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Translation News November 2022

BMBrian Migliazza · Oct 31, 2022, 8:09 PM · Last modified: Sep 28, 2026, 11:39 AM
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 International Translation Services (ITS) works in collaboration with colleagues in SIL and other agencies to creatively steward and advance the translation practices, tools, methods, and training necessary to enable a supportive environment for individuals and communities to flourish and engage with Scripture.
We value: Interconnectedness. Capacity Building. Diversity. Innovation.

November 2022

  • Mission begins with compassion - Greg Dekker
  • New Consultants
    • Kumar Perakalapudi - India
  • Translation Training and Development Updates - Phil King 
  • Introducing the Multilingual Assessment Tool (MAT) - Maik Gibson 
  • Translation Consultant Think Tank - Greg Dekker 
  • News and Updates
    • Bible Translation Conference 2023
    • Eurasia Translation Coordinator Role  - Thomas Hemphill
    • Journal of Translation Issue 18.2 - Freddy Boswell
    • State of the Bible 2022 - Wycliffe UK
    • SIL receives 2022 Missio Nexus Excelerate Award
  • Now With The Lord -
    • John Miller (1930-2022) - Asia
    • Amy Beth Pagarigan Lindström (1960-2022)  - Pacific

Useful Links
SIL Translation Services

  • International Leadership Team
  • Area Translation Coordinators

Mission begins with compassion
Greg Dekker
International Translation Services Director

I descended a narrow stairway which had taken a couple of turns onto a landing with a substantial door leading to the busy, packed walkway outside my city-center hotel. I was going to get a bit of air and orient myself to my surroundings before my morning speaking engagement. I made my way down the uneven, crowded walkway to the central market which was by this time packed with market-day shoppers. As I walked, I noticed the crowd was dividing ahead of me. As I approached, I could see what the reason was. It was a woman, ragged and dirty, laying on a piece of over-used cardboard. Sadly it seemed she hadn’t had the strength enough to get to a toilet. I paused and took in the scene. With thousands of people passing by, laying in the middle of the walkway, she seemed to be invisible to passers-by. I asked myself, “How can this be? In a place where the people of God claim to be a majority, how can this situation exist?”

Later that morning, instead of presenting the need for the Church in this place to partner with us in the remaining task of Bible translation, I presented the group of around 75-100 with the scene I’d observed earlier that morning, and asked this question, “How is it that this poor woman, lying destitute among literally thousands of passers-by, a majority of whom likely claim to be followers of Jesus, how is it that she is completely ignored by God’s people? How is it that the followers of the compassionate Christ, the compassionate Savior, do not also act with compassion toward one of His creation whom He loves and who is created in His image? How can this be?”

As I told the story and asked the question, I could see it was having an impact. Several people were wiping their eyes. Others were looking down with what I interpreted to be shame. I continued, “These two things don’t go together, my brothers and sisters in Christ! Is the compassion of Christ, and the example of the Good Samaritan not enough to compel us to act with compassion toward our “neighbor” who has fallen on hard times? Does not our lack of response to the poor and needy disqualify us in our efforts in reaching the world with the Good News about who Jesus is? Does not our lack of response as Jesus did to the sick and destitute short-circuit our efforts to bring the transformative Word of God to those still without it? If the Word of God does not transform us, how can we pretend to act as agents of transformation for others?”

The reasons abound: I’m on my way to an appointment. That’s not my area of expertise. I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t have the resources to help. There are organizations that do that. They will intervene. So God’s people walk on by. 

“Seeing the people, [Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” Mission begins when my heart aches for people the way God’s heart aches for them. Mission does not begin out of a sense of duty or calling. Mission does not begin with adequate financial resources. Mission does not begin with a commissioning service. Mission, for all God’s people, regardless of location and vocation, begins with compassion.

New Consultants
Kumar Perakalapudi 

Kumar Perakalapudi - India
Congratulations to our colleague Kumar Perakalapudi (Rhema for the Nations) who has completed all requirements to be certified as an entity-level Translation Consultant, under the guidance of his supervising mentor George Edward. He completed the TCDW 2021 and then successfully finished mentored checking in three additional languages under the supervision of three different consultants. Angie Foo and the Asia Bible Translation Coordination Team have verified that he is a qualified Translation Consultant who is now able to work independently with translation teams.

