History with Wycliffe
Paul and Grace Closius are members of Wycliffe Bible Translators and Associate Members of Lutheran Bible Translators who serve at the JAARS Service Center in Waxhaw, North Carolina, making periodic trips to Ghana for ministry with GILLBT.
Paul and Grace's history with Wycliffe
Paul and Grace joined Wycliffe in 1972 and have served in Colombia, Ghana, and at Wycliffe's technical center (JAARS) in North Carolina.
Ghana
Between 2002 and 2006, Paul and Grace assisted the work of the Wycliffe group in Tamale for a total of 18 months. Paul served in the IT Hardware department and Grace was a teacher for the mission's ESL ministry to French speaking Bible translators. Paul and Grace also had the wonderful opportunity to minister in schools and churches using flannel graph stories. Paul was a key player in the Gonja scripture recording team in Ghana. Four hundred Gonja believers and 40 listening groups are now studying the Word through the ministry of Faith Comes By Hearing.
JAARS
As a Vernacular Media Technician, Paul helped edit the Lacandone audio Bible as well as the Apinaye and Nambikuara, Wavao and Rikbaktsa audio New Testament in Brazil. A special thrill we both had was to record and edit the Gullah audio book of John. You can download both the written New Testament and audio book of John, click here: Gullah written NT and audio Gospel of John
For twenty years, Paul served in the electronics repair shop at JAARS as Technical Training Manager and Electronics Technician, but currently works full time with Vernacular Media Services, specializing in the audio recording and editing of vernacular (heart language) scriptures.
Today about 340 million people do not have any Scripture in their language. Wycliffe’s vision is to see the Bible accessible to all people in the language they understand best. To make this vision a reality, Wycliffe also focuses on community development, literacy development and church partnerships.