When God's Word Becomes Personal - Melissa Paredes | Faithly Podcast

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I can't even articulate what it means to me, Alicia.

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Like, it just fills me with so much passion for the work, for this moment in history.

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Like, don't be a bystander of what God is doing.

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Come and participate.

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Come and find your fit.

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Welcome to the Faithly Podcast.

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My guest today is Melissa Paredes, and she is a Senior Director of Content Marketing at Wycliffe Bible Translators.

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Every day, Melissa and her team are part of how God is bringing His Word to people around the world in the languages that they understand best.

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But Melissa's story isn't just about marketing or ministry.

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Her story is deeply personal.

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When her oldest son was diagnosed with autism at just three years old, scripture became the anchor that carried her and her family through uncertainty.

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Welcome, Melissa.

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Thank you.

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Let's start with your role at Wycliffe.

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You've served there for almost 15 years, and your role today is Senior Director of Content Marketing.

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Can you talk to us about what that entails?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Thank you, Alicia.

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Today, I have the privilege of helping steward the way that Wycliffe tells our story to the world.

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God is doing amazing things through the Bible translation movement.

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And we believe that everyone should not only be aware of what He's doing, but should have the opportunity to come and participate with us.

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And so in the Wycliffe marketing team, we do that through all sorts of, you know, typical content channels, social media, YouTube, web pages, print pages.

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video.

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And it really is just with the premise of wanting to forecast what God is doing, invite people in to see what is happening, and for them to get a taste of the impact that happens when people are able to read, hear, or see Scripture come to life in a language and format they clearly understand.

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Wow, that's a really important role, one that probably not a lot of people in the ministry world knows exists.

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So let's dig into it a little bit more.

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You all talk about engagement in a few very specific ways.

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You talk about pray, give, advocate, serve, and get your church involved.

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Can you dig into those a little bit more?

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Yeah, that's a great question.

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And when we think of success, I would say at the end of the day, if we could get

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countless people to come and pray specifically for the work of Bible translation, that would be enough.

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But we want to also invite them into other ways to participate.

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We do believe that prayer is foundational to the work of Bible translation, and therefore it is oftentimes the easiest first step to take.

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Many people in the West don't know about the need for Bible translation.

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They assume that because we have so many English versions, that surely other people around the world also have similar access.

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Or perhaps they wonder why can't people just learn English or another majority language in order to encounter God's Word personally.

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But we believe that God's Word isn't just for majority languages.

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It's for all communities, all people.

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And so one of the ways that we invite people to participate is through praying for the work, praying for specific communities as a Bible translation is either waiting to start, is ongoing, or is nearing completion to where maybe a New Testament or a full Bible is being placed into their hands.

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We also want to invite people to give.

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Obviously, Bible translation needs funds to sustain the work, and so there are countless different ways to come and give to the work.

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Some of the opportunities that I find most exciting is our monthly giving plan, which is a word givers community.

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You can come and give a set amount of money each month, and that helps fuel the work of Bible translation ongoing.

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We also have a church opportunity called Adoptiverse, where churches can come together, select maybe a book of the Bible or specific chapters for a community that their individual church members

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can commit to adopting a specific verse that will help fund translation.

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Those are just two of multiple different ways to give.

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But we believe that God blesses those who are generous with their resources.

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We also believe that when you become passionate about something, that overflows out of you.

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And so advocacy is a way for individuals who learn about the work of Bible translation, who have gotten involved, to go and tell others who in your family, your friends, your community don't know about the need, that you can go and tell the story and invite them to come find their right step.

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And then obviously service is for those who are passionate about going.

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And in today's day and age, there are less people who are going, but those are still valuable roles that we need to fill as we partner with the global church to see this work advanced around the world.

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And so those are our five key invitations.

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We talk about it within our work as finding your next right step.

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And so I don't believe any one step is perfect for everyone.

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And it's oftentimes that you will begin to take multiple steps and

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as you engage deeper in the work of Bible translation.

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But the way that we track really success in that is, are we capturing people's hearts and are they moving from information to engagement?

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So we create resources that invite people into this initial space.

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And as we see them move deeper into their journey with Wycliffe,

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we see that engagement deepen, we see their commitment to the work deepen, and we see their involvement expand over time.

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And so some of that is a mix of like actual KPIs and numbers.

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You know, we need to have goals to know if our work is successful.

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But I firmly believe that there are going to be countless stories that we will never get to hear until we're in heaven.

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when we're sitting before the throne and we meet men and women and children whose lives were impacted because of individuals' participation in this work.

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And so at the end of the day, we just fully believe that this has an eternal return on investment and that no matter what step you take, God is going to bless you as you participate in His mission.

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That's beautiful.

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And I love the way that you seamlessly are weaving together things like KPIs, like things that we talk about in the marketing and the business world, because you have to.

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But also knowing that it is completely part and parcel with just a bigger mission that you don't always get to see the results of here and now.

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Let's take a step back for a moment and talk about Wycliffe.