Kumar is the eldest son of a pastor's family in Andhra Pradesh, India. He joined Rhema for the Nations in 2013, working as a translation advisor with the Pardhan team for five years until 2018. Kumar was able to be a part of seeing the entire New Testament completed in the Par* language. He then joined the Translation CIT program in 2019 working with several other languages while also continuing to assist with translations of Par* OT portions.

His academic background includes: B.Th studies at BBBC, BA in English Literature from Ambedkar University, Diploma BT and BBTS from Serampore University, MA in English Literature from GITAM University, MA in Linguistics from Annamalai University, M.Div from ETS, Kerala and M.Th from IGSM, Chennai.

Translation Training and Development Updates 
Phil King  

Here's an update on various initiatives connected to Translation Training and Development:  

  • Bible Translation Training and Development Community of Practice: The next session will be on 17th November at 0730 and 1630 UTC, with an opportunity to hear from Teryl Gonzalez about best (and worst!) practices in cohort training.  Cohort training is becoming more common in the Bible translation movement. But what practices lead to excellent outcomes? What fails and why? Teryl will share results from current research discussing practices leading toward good and poor outcomes in cohort mentoring. She will offer recommendations for mentors and trainers who may be exploring the advantages and disadvantages of cohort training, or seeking to improve their skills or avoid pitfalls in group mentoring. More details are available on the 'Communities' page of EMDC online. 
  • Update your profile in CBC:  If you are registered to use CBC, please update your information in Competency Manager to include your Skills and Languages, and to check that your certifications are correct.  Updating is done by clicking on your name at top right, then choosing "My Account" (-> "Personal"). The things you can update are: Name / Job Title / whether you have a PhD / Skills / Working Languages/ Supervisor name and email. There is a software bug which means the translation skills are currently grouped under the heading ‘SE’, so look there if you do not see a category for ‘translation’ skills. If you want, you can also go to "My Profile", and the Files section, and add in your CV, bibliography, and papers. In the secure section you can add in course certificates and mentoring reports.
  • Quality in Translation Exploratory Symposium: Please register now for the Quality in Translation Exploratory Symposium. Looking forward to seeing you there! It is being held at  EMDC online, so if you have not used this before you will need to register for the site first, and then for the symposium itself. The sessions will take place over four days, Wednesday 7th December to Saturday 10th December, from 12-5pm UTC each day. The symposium will include a mixture of presentations of short concept papers along with time for synthesis and discussion. Over 70 concept papers have been submitted, including titles like this:
    • How do you know if they’ve hit the mark, or even where the mark is?
    • Towards a picklist of translation qualities that can be assessed objectively.
    • “Hip, Hip, Hooray!”: Can naturalness negate translation quality?
    • Who owns quality in Bible translation?
    • The value of linguistic checks for translated Scripture.
    • Seeking a truly meaning-based translation for an acceptable Bible.
    • Towards an aesthetics of Bible translation.
    • Assuring quality in a church-owned translation.
    • Translation quality and the role of the Holy Spirit.

Introducing the Multilingual Assessment Tool (MAT)  
Maik Gibson  

There is little doubt that patterns of multilingualism (along with other factors) in minority communities have an influence on the use of Scripture. In order to help communities understand how this influences them, MAT has been developed, by an inter-agency team with SIL involvement. The purpose of MAT is to help churches, Bible translation agencies, and funding agencies be aware of how multilingualism affects strategic decisions concerning Bible translation and Scripture use.  It aims to be easy to use, and practical, consisting of a limited number of questions which should be relatively easy to answer.

You can find the whole tool here. An initial assessment, using a tool rather like the Strengthsfinder, can be done in a hour or two, though the full process takes longer. It is currently being piloted, so the team (led by Jaap Feenstra) is very happy to receive detailed feedback on how it is received, and any misunderstandings that occurred. So why not try using it, and encourage others to do so? You don’t need to be a sociolinguist! You can find out more about what it’s all about in a 3-page document here. Please email me (Maik Gibson) with any questions, comments and feedback.  

