Menu:
William Cameron Townsend (l896-l982)
Cameron Townsend was born in America in 1896. He came from a Christian family who lived on a small rented farm. Cameron did well at school and in 1914 went to college with the intention of becoming a Presbyterian pastor. Halfway through the course he became involved in the Student Movement who sent many missionaries overseas. Cameron joined the National Guard because America was about to enter the Second World War.
Then Cameron and his friend Robby were offered a job selling bibles in Guatemala. He had no real wish to go and thought he could use the excuse that his National Guard unit had been posted to France. He applied for a discharge expecting it to be refused but to his surprise his request was granted. So he became a Bible salesman. Robby had not been called up for active and was available to go.
They sailed to Gautemala and travelled up into the mountains to start their work. Cameron realised quite quickly that there was no point giving bibles in Spanish to people whose native language was Cakchiquel and that very few natives knew Spanish.
Guatemala experienced a serious earthquake that killed many people and caused a lot of destruction. Then Cameron and many others were ill with influenza, the 1918 pandemic that killed millions of people in the world. But he knew that he was going to start a school and that he was going to translate the New Testament into Cakchiquel. In July 1919 he married Elvira and started the task of translation. Within a year the first copies of parts of the New Testament were printed and distributed. They were eagerly received and started to make a big difference to the natives.
In October 1928 Cameron and his helpers, completed the task of translating the New Testament
into Cakchiquel
Five years later Cameron had gone through a period of confusion and difficulties. But out of it
came the idea of the Wycliffe Bible Translators.