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I think I was pronouncing that incorrectly, Wycliffe's mission.

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So for our listeners who might be hearing about it for the first time, what is the easiest way to talk about it and the easiest way in, the starting point for people to get involved?

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Yeah, that's a great question.

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And I think in my mind, to synthesize it, Wycliffe's mission is to see God's Word made accessible for all people.

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So, historically, it's been believed that Bible translation is about languages, but I would argue that languages are just a conduit to people.

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So, at the end of the day, it's not about the number of global languages.

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It's about the people who are able to read, hear, or see Scripture come to life in a way that they clearly understand so that their hearts can be captured and their lives transformed forever.

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Yeah.

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And so when I think about that, especially in the Western context, where maybe we don't have a broad global view of Scripture access, it's asking yourself the question, why Bible translation?

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Why is this important?

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Why can't people just learn another language?

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Why can't they just use the English Bible?

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And we've actually created a resource specifically to answer some of those questions, which is

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anyone can find at wickliff.org slash why.

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And it kind of gives you that 101.

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Like, why is this important?

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Why do all people need scripture?

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Why can't they just, whatever your fill in the blank is.

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And so help us to really just help create that foundational understanding of just how, like how blessed you are to have scripture access and,

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Imagine trying to read scripture in a language that you only partly understood.

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So one of the examples that we use is if you understood 80% of another language and you were to be reading scripture, think about the key terms and definitions that might not translate accurately.

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So if you went to John 3, 16 in another majority language, but you didn't understand things like loved, saved, you would only get a partial understanding and therefore it would not be complete nor would it be accurate.

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So it is our desire that

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everyone be able to encounter God in the language that they think in, dream in, and pray to God in, because that's when at a heart level, they're able to experience His love and understand, and it moves from a head knowledge to a heart transformation.

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Yes.

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I think anyone who's studied the Bible for any number, like for any amount of time, knows that it's not easy to understand the Bible, even in your heart language, right?

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Like in my women's community group where we are reading Scripture together, it's not as if we read it and we say, ah,

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We all get it.

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We fully comprehend what this means and how to apply it to our lives.

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There is a wrestle going on, you know, each and every time we encounter Scripture, and it's in our language.

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So what you're saying makes perfect sense to me.

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So one of the things that you all talk about is celebrating Bible completions and dedications.

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Now, that vocabulary was a little mysterious to me.

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So can you talk a little bit about what that means?

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Yeah.

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So when we think about completions, historically, that oftentimes meant the completion of a New Testament, for instance.

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So in many communities around the world, the New Testament was the first phase of work that was done.

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And it was only a few decades ago where it was becoming more consistent to then translate the Old Testament as well.

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And so that is a historical model of, you know, maybe 20 to 40 years of a missionary couple or multiple couples working in a village or a community, learning the language, working to translate the Bible, and then dedicating whatever was completed.

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So most often that was a

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full New Testament.

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There are also full Bibles that are dedicated.

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So as of July 1, there are just over 800 full Bibles in the world, and there are nearly 7,400 languages.

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So you can imagine that a full Bible dedication is a little bit few and far between.

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That's only

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11% of the world's languages that have access to the complete counsel of God's Word.

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Nowadays, scripture translation is happening faster than ever before because of technology advancements.

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And so a dedication or a completion might mean that a community is choosing to celebrate several books that they have finished, printed, or put on videos or audio chips that they are now distributing into the community.

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So it's very dependent on what does the community want?

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How quickly do they want the scripture in their hands as part of the translation process?

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And I had the privilege of participating in a full Bible dedication a couple years ago.

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And it was actually for an older gentleman that I had grown up knowing as a child.

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I'm a Wycliffe missionary kid, which means that when I was 12 years old, my family moved overseas to the Philippines, lived there until I came back to the U.S. for college.

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And so I knew this man, Nardpugiao, as a young child.

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And in June of 2023, he invited a group of us back to celebrate the full Bible in his language of East Nog.

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It was an incredible moment for me, like having gone from being a teenager, living there, probably not fully understanding the scope of my parents' work, and being able to come back as an adult and witness what God had been doing in that community.

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That particular Bible translation took 66 years from start to finish.

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Wow.

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An incredible testament of God's hand at work.

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Nard's nephew participated in the translation of the Old Testament.

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And when Nard first met Jesus, he was around seven years old, which at the time of the dedication was how old my oldest son was.

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And so as I'm sitting there watching the joy of this community, as they were able to exchange their New Testament copies for a new full Bible at the dedication, and just them clutching it to their chest, weeping over it, instantly going to passages in the Old Testament that they had not yet been able to read, and seeing groups of children carry around these Bibles and knowing that they would never read.

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as in speaking to them and their language.

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And that was just one of those moments where I was like, okay, this is why I do what I do.

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This is why I'm so passionate about this work and about inviting others in.