Translation Consultant Think Tank  
Greg Dekker  

At the initiative of SIL and The Seed Company Translation departments, members from eleven Bible Translation organizations have been meeting together regularly to explore possible solutions relating to inter-organizational Translation Consultant (TC) inventory,  management, compensation, and deployment. We’ve been asking questions like:

  • How many TCs are there?
  • What are the issues around retaining TCs?
  • How can we build a financially sustainable model of translation consulting?
  • Are we successful at deploying TCs to where they are needed most?
  • How might we get TC’s qualifications, location, and availability accessible to those who need this information?
  • How do we ensure TCs are retained in consulting roles? 

Why are we asking these questions? Here are some of the challenges we’re facing inter-organizationally: 

  • We don’t know the number of TCs available worldwide. 
  • We don’t know what are the projected needs for TCs over the next 3-5 years, and longer, within the Bible Translation Movement.
  • We don’t have a quick reference for the TC’s skills, location, language proficiency, and similar information, so locating and contacting a consultant for project work is challenging.
  • We are seeing significant attrition of TCs.

The Think Tank established two “exploration” sub-groups or teams. The first team explored possibilities of a regionally- or globally-accessible TC database to which all participating organizations may contribute. This team's recommendations are: (1) that regional BT partners work together to develop listings of the TCs in their country, region, or geographic area, (2) that the Think Tank support ongoing development of the CBC (Competency-Based Certification) tool to enable interagency sharing of information, and (3) to engage with Prescience Labs' 'Consultant Marketplace' idea. The second team is currently exploring issues around compensating TCs adequately for their work. " 

The impact of the Think Tank relies on input and action from stakeholders outside the group itself. We invite your ideas and feedback on this initiative and encourage you to participate and support the work of your representative(s) on the Think Tank and the recommendations being undertaken by the Think Tank through the work of the Think Tank research teams.

For further information or ways you can assist, please contact:

  • Greg Dekker or Jim Vinton for questions about the general direction and goals of the Think Tank, or to see a longer executive summary of current progress..
  • Phil King for questions related to recommendations from the Inventory Team.
  • Teryl Gonzalez or Brian Kelly for questions related to research being done by the Compensation Team

News and Updates
 

Bible Translation Conference 2023
Hooray! Next year, will be the Bible Translation Conference 13-17 October 2023 - four days, from Friday through Tuesday. It will be a hybrid conference, both in-person and online. The theme is "Quality in Translation."

In January 2023 the "Call for Papers" will open, so start thinking about the key issues related to quality that you could be exploring, and who you could be working with to develop an excellent paper. When registration begins in April 2023, the approximate early bird registration prices should be in the range of $105 USD for online participation and $165 USD (plus meals and accommodation) for onsite attendance. This price also includes access to the conference proceedings afterwards. 

Keynote Speakers:

  • Andy Warren-Rothlin - Beekman Lecture
  • Cynthia  Miller-Naudé & Tshokolo Makutoane - Beekman Lecture 
  • Edgar Ebojo - Nida Lecture
  • Paul Kimbi - Lamin Sanneh Lecture 
  • Angie Seow - Inspirational Address

Eurasia Translation Coordinator Role
Thomas Hemphill
As of 01 November 2022, Katja Mueller and Thomas Hemphill will jointly share the role of Eurasia Translation Coordinator.  They will both be using the Eurasia Translation Coordinator address.  Please use this Eurasia Translation Coordinator address for general translation coordinator emails. If you wish to write only to Katja or to Thomas, please use the applicable personal address <katja_mueller@sil.org> or <thomas_hemphill@sil.org>. 

