Hugh and Becky

Hugh

Current Assignment : Hugh's story

I grew up as a military kid, living in the Washington D.C. area, and in Germany. God arranged for me to start learning German when I was only 9 years old. Even at this young age, I noticed and was curious about the differences between English and German which could not be translated, such as humor, sentence structure, and ideas like noun gender. God used this introduction to foreign language to spark my interest in other languages.

By the time I started college at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2003, I was convinced that God wanted to use me in cross-cultural missions. In May of 2004 God introduced me to Wycliffe Bible Translators and linguistics. I was fascinated by the analytical requirements of linguistics and motivated by the possibility of using this to serve the Lord. The next summer I took my first linguistic courses with SIL, a partner organization with Wycliffe. By fall 2005 I had switched majors in school from being a German teacher, to being a German major with Linguistics as a minor.

During this time, I was invited to help research a topic on some Philippine languages with a Linguistics Consultant I met in the summer of 2005. Being engaged in this process exposed me to the great need in Bible translation to share linguistic information. I am elated that God could use my skills to help shape the way linguistic data is collected and shared via the web. The effective sharing of linguistic data is one of the ways that God is bringing Vision 2025 to pass.

Becky

Current Assignment : Becky's story

My parents often hosted missionaries in our home, this opened up my heart and mind to the vast need in this wide world. Through church I participated in ministry which encouraged my walk with God and led me to attend Word of Life Bible Institute and later Philadelphia Biblical University. Before joining Wycliffe in 2003, I had the opportunity to visit Haiti and Thailand on short-term mission trips.

From 2004 till 2007, I worked with Wycliffe as a Translation Consultant Intern while seconded to The Seed Company. Most of my time was spent in Nigeria assisting two translation teams in their effort to translate the Gospel of Luke which were also to be used in The Jesus Film. In December 2007, I completed a Master's degree in Linguistics at University of North Dakota.

Along the way I have discovered a passion for teaching, training and encouraging others in linguistic analysis and Bible translation. The University of North Dakota, the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust, and Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, are some of the exciting places in which God has used my teaching experience to affect Bible translation.