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Because those are stories that we can hear on this side of heaven, but they will only be multiplied by the stories that we'll hear when we're sitting before the throne and can talk with communities, talk with individuals who finally encountered God speaking their language and not just a foreign language.

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Wow, what a blessing for me, for all of our listeners.

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To hear that story, I feel like we all just got a glimmer of the kinds of stories that we will hear someday.

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In this conversation, it slowly dawned on me as we're talking how inextricably linked this work is to the work of missionaries.

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And your story, your life, like your personal testimony, having been a missionary's kid and now working in this role, like it really brings it to life.

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So thank you for sharing that story.

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Wow, 66 years, 66 years to bring that Bible to completion.

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Many of our listeners are pastors and other kinds of ministry leaders who are teaching from books of the Bible every week.

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I bet it's

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every single one of them who just heard that story will just pause a little bit each time they pick up that Bible and teach from it on Sundays.

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Wow.

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Thank you for sharing.

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I want to switch gears a little bit since we're in your story and your life now.

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I know that a few years ago, you entered a season where you needed to cling to the Word in a whole new way.

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Can you tell us about that season?

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Can you tell us about what motherhood has been like for you?

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Growing up, I had two dreams.

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One, to become a writer, and two, to become a mother.

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And God answered my dream to become a writer within my Wycliffe role, and shortly after that, He answered my dream of becoming a mother.

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I have three kids in three years, so you can imagine the busy early childhood years.

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But it was around when my oldest son was 18 or so months that we began to notice that

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I would say expanding compared to his peers.

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You know, those first few years, everyone's like, it doesn't matter how quickly they walk or they crawl or they talk because by the time they're five, it all balances out.

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But I would say that for my son, those gaps began to be more apparent from his peers.

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And so we started an exploratory journey of what's going on.

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It was a little bit of a chicken and egg situation.

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He was nonverbal, but he was also pretty non-active.

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He tended to sit back and observe.

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He had slower motor development.

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So he didn't walk until closer to two years old.

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And by the time he was three, he only had three words.

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And at that time, we started to lean in more intentionally around the diagnosis of what's called childhood apraxia of speech.

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And this is a rare motor neurological disorder that's honestly still like fairly unknown.

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There's a lot of questions around whether it's birth trauma, genetic, or just an anomaly.

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But childhood apraxia of speech means that the motor functionalities of the mouth, lips, and tongue that we take for granted, he had to program.

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through repetition.

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And so they don't diagnose you as apraxic until at least three years old, because before then it could just be a language delay, maybe a language acquisition or a language like communication issue.

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But at three, when they realized he still only had the three words, they officially gave him that diagnosis.

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And so

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I was two weeks shy of the birth of my youngest daughter.

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So I had an almost three-year-old, had an 18-month-old, and I was eight and a half months pregnant when we got this diagnosis.

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And I live in Florida, and when you get a diagnosis like that, as soon as you turn three, you're immediately eligible for specialized education services as early intervention.

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And so in that season, I literally went to the IEP meeting for my son while in early labor with my daughter because it was one of those moments of figure this out.

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Like, I don't have an option.

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And so she was born 11 days later.

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Rory turned three and he instantly went into these services.

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So ever since, he's been in some form of speech therapy, physical therapy, because again, he was a delayed walker, occupational therapy to help him with some of his fine motor skills.

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And in that moment, I distinctly remember getting the call that he had the apraxia diagnosis and just breaking down.

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I didn't understand why God was allowing this to happen.

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I was obviously overwhelmed and hormonal because of being pregnant.

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But I was just, why?

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Why, God?

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Why would you choose my son, my sweet son, who you have so beautifully and wonderfully made?

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Why is this his start to life?

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And in that moment, God continued to like reveal himself to me like, this does not catch me off guard.

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I made Rory the way he is for a reason.

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Yeah.

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All of the things that you've prayed for and asked for, I will bring about to completion, but not in the way you plan.

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I'm the oldest child of seven.

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So as you can imagine, that means I have high responsibility.

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Worked, you know, in some ways as a second mother to my siblings.

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So I had high goals, high ambitions.

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I was going to kill this motherhood journey.

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I was prepped and so excited to be a mom and then banned that diagnosis.

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Over the next few years, my son's almost 11 now.

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We've done multiple forms of intervention and therapy.

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And God is answering my prayers.

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Rory is now verbal.

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He's been verbal for quite some time.

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Wow.

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Yeah, which is honestly like when you hear about children of apraxia, like there's a whole range, everything from not to they get to the point where you would never know.

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But it's very, it's very varied.

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Like you don't know, is your child going to develop speech and how well, how much work is it going to take?

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Will they truly overcome this or will they just get to a point and then have to compensate?

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And what we've experienced with Rory is he's very verbal.

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He talks nonstop.

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His articulation is not great.

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And so that's still something that we're working with him on.

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But God has answered my prayers and that now my son talks more than I ever would have thought possible, which is an incredible blessing.

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But Rory, his journey has also taught me that this life is not mine anymore.

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to own.

