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Dear Friends,

I (Doug) am writing this from Kenya where I am skipping out on a training session on Scripture App Builder for our African colleagues. I’m not worried—the teaching is in the good hands of Frans Barah, who began as a student of ours over twelve years ago. This past week, Frans introduced me to Victor, a guy he is mentoring from Nigeria. Frans laughingly told me that he is a grandparent now because Victor has started training other language technology specialists in Nigeria. That is how it works, you know, using the same math that God uses to build his church. Today, people in Nigeria are receiving God’s Word in their own languages on their phones because of someone who was trained by Victor, who was trained by Frans… and the cycle goes on. The workshop is pictured below.

In January, we held the 17th “Outilingua” workshop for French-speaking Africa, this time in Abidjan—our first port of entry to Africa in 1994. I even stayed in the same building we occupied when we first arrived. Although the building hasn’t changed in 31 years, the surrounding dirt roads have been replaced by concrete highways—a transformation that mirrors the dramatic shift happening in language accessibility today. The group is pictured above with the background of Abidjan skyline.

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That shift is driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), which not only enhances the quality of our French training materials and speeds up their production but also levels the playing field between English and French. With only 4.4% of all websites available in French (compared to 50% in English), French-speaking specialists once faced a serious disadvantage when trying to resolve complex software issues. Now, AI empowers them to ask questions and get accurate, timely answers in French—removing language barriers so they can focus on the real goal: equipping translation teams to bring God's Word to every corner of Africa.

Traveling without P.J. is getting tiresome, but our roles will soon bring us back together as we spend five weeks traveling together in April and May in Dallas, South Africa, and the Netherlands. She is working away in our home office on formatting and publications with her remote team.

P.J.’s Academic Production team is currently focusing on an important publication titled Language in the Mission of God for the upcoming global SIL gathering in South Africa during the month of May.

This book explores how the world's 7,000 languages are not obstacles to overcome, but rather part of God's beautiful plan. It invites readers to reflect on the role of language in God's kingdom and aims to deepen understanding of how language shapes our faith and practice.

They are on track to meet the Monday, March 31st deadline, ensuring this valuable resource will be available not only for participants at ICON, but also in digital format and through normal retail vendors for the wider public. This broader distribution represents another step toward our vision of seeing people flourishing in community using the languages they value most.

Thanks to your faithful financial support, we can focus wholly on our work. Your generosity directly contributes to resources that help people engage with Scripture and flourish through the languages they value most.

Partners in the Gospel (Phil 1:5)

Doug & P.J. Higby

Prayer & Praise

• We thank God for two successful Language Technology workshops recently completed in Africa, which are helping language communities translate and access Scripture in their own languages.

• Please continue to pray for P.J. as she navigates the complexities of digital Scripture publishing, especially as the Digital Bible Library (DBL) is releasing a major software update. Additionally, several key team members are being let go during this organizational shift. Please pray for wisdom as she balances these challenges with her academic production responsibilities.

• We're grateful for opportunities to personally update supporting churches about our work. If your church would like us to visit, please contact us!