They are an absolute delight.  So what really excites me is when I see the lights come on for them and all of the sudden something makes sense, or when scripture prompts an emotional reaction on their part that reminds me of the kind of sensitivity to the Word of God I need to have.  Similarly, when the lights come on for me when I see something I hadn't seen before even though I’d read it a hundred times.

What is your consulting philosophy? Consultants don’t know everything and they certainly aren’t always right; they are students with a whole lot of experience, and sometimes with views that are more entrenched than might be necessary. 

I don’t consider myself to be the “text-police”; I bring another set of eyes to the table that hopefully will prompt a team to consider things they may not have thought about, to help them do the best job they can.  And I also need to be alert to what I can learn in the process. 

Translation and consulting are iterative processes: you do it, you forget it awhile, and then you come back to it, and see all kinds of things you missed first time around. In other words, you have to take a long view and give yourself the freedom to revisit something you thought you’d already nailed down.

How do you continue to grow as a consultant? I taught in the SIL program at Biola University for a number of years, and I found that teaching graduate students fed the practical application of those ideas at the consulting desk, and vice versa.  At the present time, I’m part of the team that plans and implements the consultant training program for Spanish speakers in Latin America (SILTEC). It’s not a fixed curriculum; interacting with the SILTEC teaching staff and Consultants in Training keeps new ideas and challenges flowing our way.  We are always having to consider what ELSE do the CiTs need to know, or re-know, to add to their competence.

Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? I’m always discovering my wrongness.  Anytime you adjust anything it’s a course correction from some previous “less-than-the-preferred” state.  Yeah, I think about when we started the revision of the Wanca NT how surprised I was at how many things needed “tweaking” as well as things we’d completely overlooked. I learned that “expertise” is progressive; hopefully I ply my craft better now than when I first was declared to be a consultant, and that I should expect the same from CiTs as we certify them: they are good now; they will be better.

Share something that you learned from a mentor or from a mentee? Probably the most memorable thing wasn’t exactly from a mentee, but from an old, illiterate Quechua shepherdess. I talked about this in a presentation I did in Orlando in 2015. Click this video link and look at the story of the sheep at timestamp 8:30-11:00.

What would you say to young/aspiring translators? It takes longer than you think, with more obstacles than you could anticipate.  But do not fear: God is merciful, so thank him for the divine myopia he grants to keep you from seeing and worrying about all the things that could turn you back.