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It is mine to steward.

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And so as I look at Rory and as we try to come alongside him as parents and even with his, you know, his siblings coming alongside him, what is the journey of how God has invited Rory to participate in his mission?

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And it's going to look different than mine.

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He may never go to college.

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Right now, he does not want to go to college because he does not love academia.

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It's okay.

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My kids don't want to go either.

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Perfect.

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Which I'm like, I'm all for.

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If you want to find a job and a skill set that we develop, great.

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But what I love about Rory is that he sees people.

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And so he has such a tender heart.

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At the age of seven, he made the decision to be baptized, which at the time, I know, right?

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I was very like, okay, you're really young to have decided that.

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And he has sensory issues.

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So at the time, like he did not like getting his head wet.

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If any water trickled down over his face, it could result in meltdowns that we would have to help navigate him out of.

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And so when he

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this means you have to go fully underwater if you're going to do submerged baptism and in front of our entire church congregation, which is probably 1,500, 2,000 people in that service.

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So I'm like, if you panic on stage, my brain's going through like, how do we overcome that?

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How do we calm them down?

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How do we not make the entire baptism fall apart?

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And

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And he told me, it's okay, mommy.

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I can do this because I want people to know how much I love Jesus.

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Wow.

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And I was just floored because I was like, the Lord has shown up in his life in so many ways.

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I trust that he will continue to just like he has in the past.

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And in that moment, like, that was the first time that Rory went fully underwater without having a meltdown.

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Wow.

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Wow.

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And he's had meltdowns since, you know, like it's not like older or whatever.

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But like in that moment, like God showed up and and Rory is an ambassador for Jesus in ways that challenge me as an adult.

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Like he just shows up and he asks people questions and he lets them know that Jesus loves them and he's there now.

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very present and very active in people's lives.

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And so when I think about what I had anticipated motherhood would look like versus how it's gone, it is completely different.

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And yet I feel like God is using my children.

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to shape me, to refine me, to help me trust in Him more.

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And along the way, it's really just given me a personal and a deep value for like why Scripture is so important.

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And if I didn't have Scripture in my own language during all these years, I don't know what I would do.

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So when I think through the billions of people around the world...

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And those who don't yet have access to scripture, it reminds me that just like Jesus has been my anchor, he can be their anchor too, but they need to know, they need to be told.

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Wow, what a story.

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And I mean, I can see the through line in it.

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You know, you're someone who God has placed on your heart this love of the Word, right?

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And you know the weight of the Word and the importance of the Word and your life's work is translating the Word.

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And your son is

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Each of his words has a different weight than each of our words because they're so, his words are hard fought, right?

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And his decision to get baptized, like getting baptized at such a young age, and it's like this sensory challenge for him.

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It just, it carries a different weight.

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Wow, what a story.

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Can I ask you, is his apraxis diagnosis, am I saying that right?

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Is that a form of autism?

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Yeah.

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That's a great question.

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And honestly, I don't think there's any clear yes or no.

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Oftentimes, kids with apraxia do have a secondary diagnosis.

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So around a year ago now was when he formally got the autism and ADHD diagnosis.

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He also has some different developmental delays.

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It is a little bit of a chicken and egg.

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Like in my mind, my son does not manifest as a

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stereotypical autistic.

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You know, oftentimes when we think of autism, we either think of like highly intelligent black and white thinkers, or we could think about people who have sensory overload, who maybe are stimming and, you know, doing either vocal or physical things.

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He doesn't manifest in either of those extremes.

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He

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Definitely has a hard time maintaining eye contact, which, you know, is oftentimes a stereotype of autism.

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So we've had to do that.

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His imaginative play is not normal to his peers.

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So in my mind, it's like,

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We have chosen to talk that Rory has autism rather than Rory is autistic because I don't want his autism or his apraxia diagnosis to define him.

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It helps us form who he is, how he's developing the type of interventions or things that we can be aware of.

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But I want...

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take himself as himself, as the way that God has made him.

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And so it's this balancing act of like, okay, well, he has apraxia.

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Does he have autism because of that?

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Or does he have, you know, apraxia because he has autism?

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And it may never be clear, to be honest.

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But to me, like,

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In my personal journey with Rory, diagnoses are more of a framework than a label.

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I want us to be able to understand, like, what are the needs that Rory has that need targeted intervention, that need therapy, that need accommodations, while still giving Rory the freedom to be who God designed him to be, which is unique and wonderfully made.

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He has the whole suite, the whole list of all the things.

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And yet, like when we talk with Rory about it, he understands these are the things that I struggle with.

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These are the things that I'm good at.

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What are the things that I need to lean into more because they do come naturally to me?

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What are the things that I have to work harder for?

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And that is one of the conversations that's harder to have because he's about to turn 11 and he's been in therapy since he was 18 months old.

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We look at what's to come for his apraxia journey.

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He might always need some level of speech therapy.

