Higby Herald June

Dear Friends,

Last month marked the 800th language to receive a complete Bible! This number kind of snuck up on us, as we remember not too long ago there were only 500 languages that had a complete Bible. We checked, and that was back in 2013. Progress is accelerating, and it is exciting to be a part of God’s plan to proclaim his Word to the nations. This means that approximately 6.2 billion people in 800 language communities now have access to the complete Word of God. This graphic shows the rate of increase, starting with just 50 full Bibles in the 1800s.

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If you’ve been with us since our translation days in West Africa and the publication of the Fulfulde New Testament, you might be wondering what has been happening since we left. The team has been moving steadily along and now has half of the Old Testament ready for publishing. We have some volunteer help this month to help produce an updated Bible app with the NT and OT books combined, something the Fulani church has been asking for.

The Critical Gap

We often think Bible translation is finished the moment the last verse is written. But a translation sitting on a laptop doesn't do any good until someone in a remote village can actually open it and read. P.J. works in that critical gap. She manages the behind-the-scenes tech to ensure that years of hard work upstream don’t get stuck on a server, but actually get finished Scriptures onto phones and into hands worldwide. Earlier this year, that looked like fixing technical issues for the Wolio New Testament and building AI tools to clear massive distribution bottlenecks. Currently, she’s preparing the Bɛkwyel New Testament so that families will be able to download it this summer, while also publishing a set of translation commentaries for translators in Asia.

Life at Home

While we can both get carried away with our work, we are fortunate to be surrounded by our family and five grandkids in town. While a sudden call to help out can disrupt our work schedule, it’s a beautiful reminder of what matters most. They are a joyful interruption to our screen time, and we're making memories that will last.

Multiplying Impact with AI

Earlier this year, I (Doug) traveled to a large international workshop that was attended by over 90 Bible translators and support personnel. There, I had the privilege of teaching Paratext Bible translation software, as well as introducing many ways Artificial Intelligence can amplify their efforts in language work. AI is more and more of a buzzword in all of the conferences I attend, and has been transforming the way I and my team have been producing training materials and building tools for translators.

One example of how AI helps us comes from my time at the conference. One evening, as I was preparing for the Paratext class, I thought about the 147 short Paratext training videos I would be passing out on a flash drive. How would they find the relevant videos? That same evening, I used AI to build this searchable Training Video Library that can be run from the flash drive. Translators can now quickly access training on any feature of Paratext.

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I wasn’t a programmer before, but I am now! In fact, a colleague, Matthew Lee and I have teamed up to do a podcast every week called Practical AI for Kingdom Work. You can watch them on YouTube if that interests you, or just leave the AI stuff to us. Just know that the workers are few, and God has been providing us a way to multiply our impact. Not to mention that we are having great fun in the process.

With so much opportunity and a growing workload due to retiring staff members, it’s easy to let these incredible new tools keep P.J. and I glued to our desks. To make sure we are pacing ourselves for the long haul, we took a week of vacation on the beach in April with no technology (well, almost). We are trying to set better boundaries.

Whether we are building new tech tools, training translators, or taking a much-needed moment to unplug, we are deeply aware that we don’t do this work alone. Your financial partnership and faithful prayers are the bedrock of this ministry, allowing us to help bridge that "last mile" for communities still waiting for Scripture. Thank you for standing with us and sharing in the incredible joy of watching God's Word reach the nations. We appreciate you more than words can say!

Partners in the Gospel, (Phil 1:5)

Doug & P.J.