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Archives for March 2021

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

Filed Under: Content

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.
Filed Under: Uncategorized

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.

Filed Under: Language Software