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We've heard from some adults with apraxia that the more tired they get, the more their language devolves, the more stress they get, you know, the more the language devolves.

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And so for all we know, he might always need some kind of external intervention to just help keep him going.

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in prayer is that Rory will continue to see God's fingerprints all over his life and the way God designed him and be able to lean into all that God has made him to be rather than all the things that the world thinks he lacks.

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When you first received his diagnosis, if you could have

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peeked into where you are now with Him, you know, so talkative, getting baptized, like showing you everything that makes Him unique and beautiful and a miracle.

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What, like, what would you have thought, what would you have said at that point?

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I think I would have trusted more.

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Yeah.

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You know, like, again, because I'm a high responsibility person, I can think these are all the things that I got to do to make sure that we're successful, that he checks all the boxes, that we provide all the therapies, that we make all the accommodations, that we make all the accommodations.

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But at the end of the day, like it's God's grace that has gotten Rory where he is.

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And we've had countless people who have prayed for Rory along the way.

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And it's a beautiful testimony to them, too, that God answers prayers in his timing and his ways.

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And again, this has been almost an eight year journey since that first diagnosis and seeing how far he's come and yet still asking God to do more like God.

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you to make way.

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God could choose to heal Roy from his apraxia.

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And we've asked God to do that.

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We've had him prayed over.

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We've had people place their hands on him.

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And God has not chosen to do that.

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But that doesn't mean I'm not going to stop praying for it or asking God to continue to show up.

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And so I think for me, it's like, take one day at a time.

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Take one obstacle, one hurdle at a time.

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You know, the years have been long.

328
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You know, it's been a long journey.

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He's had a fight for where he is today.

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But he's taught me too that there is resiliency that comes because of the Lord and not because of our own strength, because I can very easily default to, I got this, I have a plan, I have a to-do list.

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Yeah.

332
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But it's literally God's grace.

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And so if I could look back on where we were eight years ago and where we are today, it's like, okay, God will make a way.

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He will sustain us.

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He will carry us.

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He will equip and empower us.

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And it doesn't mean it's been easy today.

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But it has been beautiful because God has been in charge.

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And so if I could go back and be like, okay, just release and surrender and wait with anticipation, continue to hope, continue to pray, but just trust that God is going to do what he's going to do for his glory.

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And we just happen to be observers and participants because, you know, we do play a role in Rory's life too, but God's going to do what he wants to do.

341
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Thank you so much for sharing that story.

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So much of it resonates with me personally.

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I'm also the eldest daughter.

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And so the high responsibility thing, you know, it just, it really, it really resonates with me.

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And I think that for the high responsibility eldest daughter, I think, you know, taking control, wanting to like manufacture outcomes, it's like imprinted on our DNA, right?

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You know, it's taken me challenge and hardship to relinquish that control, to understand that I never had that control to begin with, and to truly understand something about God's grace.

347
00:32:04.152 --> 00:32:11.699
So, looking back, was there particular scripture or particular promises that you really had to cling on to in those early years?

348
00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:28.748
Yeah, when I think about Rory's situation in particular and the moments where I feel like I'm drowning, where there's just wave after wave after wave, the one that sticks out most frequently in my head is Psalm 61, verse 2.

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And this is in the NIV translation specifically.

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But it says, From the ends of the earth I call to you.

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I call as my heart grows faint.

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Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

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And just that visual of, you know, you feel like you're drowning.

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You feel like the waves are just going to continue to hit you over and over and over again.

355
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And can you take any more?

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And just knowing that, like, I have a rock.

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to rest upon.

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I have a rock that has a higher vantage point than I do that I can climb up to, that He will pull me out of this moment.

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That's probably been one of the strongest visuals for me of just the love that God has for us, for me as a mom, for Rory in this journey.

360
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Yeah.

361
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It just, I think it speaks to the heart that I have when I think about

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the exhaustion that can set in when I'm trying to make my own plans, when I'm trying to be the one to help intervene and fix Rory.

363
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And it's like, no, I can't do this on my own.

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I have to look to the Father who will rescue me, who will protect me, who is my rock and my foundation, because everything else will just wash out or wash away.

365
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So that's been one that...

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Just in the back of my head, I memorized it as a child and that visual of cling to the rock that is higher than I like that phrase in particular just jumps out at me whenever I think about how overwhelmed or exhausted I'm feeling.

367
00:34:05.304 --> 00:34:05.624
Yeah.

368
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Wow.

369
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That is so good.

370
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I'm curious if going through the experience of bringing Rory through his diagnosis and just all these years of working with him, I'm curious if it's shaped your understanding of your work.

371
00:34:23.202 --> 00:34:25.025
Yeah, it really has.

372
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When I first started at Wycliffe 14 years ago, I initially got a job here because I had just gotten out of college.

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My parents were working at the Wycliffe headquarters in Orlando, and they're like, come get a job while you figure out what you want to do with your life.

374
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And at the time, I desperately wanted to go back overseas and work with orphans.

