Nine Languages in Two Days

Dear Friends,

We recently checked the numbers on the Wycliffe website (wycliffe.org/progress). They currently show 535 known remaining languages that still need Bible translation to start for the first time. That number is a huge encouragement. It doesn't seem all that long ago that it was above two thousand. That is progress to thank God for and celebrate!

And it's only part of the picture. Those 535 are the languages with no Scripture at all. The far larger work is the translation already underway: Wycliffe estimates active projects in 169 countries and territories, with the potential to impact 2.1 billion people. We are not running out of work any time soon.

Those active projects are where we pour our efforts. So we were delighted when my (Doug's) team recently took over support.bible — a forum where Bible translators around the world post questions about the software tools they use, and other translators answer them. The site needed work in several areas, but it was a colleague in French West Africa who named the real problem: the forum only worked in English. Having served in that part of the world ourselves, that one stung.

For the last five years, my greatest staffing need has been a web developer. I manage a number of websites and know them well, but when it comes to coding, I know very little. Then, over the past two months, I've been learning to build with AI — and in the space of two days I added a language selector and translations for nine world languages to the site. A question asked in Hindi now appears in the other eight. An answer given in Spanish comes back to that Hindi speaker in Hindi. And my colleague in West Africa can ask and answer in French.

To be clear about what the AI is and isn't doing here: it is translating forum posts, not Scripture. The translation work itself is still done by people, in community, the way it always has been. What changed is that a barrier keeping translators from the help they needed is simply gone.

Five years of waiting for a developer — and God provided a way through in two days. We are so thankful. And we are not stopping at a question-and-answer forum: we're now planning to grow support.bible into a full resource for translators — training materials, video tutorials and a newsletter covering Bible translation technology. The goal behind all of it is the same one that started us: that a translator anywhere can get the help they need in the language they think in.

And with these new web skills, we've completely rebuilt our aging higby.family site. Please stop by — and while you're there, you can choose what you'd like to hear from us:

1. This newsletter — sent periodically (you're already subscribed)
2. Prayer updates — current prayer needs, once a month
3. The blog — occasional pieces about our ministry, and often about technology

P.J. and I just returned from a week of travel, visiting two churches in North Carolina and sharing about our work with dear friends and family along the way. Trips like these are hard to carve out of the calendar, but every time we explain the work and hear your responses, we come home with fresh reasons to keep going.

Those visits are also a reminder that we are not on our own. Our travels, the training, the publishing of God's Word — all of it is carried by a team of partners who pray and who give. If you've been thinking about joining that team, or taking a fresh look at what you're able to give, you can do that at wycliffe.org/partner/higby. And if you'd rather talk it over with us first, just hit reply.

Partners in the gospel, (Phil. 1:5)

Doug & P.J. Higby

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for the new multilingual forum on support.bible — five years of needing a developer, answered in two days.
• Safety in travel as we head to Dallas this weekend, where we'll both be working with our team members there.
• Funding shortfalls are affecting P.J.'s department and putting the linguistic publications at risk. Pray for wisdom as they decide which services they can continue to offer.
• Pray for the continued makeover of support.bible — that it will become a significant means of supporting Bible translators in many countries.

Prefer to give by check?
Make it payable to "Wycliffe Bible Translators" with a note: "Preference for the ministry of Doug & P.J. Higby." Mail it to Wycliffe Bible Translators, P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, FL 32862.