culturally appropriate Bible teaching. BELT does this difficult task beautifully.”
Dr. Wayne Dye, International Anthropology Consultant, Wycliffe Bible Translators

Join Us

For Such a Time as This

With over 8 billion people who share this planet, the number of Christians worldwide is expected to climb to 2.63 billion this year (according to the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity, 2024). The need to ground and establish converts is urgent. It is our mandate. “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey all I commanded.” (Mat 18:18-20) Will you join this mission at this significant time?