375
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I mentioned earlier, I'm the oldest of seven.

376
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The first three of us are biological and the next four are adopted.

377
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And so God's always had this desire within me to work with orphans.

378
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So I was absolutely convinced that Wycliffe was just a pit stop on my journey towards my own mission experience.

379
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But along the way, God has affirmed like, this is where I want you in this season.

380
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And the season has gone on longer than I ever anticipated it would.

381
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And honestly, right around the time that Rory was five, we were coming out of the whole COVID situation.

382
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It was the fall of 2021.

383
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He was in kindergarten and he was just coming home crying every single day.

384
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He was exhausted.

385
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He couldn't keep up with his peers.

386
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He was really struggling.

387
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And in that season, we got pregnant with baby number four, which there was a three-ish year age gap between my then youngest and the new baby.

388
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And we're like, oh my goodness, we're going to have to start all over.

389
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We also have these three kids that were trying to navigate Rory's needs.

390
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What does this mean?

391
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I had always been a full-time working mom and we had made it work.

392
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But in that moment, it was like, okay, adding a fourth one changes things.

393
00:35:54.725 --> 00:36:00.210
And I had always wanted to homeschool, but it was like, but I love Wycliffe, but I wanna homeschool, but I love Wycliffe.

394
00:36:00.751 --> 00:36:09.839
And so in that moment with baby number four on the horizon, we're like, okay, maybe the Lord is saying, you need to leave Wycliffe and focus on your kids.

395
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or even shift your role at Wycliffe.

396
00:36:13.741 --> 00:36:18.585
For most of my 14 years, I have been in some kind of storytelling role within the organization.

397
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Because again, I mentioned earlier, I wanted to be a writer.

398
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I was so grateful that God had brought me into a place where I could tell stories.

399
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But in that moment, it's like, oh, I think God's calling me to focus on my kids.

400
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And so we made the hard decision.

401
00:36:33.153 --> 00:36:46.436
It was January of 2022 to look towards finishing that school year for Rory and then me transitioning either out of Wycliffe completely or see if they had a part-time role that I would be able to juggle.

402
00:36:47.236 --> 00:36:51.117
So we made that decision and it was hard, but it felt right.

403
00:36:52.377 --> 00:36:58.658
And then three days later, I went in for my appointment to find out the gender of the baby and we found out that the baby was gone.

404
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And so in that moment, obviously devastated and heartbroken, I was like, God, why would you do this?

405
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Why would you gift us an unexpected child, move us to this point of transition, like massive family transition, and then take that baby away?

406
00:37:20.942 --> 00:37:32.317
And when I look back on it, I think about the fact that if God hadn't given us that baby, I don't think I would have come to the position of choosing Rory over my jaw.

407
00:37:33.458 --> 00:37:35.741
I had always tried to balance the two.

408
00:37:37.561 --> 00:37:41.143
And so in those upcoming months, we decided to stick with that decision.

409
00:37:41.883 --> 00:37:43.604
Wycliffe modified my role.

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00:37:43.624 --> 00:38:05.477
I think as part of coming out of that cycle and moving in the last years into this season of increasing storytelling about what God is doing around the world, it's really been this synergy of realizing that all the things that I go have gone through, I wouldn't have been able to do without God, without His Word.

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00:38:06.775 --> 00:38:20.601
And today, as we look at the Bible translation horizon and more communities than ever before, just over 3,100 now in Wycliffe's portfolio of work alone have ongoing Bible translation work.

412
00:38:21.201 --> 00:38:31.186
And so when I think about my personal journey and what God's Word has meant to me, it has made my storytelling narrative here at Wycliffe that much more inspired and

413
00:38:31.506 --> 00:38:55.066
I guess you could say, because I have been able to personally experience the significance of God's Word, and it fuels me with more energy, more passion, more enthusiasm to see that become a reality for all of these other communities so that no one remembers a day where they didn't have access to at least some of God's Word.

414
00:38:55.606 --> 00:38:58.369
I can think about kids my kid's age growing up with

415
00:39:00.437 --> 00:39:06.909
That just can't even articulate what it means to me, Alicia.

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Like, it just fills me with so much passion for the work, for this moment in history.

417
00:39:13.070 --> 00:39:16.731
Like, don't be a bystander of what God is doing.

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Come and participate.

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00:39:18.171 --> 00:39:19.371
Come and find your fit.

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00:39:19.751 --> 00:39:26.913
And that's what I hope here at Wycliffe, through our storytelling, we invite and challenge people to experience.

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00:39:27.413 --> 00:39:36.975
This is a moment in Christian history that when it's behind us, when all the languages have access to at least some of Scripture, this will never happen again.

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00:39:36.995 --> 00:39:38.015
So...

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Why not now?

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If you value the word, why not come and find your fit within the Bible translation space?

425
00:39:46.290 --> 00:39:52.775
Why not be part of seeing churches equipped for evangelism and discipleship and church planting?

