What We Do and Why
We are members of Wycliffe Bible Translators, an organization that is dedicated to seeing God's Word become accessible to all people in the language that speaks to their heart. Wycliffe’s staff is passionate about giving glory to God through the translation of His Word for all peoples of the earth in the language they understand best.
We began our adventure with Wycliffe back in 1990 and after a long time in language training and preparation, began our ministry in Ivory Coast and Mali, West Africa. We were involved in the translation of the New Testament into the Fulfulde language, bringing it to completion in 2004 with the publication of the New Testament. Bible translation is challenging, arduous work. Although we toughed it out for a number of years, the Lord had a purpose for us through that experience, today leading us to a new and exciting facet of the Bible translation ministry.
During the height of our time working on the New Testament translation, I (Doug) was asked to leave our project for three weeks to help teach a workshop in Ivory Coast. The workshop was about Paratext, a tool we translators used to display multiple translations of the Bible on the computer screen next to an editing window where we typed the one we were working on. I remember being extremely reluctant to go. I really couldn't afford to lose the time and would fall behind in my translation work. Nevertheless, I went out of duty.
A man by the name of Moussa from Ivory Coast was also reluctant to go to the workshop. He too was extremely busy translating the Old Testament into the Jula language. In the end, all he could spare was one day. When Moussa showed up, I was able to work with him and install the new software on his computer. I brought all of his existing text into the program and briefly taught him how to use it before he left the next morning.
Back home, I picked up where I left off on the Fulfulde New Testament. I had secretly enjoyed teaching at the workshop, but now had to work extra hard to catch up. Things changed though when a few months later I received an e-mail from Moussa. He thanked me for setting up the new software and informed me that he was now working 30% faster as a result. As I thought about this, I realized Moussa was involved in a 10 to 15 year project to translate the Old Testament. Do the math! I spent only one day working with him yet potentially saved three to five years off the life of his translation project. This was the turning point for me; I knew exactly what I wanted to do after the Fulfulde New Testament was published!
Today, our ministry is centered around just that: providing computer training for Africans to enable them to accomplish linguistic and Bible translation tasks more efficiently. My title is Africa Area Language Technology Coordinator. Africa is a pretty big place and there is no way that we could provide all the training that is needed. So instead, our ministry focuses on training trainers. We have a program to mentor and train software consultants in more than a dozen countries across Africa and it is continually expanding each year. It is a joy to see Bible translation teams across the continent benefiting from the new tools and technologies that can greatly simplify their task.
Wycliffe Bible Translators s a faith based mission organization. As members, we do not receive a salary but depend on the gifts of God's people as they are led to participate in our ministry. Our work is also supported by many fellow believers who pray for us regularly. If you would like to follow our ministry and receive current prayer requests, we invite you to subscribe to our newsletter at this link.
Partners in the Gospel, Phil 1:5
Doug & Priscilla Higby