Semi-nomadic training for Bible translation

Submitted by doug on Mon, 2016-05-23 15:19

May 2016

Dear Friends,

Family photo at Henry and Kaitlyn's wedding
Roger, Doug, Priscilla, Henry & Kaitlyn, Sara & Kevin
 
In early March we had such a fun time celebrating Henry and Kaitlyn’s wedding. We brought a little bit of Africa to the event with a special mother/son African dance, and the wedding itself was streamed on YouTube so that our friends all over the world could watch.  We got to share a few meals with the newlyweds in the weeks following the event and it is such fun to have a new daughter in the family. Henry has been accepted to Central Michigan University’s medical program which starts in August and will probably require a move for them. But just the same, our new semi-nomadic lifestyle should enable us to see our three sons quite a bit more than we have in recent years.

At the end of March, Doug and I (Priscilla) left for an extended 9½ week ministry trip. We are thankful for the freedom to travel together, working with colleagues and training at workshops in various locations.  Our new modus operandi has been effective for Doug’s role as International Language Technology Coordinator.

Seydou, a Fulani evangelist and one of the voices for the recording, wrote us expressing his appreciation for the small LED projector he received through your generous giving through a social media funding project:
 
I received the precious TREASURE iDea projector. I tested it out and found it is powerful, the image is impeccable and it projects very far.  May the Lord continue to bless the donors so that His kingdom may flourish. 
(translated from French)
Doug working in Zwolle ... note the stool to be a more ergonomic workspace!

Netherlands and Belgium

With a few weeks in between major training events, it isn’t economical for us to fly back home to Michigan, especially when we have generous friends to stay with. We began near Zwolle, Netherlands where we set up our mobile office. As we finished the report and published it, Doug continued to work with his global team to develop training materials for translators. I continued to work on publishing linguistic ebooks, getting more and more familiar with the Adobe InDesign program. God enabled a weeklong opportunity for us to work with the United Bible Societies while we were in the Netherlands.  It was a very productive time, working side-by-side to prepare for the release of a major update to the translation software due this fall.

Belgium was our next stop where we spent two weeks preparing training materials for an Eurasia area workshop. We also stayed with friends near Waterloo, and in our spare time we set up the network for their medical practice, setting up wireless routers and network switches. Well, not just for them—we needed reliable Internet while we were here so we could continue working via our mobile office. It was the least we could do to thank them for our free room and board!
P.J. & Doug working in Thailand, small desk, laptops & coffee ...

Thailand

Chiang Mai is one of two venues of an annual conference on non-print media distribution. When you think of Bible translation, you may think about producing printed Scriptures. This conference deals with everything else, like producing videos of parables from the Bible, Bible apps for cell phones, creative distribution means, websites with Scripture, and more.  Although Doug led a session about automating the translation of ministry materials, our main reason for being there was as correspondents. It is invigorating to participate in such a conference-- 450 participants from 138 organizations! It is another thing to try to capture that information and make it available to the thousands of people who couldn’t afford either the time or the money to personally attend. Since there were multiple tracks, Doug and I split the workshop sessions so we could cover as much ground as possible. The result was the following report that you might find interesting: Ministry Report.

We are currently in Germany where we are participating in the training of the SIL’s language technology consultants from all over Eurasia, and ending with a two-day workshop to teach how to get Scripture into the Digital Bible Library (DBL).  I will also spend some time with my supervisor who will be leading the DBL workshop.

Partners in the Gospel,   (Phil. 1:5)

Doug and Priscilla Higby

Wycliffe has made some long overdue changes to their financial program—initiating a 20% rise in the budget needs of their USA-based personnel. There had been no cost of living increases for the past eight years, and certain line-items such as retirement were under provisioned. We are glad that Wycliffe is trying harder to assure we are provided for, but this also means that we will have to raise additional funds. If you are happy with the work that we are doing and would like to support us financially or to raise the level of your existing support, please contact us through the link on our website.
 

Prayer & Praise

  • Pray that the Fulfulde New Testament audio files will soon be finalized. They are expected to be available for distribution some time next month.
  • Pray for Seydou as he uses the projector to share the Jesus film in Fulfulde.
  • Praise God for good health through two continents and many forms of transportation!
  • Praise God for Henry and Kaitlyn's wedding on March 11 and pray that God will bless their marriage.
  • Praise for good friends and colleagues around the world enabling us to work as nomads.