Our newsletter is a few days late this month, because I (Gary) have just passed a huge milestone in my life! On Thursday I finished editing the entire Bible in Symbolic Universal Notation, a language that was invented only in 2016. It is now being readied to go out to the entire globe!
You the reader might be saying: “Yes, I know we’ve been hearing Gary talk about Wycliffe Associates’ SUN project for years now. But – what is it again?”
Let’s ask Stacy, Gary’s supervisor: “At Wycliffe Associates, we have a passion for making the Word of God accessible to every people group and language in the world. We realize that many Deaf have not had the opportunity to learn to read or use sign language to communicate. To reach them with God’s Word, we created a symbolic language called SUN (symbolic universal notation). The foundation of the system consists of 100 basic pictographs and many hundreds of other symbols that we use to communicate the fullness of the Bible. This one Bible version can be used to reach any and every of the 60 million Deaf persons in the world! We have already worked in 35 countries, teaching these symbols to the Deaf with great success. Within days, people with no education have been able to learn the basic symbols and begin to read Scripture!”
Can you give us an example of symbols?
Here is the word for a man/male (see his eyebrow and nose)
Now, in Hebrew, the prophet Jonah’s name means “dove”. SO, put two and two together and this means “Jonah, that is, the dove man”!
You say: “Gary, what has been YOUR role in all this?”
Gary: “While teaching full-time at ESEPA in Costa Rica, I started working part-time for Wycliffe Associates on other minor projects. Then in 2020 they asked me to edit the SUN Bible, which many people had already worked on. If you can remember where you were when the COVID lockdown started, well, that was the week I started my initial lessons in SUN! For some years now I have been doing the REVISION of the Old Testament, then the New Testament, and then the Old Testament again. The final portion was Ezekiel. I finished it on October 1 and heaved a sigh of relief: the job was done and I turned it over to the committee for publishing.
As Ezekiel might have expressed it:
In the sixth year, the sixth month, on the first day,
I finished my work on the Bible for Deaf people.
In SUN that announcement would look something like:
six year, six month, 1 day.
me complete Bible work give-to deaf people.
Let’s turn to Stacy again: “You’ve worked with Gary for years now. Can you give us an idea of what he has been up to?”
Stacy: “We at Wycliffe Associates are eternally grateful for the countless hours Gary has poured into our translation work. His expertise in the ancient languages and biblical record has been a tremendous gift to our ministry. We are serving one of the most unreached people groups on the globe. Left behind for far too long, our symbolic system is reaching those who were once hidden and isolated. We are eternally grateful for Gary and his sacrifices of time, talent, and energy to serve the Deaf community with the life changing Word of God.”
Gary again: Thanks all readers for your support for this project! And thank you Lord for allowing me to participate in it! And I’m grateful that another group at Wycliffe Associates is enquiring if I would like to work on a different project, one that looks fascinating! Perhaps there will be more news to come in our next letter! Gary
PRAYER, Please!
* PRAY that we will be able to raise further donors for the end of this year – our level has fallen in 2026.
* PRAISE because Gary was able to finish the SUN Bible in 2026, beating the hoped-for deadline
* PRAY for Gary as he is teaching two courses at ESEPA and considering a new part-time role at Wycliffe Associates
* PRAY for Karen’s knee. It is recovering very well!
Karen Shogren
Gary Shogren