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00:39:53.556 --> 00:39:58.139
Why not pray and give and advocate, engage your church and serve?

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00:39:58.179 --> 00:40:03.463
Because this is a moment that is changing eternal destiny for people.

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Why?

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00:40:04.630 --> 00:40:12.378
And so I think that Rory's journey for me has just reinforced that this is my work here at Wycliffe is not just work.

430
00:40:12.658 --> 00:40:15.041
It really is a ministry and a calling.

431
00:40:15.061 --> 00:40:17.644
I feel like God wired me for a

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In some ways, it's been interesting to see how God has paralleled that with Rory's journey of struggling with communication, struggling with language.

433
00:40:36.760 --> 00:40:54.071
and how to balance those and how to see like, okay, I am a prolific communicator and I've had to pray for every word that Rory has had to learn, for every word that he has memorized and he has trained his mouth, his lips, and his tongue to formulate.

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00:40:54.691 --> 00:40:59.234
That is the opposite of what comes naturally to me as an individual.

435
00:40:59.654 --> 00:41:00.795
And yet, God,

436
00:41:01.595 --> 00:41:02.816
continues to show up.

437
00:41:02.936 --> 00:41:07.177
And so when I think about my personal journey, I'm like, I want that for all communities.

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00:41:07.297 --> 00:41:22.423
I want all people to have that nexus moment like Rory did, where he said, despite what I'm struggling with, despite the things that might feel broken within me, I want to choose God because He shows up for me.

439
00:41:23.643 --> 00:41:28.508
And I want people to be able to articulate that, to understand God speaks my language.

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00:41:28.788 --> 00:41:30.950
He doesn't speak my neighbor's language.

441
00:41:31.571 --> 00:41:32.752
He speaks my language.

442
00:41:32.832 --> 00:41:34.753
And now I can choose to follow Him.

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00:41:35.034 --> 00:41:37.616
I can choose to dedicate my life to Him.

444
00:41:37.876 --> 00:41:49.027
I can choose to surrender whatever burdens and hurts I'm carrying and trust in Him because I've been able to encounter Him specifically through Scripture that I understand.

445
00:41:50.460 --> 00:41:52.001
That is so beautiful.

446
00:41:52.862 --> 00:42:07.272
And, you know, what strikes me as you're sharing all of this is, yes, you are such a gifted storyteller, but you also have a real gift for seeing the story that the Lord is writing with your life, in your life, like as it's unfolding.

447
00:42:08.133 --> 00:42:14.117
It really is such a gift to hear your story and to get to talk to you about it.

448
00:42:14.517 --> 00:42:20.024
So maybe we can switch gears again and talk a little bit about the future.

449
00:42:20.144 --> 00:42:26.493
What are you optimistic about when you look at how the next generation is engaging with Scripture?

450
00:42:29.330 --> 00:42:35.151
I think it's fascinating how many different forms of Scripture our children have access to.

451
00:42:35.171 --> 00:42:46.414
You know, when I think about my growing up years, it was things like Veggie Tales or Adventures in Odyssey that brought Scripture to life in ways that I could understand.

452
00:42:46.994 --> 00:42:58.617
And so when I think about the resources that are available to kids today, and honestly, the resurgence that we're seeing right now in media of Bible-based movies or television shows come out,

453
00:42:59.117 --> 00:43:14.367
That's really encouraging to me as a young mom in particular, that there are ways to make Scripture understandable, exciting, easy to communicate what God is doing and what He's inviting us to know about Himself.

454
00:43:15.768 --> 00:43:23.436
And I think for me, like as a young mom, it's thinking through like what are the rhythms and the habits that our youth need to establish now.

455
00:43:24.437 --> 00:43:35.708
I'm a firm believer that we need to plant seeds in our kids because they're not just going to all of a sudden wake up one day as a teenager or young adult and decide that going to church on Sunday morning is a value to them.

456
00:43:36.589 --> 00:43:39.450
They need to see that modeled, in my opinion.

457
00:43:39.470 --> 00:43:48.732
I think they need to experience that personal moment of like, this is not just a relationship of God with my parents that I happen to be witness to.

458
00:43:49.352 --> 00:43:53.893
This is a relationship that I have chosen, that I have invested in.

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00:43:54.573 --> 00:43:55.894
And I think that starts now.

460
00:43:56.294 --> 00:43:58.634
I think we need to be leaning in on that now.

461
00:43:58.814 --> 00:44:00.815
And I'm excited to see youth...

462
00:44:01.995 --> 00:44:03.897
making those decisions for themselves.

463
00:44:03.977 --> 00:44:13.307
I think, you know, things like summer camps, church summer camps in particular, are incredible moments of just moving from head knowledge to heart knowledge.

464
00:44:14.128 --> 00:44:24.078
And so my hope is that as teens, young adults, or our children engage with scripture, that it moves from just my mom and dad do this

465
00:44:24.839 --> 00:44:32.809
to I do this because I value God's word because I've met God through scripture because I've seen him answer prayers.