Journal of Translation Issue 18.2
Freddy Boswell
Issue 18.2 of SIL’s Journal of Translation is currently in production, with a planned release before the end of 2022. This is a special theme issue on translating conditionals, with a special focus on New Testament Greek. We highlight the scholarship particularly of Steve Nicolle, who is a leading scholar in this field, and his contributions include his co-authoring with one of his students at CANIL. Stephen Levinsohn has contributed research on translating post-nuclear conditional clauses in the Greek New Testament. Additionally, Rebekah Mészároš has applied her research on NT Greek conditionals to her work as a linguist and linguistic consultant-in-training in the Mara cluster project in Tanzania. One of the jewels of this issue is the extensive bibliography on conditionals, offered by the husband-wife Greek NT research team of Rachel and Michael Aubrey. I predict that this issue of JOT will be consulted often by translators and consultants.

We have other articles on conditionals that are still in progress, and those will perhaps be published in the March issue of JOT, along with articles on other topics which have already been submitted. There is room for more! Email Freddy Boswell for further information. We invite you to consider submitting  your work to SIL's academic, peer-reviewed Journal of Translation. 

State of the Bible 2022 - Wycliffe UK
Wycliffe UK has produced an 8-page report State of the Bible 2022, which is global in scope. This has been a record breaking year for Bible translation. 

  • Find out the latest about all that God is doing in the world of Bible translation.
  • It’s been another year of remarkable progress in Bible translation activity, with many areas of the work seeing significant acceleration.
  • Discover how this year has been the biggest year on record for the number of new language programmes where work has begun, plus how many Bibles and New Testaments have been launched.
  • Download your copy here!

SIL receives 2022 Missio Nexus Excelerate Award
Excellence, innovation and partnership are key values for International Translation Services. They're also values celebrated and championed by the Missio Nexus community. These are highlighted in their Excelerate Award, which they gave this year to SIL International Language Technology, for special recognition of three language resources: Keyman, Bloom, and Scripture App Builder. As was said in the ceremony, "SIL, well-known in the Missions community, contributes in many ways, two of which are the development of tools that assist in the work of Literacy and Translation." Congratulations to SIL's International Language Technology Development team, led by Michael Cochran and Christy Liner!

Now With The Lord
 

John Miller (1930-2022)
SIL Asia
Our beloved colleague and friend, John Miller, finished his earthly race on 10 October 2022 at the age of 92 after a short time in Hospice care. John is remembered for his quiet strength and for faithful service to the Lord whom he loved. 

The seventh of thirteen children, John grew up in Allentown, PA, graduating from Allentown High School in 1948. After graduating from Houghton College (1957), he joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and married Carolyn Paine. He also completed an MA in Linguistics (1966) from Ohio State University. In 1975, while working on translation in South Vietnam, he and Carolyn and their youngest daughter were taken captive by the North Vietnamese for eight months. This was documented in Carolyn's book, "Captured.”  

He and Carolyn served with SIL International until 2017, working in language research and development of minority languages throughout Southeast Asia. John and Carolyn completed the Bru New Testament in 1979 before relocating to Malaysia to work with the Kadazan community.  Returning to mainland Asia in 1989, John and Carolyn organized a new work in a nearby country.  John served as a Translation Consultant and also worked on the completion of the Bru Old Testament. John and Carolyn later went on to work alongside national colleagues to complete translations in languages related to Bru. He authored numerous articles about these languages and prepared the Bru dictionary (available on SIL's Webonary website) and the Kadazan dictionary (published in 1995).

John also provided leadership in a variety of administrative roles, including serving as co-director (1996-2000) with Carolyn for the SIL Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) group. His daughter, Margie Doty and her husband, also serve with SIL, as well as his granddaughter.

Amy Beth Pagarigan Lindström (1960-2022)
SIL Pacific
Amy Beth Pagarigan Lindström passed away on 8 October 2022 at the age of 62. She was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and spent the majority of her growing up years in Ohio. She attended Bethel University and then graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in elementary education. She met John while at university and after marriage in 1982, they joined Wycliffe Bible Translators. They served 30 years in Papua New Guinea with the Malei (Hote) people completing the New Testament in 2010. They have continued with the Malei translation team as they work on the Old Testament and also oversee translation work in seven other language groups in Morobe Province.

Useful Links

SIL Translation Services

International Leadership Team

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