What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? My favorite thing about this work is that I get to spend time each day digging into God’s Word – for my job.  And I love sharing that with our translation teams. 

What is your consulting philosophy? I love consulting and I love working with teams.  My favorite part of this job is being able to meet with teams face to face.

While I love consulting and know there is great value in what the consultant brings to the table, the consultant's influence over the translation is actually quite minimal.  The consultant does not know the target language, but works through a back translation.  The consultant, while they are investing in the team throughout the project through trainings and workshops, they do not work with the team every day.

On the other hand, a Translation Advisor (also known as Exegetical Advisors, or MLQAs) really are the ones who retain the most influence over the translation.  They are working with the team every day, they know the community, they know the target language and can read the final draft in the language.  

While my job as a consultant is important because it brings a fresh set of eyes to look through their work, I realize that the impact I have on the translation doesn’t even compare to that which the Translation Advisor has over the translation. 

And every single Translation Advisor I work with is a potential Consultant in Training.

What translation resources do you really value? Exegetical Summaries actually are my favorite translation resource.  There are so many times when I was translating myself or as a consultant that I would have a particular question about the text and Translators Notes and Translators Handbook didn’t address the issue.  I’d go to Exegetical Summaries and, bam, they’d have the exact the question I was asking.

How do you continue to grow as a consultant? (What helps you continue to grow as a consultant?) I am involved in various different training programs; training CiTs and training TAs, and preparing for those always stretch me and grow me in new areas each time.  Also in interactions and friendship with other consultants, as they talk about their interests and strengths, I see areas where I am weak.  Finding time to grow in those new areas and create new habits is hard.  One area I want to refresh is my Biblical Greek, but finding the time and accountability is hard in an already demanding schedule.

Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? My first consultant check on our translation team.  Oh, it was horrible.  I had no idea what I was suppose to be doing as Translation Advisor on the project.  And the consultants checking for me, not only were they very good consultants, they ran a tight ship.

My back translation was a mess, my key terms weren’t researched, our exegesis was wanting.  But I’ll tell you, having consultants that really pushed our team for excellence made me a better Translation Advisor.  As humbling as that experience was, I grew from it, learned what I should have been doing, and made our practice even better.

I will never forget my first consultant check.  And I think many teams are the same way; they aren’t quite sure what they are doing or if they are on the right track.

Now as a consultant, I enjoy doing the first check for a team myself because I remember my experience. And hopefully I can graciously challenge them to excellence because I have been there before, too.

What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? What would you say to young/aspiring translators? We often want God’s plan to be clear and completely laid out in front of us for us to move in that direction.  But His plan is hardly ever so clear from the onset.  Don’t wait till you have your ducks in a row.  Just go.  And don’t expect no obstacles.  Climb over them.

I had been to South Asia before moving to Asia and I thought that’s where I wanted to return to.  But SIL would not send me there.  I redirected to a different area, somewhere I had never been to and didn’t know anything about.  I’m actually glad, looking back now, that God redirected me to where I am now, but at the time it was hard.

The same was true when I joined a translation project.  It was not easy.  There were a number of things that made project life hard – to name a few, politics and people.  But even the assurance that the language needed a translation was not always obvious.  The assurance that the community would use the translation was not always obvious.  (I’m a supporter of doing due diligence to know if a translation is needed and the community wants it.  We did that.  Don’t get me wrong.)  But moving forward was often in faith, not because these things were clear.

So, to all those just starting out or aspiring to start, go out there and get experience translating.  Even when it’s hard and there are lots of obstacles.  Because it will always be hard and there will always be obstacles. 

Getting experience translating is invaluable.

What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? I strongly believe that if there is a church, the church should be involved in the translation to the degree they want to be involved.  Obviously the church and Scripture should be connected.  This seems like a no-brainer for me.

But there are various different nuanced contexts that we work in that make answering this question not so obvious.  For example:

- What if the church doesn’t want to be involved?  In contexts like this, translation can go forward alongside the church, without the church’s direct involvement.

- What if there is no church?  Translation can be an avenue for church planting.

- What if the church is not contextualizing? That is to say, the church has created a Christian bubble in the community where their traditions and lingo are foreign to the greater community.  There is space, and need, to translate for that greater community.

In any case we work with the church, represent the church and/or build the church in our work of translation.