466
00:44:35.180 --> 00:44:44.806
And I think when I look at the world from a Bible translation access perspective, there are kids that are growing up with Scripture.

467
00:44:44.826 --> 00:44:55.993
They're the first generation to be able to read, watch, or listen to something that their parents never got to experience as young children, that their grandparents certainly didn't experience.

468
00:44:56.593 --> 00:45:01.274
And so what will the next generation look like as a result of Scripture access?

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00:45:01.554 --> 00:45:09.756
I think that's what I'm probably most excited about is that generational legacy that begins today in so many of these communities.

470
00:45:10.996 --> 00:45:19.198
And just asking God to bless that, to continue to pour out His Spirit upon our youth, upon our children,

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00:45:19.818 --> 00:45:33.190
that they would really take up the mantle for themselves and that this work, this mission, that they would step into and own for themselves, that this would be a God they believe in and not just a God that they believe in.

472
00:45:33.971 --> 00:45:34.491
That's good.

473
00:45:34.932 --> 00:45:35.332
That's good.

474
00:45:35.472 --> 00:45:39.516
And, you know, this is a work that is not just for overseas, right?

475
00:45:39.636 --> 00:45:40.837
It's a work that is fantastic.

476
00:45:41.097 --> 00:45:42.739
for here, where we are.

477
00:45:43.259 --> 00:45:54.150
And so for all the church leaders who are listening to this, do you have any tips that you can share with them about how to increase engagement with the Word here in their home churches?

478
00:45:56.194 --> 00:46:12.725
When I think about Scripture access, it's really easy to just move into, you know, the typical Bible stories that we remember as a child, Noah's Ark, David and Goliath, all of which are great and I think foundational for us understanding.

479
00:46:13.865 --> 00:46:17.228
One of my hopes for church leaders and Christians.

480
00:46:18.303 --> 00:46:22.707
children's ministry leaders and all that is to also teach about the global perspective.

481
00:46:23.527 --> 00:46:34.737
Wycliffe actually has a series of content that we've developed specifically for kids with the hopes that churches would use it in their own ministries called Kate and Mack.

482
00:46:35.177 --> 00:46:39.961
And it's about a 14-year-old Wycliffe missionary girl who travels the world and

483
00:46:40.361 --> 00:46:48.246
and learns about different people, languages, and cultures, but ultimately how much God loves all of us, no matter where we live or what language we use.

484
00:46:49.066 --> 00:46:56.531
And when I think about making Scripture accessible, it's not just regurgitating basic Bible stories.

485
00:46:56.711 --> 00:47:06.057
It's also thinking through application and implication of what it means for people everywhere to have access to Scripture.

486
00:47:06.417 --> 00:47:19.963
to see that a child in Kenya can now experience Scripture in their own language, just like you in Orlando, Florida, or wherever you live, are experiencing Scripture too.

487
00:47:21.003 --> 00:47:25.845
And so to me, like Scripture access is not just an individual thing.

488
00:47:25.985 --> 00:47:27.906
It is a community-based thing.

489
00:47:28.006 --> 00:47:28.246
When we

490
00:47:33.741 --> 00:47:34.882
work in isolation.

491
00:47:34.922 --> 00:47:36.523
They did it together in community.

492
00:47:37.124 --> 00:47:45.151
And I think one of the things that we as leaders can do is help our kids understand that their community isn't just a localized unit.

493
00:47:46.232 --> 00:47:52.657
They have brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are also experiencing Jesus, who are also

494
00:47:53.578 --> 00:47:57.260
reading stories who are also learning about this God.

495
00:47:57.780 --> 00:48:16.209
And so how can you connect those dots for them today in a way that's meaningful and exciting and a little bit informative too, so that when they encounter scripture, their relationship is expanded beyond just the one-to-one, but understanding that this is a God who loves all of us.

496
00:48:16.269 --> 00:48:17.790
He so loved the world.

497
00:48:18.610 --> 00:48:19.931
And what does the world entail?

498
00:48:20.111 --> 00:48:22.072
It entails all of his people everywhere.

499
00:48:23.269 --> 00:48:23.689
Amen.

500
00:48:24.209 --> 00:48:24.529
Amen.

501
00:48:24.809 --> 00:48:28.410
That is a beautiful note, I think, to leave this conversation on.

502
00:48:29.050 --> 00:48:31.871
Melissa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

503
00:48:31.931 --> 00:48:42.214
We have covered so much ground today, from Bible translation to motherhood to the story that God is writing in your life and Bible engagement.

504
00:48:42.574 --> 00:48:45.134
It's been an incredibly enriching conversation for me.

505
00:48:45.234 --> 00:48:46.455
I've been blessed by it.

506
00:48:47.055 --> 00:48:49.395
And I just want to thank you again for coming on.

507
00:48:50.035 --> 00:48:50.696
Thank you so much.

508
00:48:50.736 --> 00:48:52.416
It was an honor and a privilege to be here.