One of the most important things that’s needed to complete Bible translation projects is something many people take for granted: internet access.
As more and more people around the world translate the Bible for their own communities, a strong and reliable internet connection provides training and consulting opportunities to keep the work moving forward.
Learn how satellite internet technology like Starlink is helping deliver Scripture to people faster than ever before.
Wycliffe’s mission is to serve with the global body of Christ to advance Bible translation and work together so people can encounter God through his Word.
Archives for 2021
Reaching for the Stars
September 13, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Scripture Earth App
September 13, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Chris and his colleagues have been working on Scripture App Builder (SAB) since before its first release in 2015. SAB has been used to create thousands of contextualized Bible apps by many organizations. In 2017, SAB 3.3 added support for building apps on macOS and creating iOS apps. There are many Android apps that have been published to Google Play. However, there have been quite a bit fewer iOS apps published to the Apple App Store created with SAB (some examples: Sylheti, Pertukekem, Dari, Northern Thai, Hindi, and Chin). This is due to Apple rejecting apps if there were too many from the same developer account. As a solution, Apple told publishers to create a single container app that would allow the user to select the content.
This year, with SAB 9.0, we have enabled our partners to create an iOS container app as Apple has recommended. An organization can take their projects for Android, make a few changes for iOS, and build packages of resources that can be downloaded by the iOS container app. When the user runs the app for the first time, they select a language, download a package of resources, and then the container app becomes like a fully contextualized Bible app for that specific language!
We have talked with a few of our partners and they are excited about the opportunity to make their resources available on iOS. One of these partners is ScriptureEarth. They publish a website that hosts and links to Scripture resources in thousands of languages. They currently use Scriptoria (the web service that Chris works on) to publish Android Apps to Google Play and then link to the apps on their website. Scriptoria has been updated to support building the language resource packages used by the iOS container app. They will finally be able to provide an iOS app for all of these language communities.
ScriptureEarth Impact
Bill Dyck, a co-worker of Chris’ at JAARS, uses Scriptoria to publish many of the Android apps on ScriptureEarth.
I had the privilege of watching one of the women I am teaching ESL discussion in Laos come to know the LORD! GOD IS AMAZING! Anyhow, I was able to share with her ScriptureEarth to help her find the Bible in her heart language as well as encourage her to watch the Jesus Film and the Mary Magdela Film. It is SO WONDERFUL to have these resources so easily accessible. She lives in Laos and this resource proves to be so practical and beneficial. I literally use it or share it weekly! LOVE IT!
EMDC Online
March 12, 2021 by Leave a Comment
For a few years, Chris has travelled overseas once a year to participate in EMDC, which is a conference where half of the attendees are workers in the field and the other half are those like him providing services and training. Due to COVID-19, it was cancelled last year and some sessions were done on zoom. EMDC has transitioned to doing year-round online training. Chris will be helping with two separate weeks of training on Scripture App Builder. There are many classes to choose from (and recordings are available). In order to protect people working in sensitive places, attendees have to be approved. If you know of global workers who could take advantage of this type of online training, please let them know: https://emdc.online
Ministry Continues During COVID-19
March 12, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Like many of you, Chris has been able to do his work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hard to believe that it has been about a year now. Over the past year, Chris and his co-workers have been praying regularly for their overseas colleagues as they are affected by COVID-19. Some have had to return to their passport countries and some have been able to stay. He and his co-workers receive reports and prayer requests from different areas around the world. Obviously, there have been challenges, but there have been new opportunities as well. We would like to share one of those.
“What is currently happening with the Quechua-speaking Church is really something extraordinary! There is revival! New converts are being added to the Church daily. The local congregations are working to disciple those returning to Christ. Although the government prohibits meetings, the Church is meeting in small groups to pray together as well as trekking into the mountains to fast and pray…We passed out the last 600 Quechua Bibles we had and the calls continue to flood in. All of these are for new believers!
A regional director from SIL Americas shared, “Almost everything we do in the [Americas] Area is in partnership with one or more ministries.” This story was shared in late June by the director of ATEK*, one of SIL’s partners in Peru.
A New App Builder
March 12, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Chris is on the App Builders team which maintains desktop apps that generate contextualized mobile apps. See the article Why Another Bible App? for more details. These desktop apps are:
- Scripture App Builder (SAB) – creates Scripture apps that handle the book, chapter, and verse navigation, multiple language translations (including parallel viewing) synchronized highlighting of text with audio, bookmarks, notes, highlighting, verse of the day, sharing verse on image and many scripture-focused features.
- Reading App Builder (RAB) – creates apps that contain picture books, health and community development materials, song books, illustrated stories and libraries of easy-to-read books for new readers.
- Dictionary App Builder (DAB) – creates customized dictionary apps with pictures, audio for headwords and example sentences, search, and links between lexical items,
Last year, Chris was surprised that his colleague had created a new desktop app called … Keyboard App Builder (KAB). From the name it was easy to figure out what it did, but Chris wasn’t sure why he had done this.
The Language Technology team has a product called Keyman to create language-specific keyboards. There are Keyman apps on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, and even in a web browser. Our current app builders can include a Keyman keyboard in the created apps to help with text input in the app. So why did we need to create contextualized keyboard apps?
The keyboard app allows the user to add a system keyboard to their device, enabling them to type their language within other apps such as Gmail, Facebook, and WhatsApp. It also helps users of the keyboard app find the Scripture app in their language. Chris was working with one of the Keyboard App Builder users on an issue and asked him about how KAB is being used. Please read his story…
Discovering Scripture With Keyboards
“Siares” is the code-name for the national language of a small country where being found in possession of the Bible can get you a long prison term. It’s the only country in the world remaining for which the majority language does not have a complete New Testament translation, but several books have been published in a Scripture app. The problem is getting this Scripture app discovered, as an advertising campaign could result in a backlash. Enter Keyboard App Builder: The keyboards available to mobile users in this country are a pain to work with, but we’ve designed a much easier keyboard for the “Siares” language, building it with Keyboard App Builder. Since releasing it a few months ago, it’s become one of the most popular keyboards in this country, with over 5000 users. The keyboard app makes it easy for users to discover the Scripture app. Please pray that many would discover the Scripture app and encounter the claims of Jesus there.
